This is regarding our first three days on island. Due to missing any trip to SXM in 2020, we decided to treat ourselves to two trips to SXM in 2021. We did our regular June trip to Beachside Villas, which was WONDERFUL, as usual. But we decided to do something different this trip, which is a condo on the ocean in Pelican Key, at a complex called Pelican Cove.

It's just past Coral Shores on the ocean, if you know where that is.

I will do a separate note about testing, approval, etc. to keep that out of the actual report.

We booked using AA Frequent Flyer miles, for 10 K miles each way, for flights with assigned seats. We initially booked only 7 days, but wanted to have the option to extend for a day, so booked two one way trips and did end up changing to 8 days from 7. We got up at 3 AM for the 3.5 hour drive to Miami. We park our car at Miami Park N Fly. Price varies, but we paid around $10 a day this trip. It's very convenient. You drive up, hand the keys to the attendant, he gets your bags out of the car for you and hauls them over to the usually waiting shuttle. The shuttle takes you about 5 minutes to Miami airport. On the return, if you don't see a shuttle waiting, call them and they are usually there within about 5 minutes. You hand them your claim check and they call the facility and your car is waiting for you when you arrive back at the facility. Easy, peasy, highly recommended!!!

We arrived at Miami Airport around 7:30 AM for our 10:30 AM flight. On AA, you can't check in online for SXM. In June, 2021, we had over an hour wait in line to check in and almost that amount in security. Thank goodness, this time the check in line was only about 10 minutes max. They checked our EHAS documents in line before the desk and again at the desk. Security was again only maybe 15 minutes tops, so we were obviously way early at the gate. No problem. Our flight left exactly on time, and was almost full, which I was surprised at. Also, there seemed to be many younger people on the flight than normal and possibly a lot of locals. No problem with that, just an observation.

We arrived a few minutes early in SXM and were out of the airport, in our Travel Rental Car car within about 15 minutes, due to being at the beginning of the line. So, we were off to Pelican Cove. Constance the maid was still there cleaning when we arrived, which was good so that she could walk us through things. We headed out to Carrefour to get our groceries. We we back at the unit by 3:30 with said supplies. We had purchased the pre-seasoned ribs at Carrefour to have for dinner so we didn't have to head back out somewhere for dinner.
We took a dip in the pool and watched the sunset, which was a lovely show in a very clear sky.








I'm sorry I didn't make more pictures of Saba and the other islands which were so visible on the horizon. Saba has been gone since then, so hopefully she will reappear!


A snack of cheese and crackers, then an early dinner of ribs and potato chips for dinner and a very early night made a very successful first day!

Friday

Since we had gone to bed so early on Thursday evening, I was up early, and used the time to scope out the kitchen and various features of the condo. We headed over to Super U for some cheap wine and croissants and some condiments, etc we didn't get the day before, since we weren't sure if they would be at the unit or not. Lunch was burgers on the grill and we hung out for the afternoon at the unit.



Around 6:30, we headed out to Puerto Cupecoy, since we read there was live music at Rendevzous Lounge. The plaza was basically empty when we arrived, and we walked around to check out the menus at the various restaurants. We ended up at Mama Pizza and Pasta.



Eric had the ravioli with shrimps and scallops


His meal was from the specials menu



and I got kind of a meat lovers pizza.



Both were excellent although of course I only finished about half of my meal. Leftovers will probably provide snacks on Sunday.

Around 8 PM the music started and the plaza started filling up with a fair number of people. We had a very socially distanced dinner, at the outside of the seating for Pizza Pasta, closest to the plaza. We enjoyed the music and some nice people watching, including a couple of budding Olympic gymnists, using the fountain for their balance beam.

We were back home by around 9:30. Thus endeth another successful day.

Saturday

We had POURING rain around 6 AM on Saturday, which was kind of a bad weather omen for the day. The weather was WEIRD on Saturday, like pea soup all day. It didn't rain at all after we got up, but the weather was weird.



Breakfast was croissants, fruit and cheese. After breakfast, I sent Eric over to Carrefour to hunt for the cooked lobster, but alas, no luck. Otherwise, we had lunch and dinner on the grill and we hung out at the unit all day. We caught up on some much needed down time, napping and reading and just hanging out, at our very comfortable abode.














Thus endeth another very successful day, doing nothing much of anything, and recharging the batteries.