Just got back from my 2nd trip St. Maarten on Saturday, didn't get home until Sunday. I had quite a trip. Pluses of the week were: driving a jet ski for the first time; winning a bonus week from the Atrium (which I may use to go to their sister resort which is a top top hotel in Aruba called the Windjammer) <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Joy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Joy.gif" alt="" /> winning a bottle of wine at a crab race on the beach; having a free birthday drink at Jimbo's ( a full goldfish bowl of a passion fruit daquari) <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" /> and just generally being back in SXM. Minuses were: catching the cold my Mom contracted before we left on day 2 of the trip and feeling rotten for the next 2 days <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Sick.gif" alt="" /> ; having Liat lose my bags during my layover in Tortola and having to wait a day for our suitcases; having Tortola secruity check my carryon bag when boarding my connection to SXM, not putting anything back properlyand dropping my underwear on the floor; having to get off the plane in Tortola on my "direct flight" back to San Juan from SXM along with all of the other passengers on my flight , having all of our bags, including checked luggage checked again and having Liat lose our bags for a second time; and missing my connection flight to DC from Philly <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cloud.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cloud.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cloud.gif" alt="" />. As you can see I had a mixed bag of a vacation. Obviously, I'm never flying Liat again. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Mad.gif" alt="" /> They have assured me that they have never lost a bag and mine is only missing and they will deliver it to me. But since, they never called me in SXM to tell me they'd located it and made me come to the airport to pick it up, I'm not too sanguine on the chances of them getting it to me all the way in DC <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Hairy.gif" alt="" />. What really ticked me off about them was the fact that when they unexpectedly made us get off the plane in Tortola to recheck our bags, they never told us why, and initially didn't even broadcast that that we had to get off the plane over the plane's PA system but the stewardess walked up the aisle and told certain sections of the plane to get off and didn't tell everyone to take their carry-ons, so it was mostly spread through passenger word of mouth. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cloud.gif" alt="" /> My Mom, who was sitting in a different seat, didn't even hear her say to take the bags so she took my head off when I came out with her bags and mine because I stayed on the plane until the stewardess made an announcement. The stewardess never ever gave us an explanation, didn't even apologize until the end of the trip for the delay and at that point so many folks were so mad that it was too little, to late. Several folks probably missed there connections because the whole thing took an extra hour. The only person who gave me any explantation was a member of the ground crew who said that the US had a regulation that all incoming flights with a layover had to get off the plane and be rechecked <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> and Liat should have told us that. I think it was a load of bull$hit and when I asked the customs guy in San Juan, he said, he'd never heard that. I will have several scathing <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/hammer.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/typing.gif" alt="" /> letters to send to Liat, Tortola's air security folks, our FAA (just in case the ground crew guy was telling the truth), whatever version the BVI and/or the Caribbean has of the Better Business Bureau, and our BBB (since Liat sells in this country) and any one else I can think of about the whole Liat thing. I really wanted to tell the stewardess off about the whole thing <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/duel.gif" alt="" /> but she was so nonchalant and just didn't care, which according to my Mom is typical for island folks ( we lived in St. Thomas from when I was about 15 months until I was four).
Hotel
Ok, back to the pluses. I liked staying at the the Atrium <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/dancingmonkey.gif" alt="" /> . I stayed at Divi last year and missed their nice whirlpool spa's in the the timeshares, and their bigger beach, but enjoyed Atrium's location and all of the restaurants nearby. I made a few visits to the Buccanear Beach bar but only got to meet Neil briefly. I got better acquainted with his lovely dog Moose, <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/greendog.gif" alt="" /> who was a very laid back animal. He seemed like the elder-states-dog of Simpson beach.
Activities
We spent Sunday on Simpson Beach, it was our first time there other than catching the Random Wind last year, and we enjoyed it a lot, especially all of the nice little beach dogs and the kitties <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cat.gif" alt="" />.
Monday we hit Orient, which is usually a fun place to go, with all of the people and activities. I was starting to feel yucky that day so I mostly just slept in my chair and cooled off in the water. I also can't remember the name of the place we had lunch, but it was directly to the right of Sexy Fruits and I had a cheesburger, which was quite good, and Mom had a rib sandwich I believe. Mom also bought a pretty sea shell necklace on the beach.
On Tuesday we made day trip to Pinel Island for the first time, which was excellent, but it was on my worst sick day <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Sick.gif" alt="" /> so I didn't enjoy it the way I ordinarily would have. I didn't even get to snorkel, one of my favorite things, because I felt too yucky and turned down a beer (which if you knew me well, would put you in a state of shock, because I love beer). I mostly just got inthe water to cool off and lay on my beach chair feeling icky. I did have a yummy rib and rice lunch that I also had for dinner, can't remember the name of the restaurant but it was the second one from the Marina not the first one.
On Wednesday we went to Anguilla on the Lambada. I enjoyed that as well, we went there on the first day I started to feel better. I had hoped to see more of the island, but really enjoyed myself snorkeling and having a scrumptious lunch at Roy's( I had the ribs, which were good- and Mom had the Mahi-mahi) and I received a hot toddy recipie that helped perk me up the rest of the week. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/dancingmonkey.gif" alt="" />
On Thursday we went to Divi. At first I didn't want to go, because we stayed there last summer and had spent lots of time on the beach and I really wanted to hit some new spots other than Simpson Beach, but Mom had her heart set so we went there. I'm glad we did. I'd forgotten how pretty it is right there, and that is where I rode the jet ski. It was a blast, I'm to chicken to ride a motorcycle, but I thought that I got a taste of the freedom you must get by driving that jet ski. Like I said I'm chicken so I only went really fast in a few spurts but that was the highlight of my trip <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />. I also snorkled and took lots of underwater pics. Unfortunately, I took them all before I swam back and snorkled further from the rocks and saw all of the cool giant vases, so I didn't get any snaps of them. I had planned to go on an intro to scuba there, which I had done last year, but I was too clogged up to clear my ears, so they suggested I skip it. I had originally planned to get certified over the past year and go on a proper dive this year, but things kept coming up and I almost did a two weekend course before I got down there but had to work overtime at work over those two weeks. At first I was bummed I hadn't done it, but since I was sick and couldn't have scuba'd anyway, I was glad I didn't. Next year, or maybe this winter!
We took the duck tour on Friday <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" /> and I was feeling much better so I had tons of fun on that outing but it was shorter than I had hoped. Ivan, one of the performers from Cherri's was the tour guide and Mom and I took a picture with him. He is so gallant, he kissed both of our hands too. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Love.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Blush.gif" alt="" /> Then we shopped, spent too much money of course. We stopped in Deepti's store to browse and to make her acquaintence in person, she wasn't in but we looked at her lovely jewels. A little out of my price range (I'm just a poor government employee). It was funny because earlier in the week an older gentleman asked Mom if it was just the two of us, and we told him it was, and he said, " Oh, you left the gentlemen at home to pay the the bills!" We just laughed, but I am very disgustingly (and seemingly permanently) single, and Mom split with Dad almost 27 years ago and vows to never make that mistake again so we have no gentleman. After we left Deepti's store, I said to Mom, I sure wish we had some gentlemen at home to pay the bills so we could buy some jewels! Then we went to Margiot to buy some French wine from Vinissimo and got excellent help from a very nice young Frenchwoman who'd grown up on the island, Mom went to the Mall and brought an overpriced Italian dress that she'd been eyeing earlier in the week. Then it was off to Orient for our last beach run.
On Saturday, we left in the morning, and as I already outlined, had a lovely travelling experience (not).
Eating <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/dine.gif" alt="" />
Unfortunately, because I was sick for a few days, it put a big crimp in our dining experience. On our arrival Mom was too tired and sick to go out, so I got some delicious take-out brushetta from Good Fellows, which I paired with some fries from Burger King (only stopped there b/c Mom asked me to get her a shake there on the way back from GoodFellows)
On Sunday we had dinner at Jimbo's. I had a tasty quesidilla dish and Mom had the Mahi-mahi, which she raved about.
On Monday, I felt awful and though our original intention was to get a pizza to go from Good Fellows, but they were closed so we went to Dominos instead. Of course as I was skimming through the posts I printed out from TTOL, I saw a pizza place a few blocks further down that was highly praised (can't remember the name now) <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" /> but I needed to get a little food and some rest so I wasn't up to hunting around.
On Tuesday, we skipped dinner and ate our left overs from Pinel Island.
On Wednesday, since I was feeling better, my Mom dragged me to Cheri's. I didn't really want to go, but she was so excited to go back that I couldn't say no. It was kind of fun, but I was still feeling a bit yucky and wasn't in the mood for such. I had the burger with bleu cheese dressing ( I thoguht they'd put real cheese on it but they just gave me dressing), it really wasn't good at all, I figured, you can't screw up a burger, but I was wrong. My Mom enjoyed her fish, I think it was more Mahi-mahi.
Thursday we ate at the Peg Leg Pub. Delicious. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/chef.gif" alt="" /> I had the filet mignon with rice. Scrumptious. Cleaned my plate, almost licked it. Mom had the mix of the shrimp and steak kabobs with rice. She enjoyed that too. We briefly met the owner, I'm blanking on his name, and he told us we were the two nicest looking ladies he'd seen all night <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Blush.gif" alt="" /> . Which of course made us feel good.
On Friday, our last night, we ate at Boo-Boo Jams, and had delicious ribs. Our plan had been to go to a nice French restaurant on the French side, maybe Bella Epoch (or something like that), then we got tired and said we'd go to Le Bec Fin next to the Atrium. Then we got even more tired and decided that showering and dressing to go out would be too much so we just ate while we were at Orient. We were glad we did once we had those ribs. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Banana.gif" alt="" />
We also had delicious kosher hot dogs from the Buccaneer on the beach on Sunday, and on Thursday we ate at Divi and I had a jerk chicken sandwich, not too bad, and Mom had another hot dog which was not as good as the Buccaneer. I think I already mentioned all of our other lunches previously. We mostly had breakfast in our room, but in honor of my birthday on Sunday we had breakfast at Zee Best, a delicious basket of pastries and I had a spinach crepe that I couldn't finish because of all of the crossaints I'd eaten, and Mom had an omlette which she almost finished because I'd eaten more croissaints than she did. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/hungry.gif" alt="" />
I think that is about it for eating experiences.
Next trip
Next time, I want to do the America's Cup, do the ferry to Anguilla instead of a boat trip like the Lambada (or maybe in addition to it, because it was fun). I also, have to get scuba certified before I hit the caribbean next, have to go to more different beaches and not catch a cold.
All in all I'm glad I got to get away, and even if I didn't have all of the fun I'd been counting on and pining for over the past 4 months, I did enjoy what I could. I also saw a girl on crutches, so I was glad I didn't break anything and only had a cold.
Pictures will follow, and I'm sorry if this was too long or too whiney.
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