Good evening from Mont Vernon,

The phone in the room at the hotel we stayed at last night in St. Louis, started ringing incessantly at 3:00 am. I mean, my God, it’s 3:00 am and I’m on vacation; What disaster could have possibly happened to prompt a call to me, on vacation, and at 3:00 in the morning?

Then as I come to my senses, I realize that I had set a wake up call for this ungodly hour of the morning. But hey, we’re going to St. Martin today and our plane departs at 6:00 am. So I wake my wife, Diana from her slumber, and we start getting ready to go. After some truly horrible hotel coffee and a shower, we head down to the lobby to catch the shuttle to the airport.

Now who would have thought there would have been 12 other people there at 4:00 am to catch the same shuttle to the airport? The only problem is the shuttle was only designed to hold 12 people, not 14. Needless to say we were all a little bit closer by the time we finally all squeezed in. I’m sure it was not legal, or for that matter safe, but nonetheless we all made it to the airport in one piece.

Once we were checked in at the airport, we got our first little surprise of the day. Both Diana and I were TSA pre-checked. I don’t know how that happened, usually Diana, gets it and I don’t. So we head to the security checkpoint, and low and behold, there is no one in the pre-check line. a quick look at our documents and through the metal detector, and we are done. No taking off of shoes, belt, etc. Just walked right on through. Sometimes the ‘gods’ smile on the travelers.

The flight from St, Louis to Miami, was on time and smooth. I managed to get some pretty spectacular sunrise photos from 39,000 feet as we winged our way southeast. I’m too tired to download and post them now, but I will get them posted soon…

The flight out of Miami was on time and smooth too. We arrived on SXM right on schedule. After clearing customs and retrieving our bags we head out of the of the airport to look for Lesley Bruce (Kenny's Car Rental). Sure enough, as he has always been, there he was with a friendly handshake and greeting. Ten minutes later we are on our way to the Grand Marche to lay in some provisions.

After obtaining the basics for a few days we are on our way to Mont Vernon.

The Island looks kind of bad this year. I know people have said that the drought was bad, but I had no idea just how bad it really was. There is very little green anywhere on the island, and the landscape is parched brown and drab. The Island needs rain in the worst possible way. God forbid there be a fire anywhere…

Anyway, we arrived at Mont Vernon, and made our way to the Studio. We retrieved our key from lock box and opened the door to our studio. The air was on and it was already cooled down for us. In addition there was a plate of snacks, on the counter and cold beer in the fridge to welcome us ‘home’ from Amaury and his brother, Thibault. Such a nice jester.

After several trips up and down the hills at Mont Vernon to unload the car, my sweet wife set about setting up the studio for our stay.

After getting everything squared away, we decided to take a walk on the beach. The seaweed is horrible this year -- the worse I’ve ever seen it. The smell is not all that good either. But what are you going to do? We certainly won’t let that spoil our vacation.

Anyway, as we walk down to the village, we discuss dinner options. We decide that pizza from the little shop in Mont Vernon would be our first island meal. Didn’t happen!! They are on vacation too. So time for plan B. We prepare a simple dinner in the studio instead.

After eating, and relaxing a bit I set about writing about today’s events. All in all it’s been a good day. We arrived safely, the important parts of the plan worked exactly like they should have, and I have my best friend, and the love of my life to share it with, and to build fond memories…

So for now, Good night from Mont Vernon...