Or at least where we were....

We went to bed Saturday night with all kinds of plans for the day but somehow, Mother Nature intervened and had other plans in store for us. I suppose we might have searched the island for sunnier skies but a l ittle rain and dreary never hurt anyone, right?!

We were awoken in the wee hours of the morning to the sound of the dreaded moskies bzzzzzing in our ears and a slight case of the "itchies", further noting their presence. Seems the major cooling breezes we'd come to enjoy over all our trip so far and which have allowed us to sleep with all our sliders and windows wide open every night, had decided to take a night off, but before doing so, they blew some of the screens wide open and invited the little buggers in to visit. And it was intolerably hot to boot. Closed up all the windows and cranked the airco and it was probably a good thing we did because at some point after we fell back to sleep it poured. And those rains came and went for most of the day and into the over-night right up to very early this morning. I may be one who hates the airco but I have to admit, there are times when you just can't live without it, and I believe we cranked it so low, we've frozen any remaining moskies into a dormant state, thankfully!

We spent much of our day out at the pool and between dodging the rain clouds we were able to enjoy the water and brief appearances of our friend the Sun periodically, and when the rains did happen, we snagged a table under the bar and played a dice game into the afternoon. We had plans for the late afternoon and dinner plans for the evening, and thanks to the rain clouds and other things, they all fell through.

And this, of course, left us scrambling for dinner. We decided we'd drive as far as Porto Cupecoy since it's close and they have multiple options. The courtyard entry from the parking lot is now totally garbed in Christmas lights and the place looks lovely. Marios was closed and although we checked out Le Bateau Ivres menu, we settled on the Rendez-Vous.

Big mistake, and after all these years I can freely and finally say I've had my first really bad meal on St. Maarten. Okay, it wasn't much of what some might call a meal but it suited us for the moment, or so I thought when we placed our order.

I don't know if it was due to new ownership, the fact we didn't want big heavy meals, or any of a number of other possibilities, but it was just bad in every way, and if I were ever remotely tempted to return in the future, it would be for strictly dessert only but even that would be unlikely. Even the pretty young woman who waited on us clearly had a bit if an attitude. We ordered one round of drinks, two salads and two pizzas (which were served cold the first time they came out....) with no plates to eat from, and one order of pasta Bolognaise which looked nasty but was 'okay - not great - but okay' said the person who ordered it, and when we got our check we were over-charged on top of everything else. And that is exactly why I personally think the practice of including the service (tip, gratuity or whatever you may wish to call it) in the check is dead wrong. We did correct the overcharge part and sadly, there was no manager available to express our displeasure with, but this is clearly NOT a place we will rush back to. Btw, the salads were excellent and the wine and sodas were cold so there was that.......

Back home to watch our President address the nation, and off to bed with the hopes the breezes return and I can shut the airco off in our apartment. It's freezing cold in here, but the good news is, there aren't any moskies!