After a very early wake-up call and ride into the airport, we flew with our friends on JB, JFK to SXM r/t, and as flights go, it was incident-free - took off on time and landed early on both ends of the trip and immigration at both airports was fast and painless, too, though one question, IF anyone knows - why do they still make you fill out the blue US immigration entry forms coming into JFK and then not collect them? We had the same experience in April yet they're still handing them out on the plane and telling you to complete them before you reach the immigration hall.

We had no sooner walked out the airport door and felt that first blast of St. Maarten sunshine when Lesley Bruce met us and we were off in our trusty R24 grey Nissan. Let the vacation begin!

We had our favorite Towers apartment for two weeks and Jeannie had already been there and stocked the unit prior to our arrival. The unit itself is getting a little dated, but then, so are we, and I can NEVER get enough of that view. Our vistas range from the beach at Mullet and out to Maho, then over the airport runways and on to the Dutch and French hills, and as far as we can see there's Creole Rock off Grand Case, and Anguilla in the distance and all of Nettle Bay and then around to the interesting apartments at Point Pirouette. We have the best of all of it plus the golf course at Mullet as we enjoy our morning coffee or afternoon cocktails. It just doesn't get much better IMHO, unless perhaps the evening views of all those lights twinkling over a nightcap.

We experienced excellent weather for most of our stay although we did have one full day of rain off and on - mostly on, but we were able to amuse ourselves and chances are the day out of the sun was a good thing. The island was green and lush with an abundance of beautiful island flowers everywhere. The breezes were such that we only needed the airco on one day out of the entire trip and for the most part, the moskies were a non-issue. And the traffic! OMGoodness, the traffic.....but I've seen worse and will again in the future, I'm sure.

We managed to see some old vacation friends, even if but briefly, but at least we got to say hi, and we managed our annual dinner with our island friends. There were a few we missed and I regret that but what can you do?!

We hit our favorite beaches, although now that I'm thinking about it, we only did Mullet with lunch at Rosie's once, and we thoroughly enjoyed some Towers pool time, too. The new find this trip was El Zafiro and my sincere hope is they pick up a little but not so much that it gets to be another Karakter with too many people, too many chairs and too loud music - and I know others might disagree with me on the Karakter representation but that's how I see it these days. And if EZ extends their menu just a bit, IMO, it will be perfect. Our day at Anse Marcel was near perfect and our boat trip on Sugar Rush to Rendezvous Bay was even better. I couldn't complain about any of it if I wanted to.

All in all, we ate too much, drank too much, laughed too hard, and loved every single moment of our two weeks of island time. I feel blessed to have enjoyed our trip and all our friends and now we look forward to an even better trip in April. And while I'm at it, as I try to finish up all the odds and ends left undone before we headed for our island time, and I prepare to launch into Christmas and what I refer to as the Birthday Season in my family, I'll extend a big Merry Christmas to all of you and my good wishes for a healthy and happy New Year, too. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />