So! Another day, another set of plans, and today's game plan calls for a day that will be spent at Anse Marcel Beach Resort, but with a few stops along the way.

First of all, it was like herding cats to get everyone fed, showered and dressed this morning. That done we had to deal with a tire that had been discovered flat last evening. We stopped at the rental company and they suggested we or they could take it to their repair station a and we figured it would be faster if we did it ourselves. Five minutes and we were on our way again. Because of the Simpson Bay location we decided to head over the causeway and out to AM from there. Big mistake and we have only ourselves to blame. The traffic was at a crawl to the round about on the other side of Marigot but truth be known, it still only took us about 35-40 minutes total.

Because there were five of us we called and made a reservation but in honesty, I think we would have had no problem without one but I wouldn't suggest doing that on a weekend, for sure. I wish I could be more specific about what things cost but all I can really say is we ate and drank like little porker babies all day long and paid for it all upon departure. As most know, they charge for chairs whether you eat and/or drink or not, so there was that. We ended up with five chairs, three tables and three umbrellas for starters. We had two bottles of flat water almost as soon as we arrived; a bottle of Proseco on the beach and a second with lunch; we shared calamari and Nems as appetizers; we each had a yummy lunch ranging from beef carpaccio to blackened tuna to pasta with scallops and DH and I each had a yummy salad with grilled beef and many other goodies. They were all delicious and worth the money, for sure. Back to our chairs for a swim and a nap and then desserts and more drinks on the beach. When all was said and done, the total charge to our cc was 323$EU - in all honesty I thought it would have been considerably higher since kids sure can order and eat and drink. But the day was absolutely worth it in every way.

Just the excitement of the drive in our little Nissan Versa up and down those hills and around the hairpin curves is exciting in itself. The entire setting at Anse Marcel is lovely from the beautiful landscaping to the comfy and matching beach furniture to the lovely little dining alcoves scattered along the beachfront - there's just no part of this day they haven't covered nicely to create the perfect day at the beach. Clearly NOT someplace we'd go every day but one I will do at least once or twice every trip, for sure, and I will thank a fellow TTOLer for reminding us this place even exists. The only disappointment at all was a small amount of seaweed floating in the water - nothing at all like the Sargasso seaweed of our last April trip but there was some in the water - just enough to feel it as it touched you while swimming and make you hope it was seaweed and not a living breathing thing nudging you. Guess I've still got that shark bite on our boat captain's seafood supper from the other day still fresh on my mind........

And the weather and the skies today were absolutely wonderful, too. It was so clear you could actually see cars moving around on both Saba (as seen from our porch) and on Anguilla while we laid on the beach. And to make it even more breath-taking, we could also see the vague outlines of what I think were St. Kitts and also Statia - but I could be wrong about that last.regardless, the skies are a brilliant shade of blue with nary a cloud in them to make the picture even better. You just couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day.

So back in our rooms and the good news - yes, we need to change rooms - we know as timeshare owners this can happen and since we had internally changed our weeks, I expected it - but since the room we're going into was already vacant, we could do so tonight while all our helpers were here and able to be a part of the move. Worked like clockwork and tomorrow they are good to go and do whatever they want to do.

We had an easy dinner in - Moomba delivers for those who don't already know this - and it was the perfect solution to the big questions - what's for dinner and where are we having it. And now, as we unwind from our day, the younger members of this contingent are out souvenir shopping at Maho Village.

Or at least that's what they told me they were going to do.......