9th February - The power went out twice this morning; the first time it was on/off, the second time it was off a little bit longer but came back. After reading what’s been going on here, we packed flashlights so we are prepared. Packed a lunch, sandwich for me, baguette for hubby, and headed off to Orient Beach to while away the hours. While hubby was re-parking the car (didn’t like where he had parked it the first time) I was looking at the wraps Luiz had on display, when he appeared through a rack of clothes. He told me the wrap I was looking at was hand-painted and was $25, reduced it to $20 and then said I could have it for $15. Being a person who sews I had noticed the side edge looked like it wasn’t finished, so I declined to buy it.

We followed Da Party Bus in so I asked one of the occupants what she paid; $70 per person with free drinks on the bus, 50% off of drinks at every place they stopped. I made the comment “And you won’t remember it afterwards”.

We rented loungers from the first guy (didn’t get his name) but will next time we go back; paid $15 for two, beer was $3 a bottle. He has named the place O’Last and is still in the process of setting it up; he is serving food there. It’s a very colourful place and I love the art work he has around the place. He has a Jack Russell dog “Free” who hangs around, she’s a cutie. The water was nice and calm and there was no seaweed to be seen, a beautiful day. The place is looking normal again after the mess last year.

After the beach we headed back via Philipsburg to pick up a couple of items for our cameras; a polarizing filter for hubby and a remote for me. I didn’t check the price of what I needed before coming down, and surprisingly didn’t get a good deal. We stopped for a guava berry colada before heading back.

When we got back to the condo we were hungry, so ate some of the pizza we had brought back from the Driftwood bar. When it came to dinner neither one of us was too hungry so we went over to Cheri’s Cafe for a light dinner. Hubby had soup, I had a chicken caesar salad. We watched a bit of the show, it’s the same old, same old but they now have a girl singer in the group.


10th February - Hubby noticed the bites on my leg this morning and his comment was “You look like you have the pox”. Yeah, well so do you! The itchiness has gone but the redness hasn’t, they still look nasty but they are fading. He wasn’t in a rush to go anywhere today as he burnt his legs a bit yesterday, so didn’t want to get out in the sun. I went out with my camera on the hunt for my little hummingbird, had a couple of sightings but didn’t get any photos. It’s early on so I have plenty of time to get one.

We were going to Mullet Bay but ended up going to Maho instead since it wasn’t very busy and the water looked calm. We stayed near the Driftwood bar; paid $20 for 2 loungers - we won’t be renting over there again; beer was $3. There was quite an undertow so I declined to throw myself into the water, just paddled around a bit and threw water over myself to cool down. The sand had sculpted itself into a hill by SBBG.

Headed over to Algeria, the bar was closed again but this time there were 4 people around the pool. Took some photos as this was the first time I had taken my camera with me since we arrived, then headed back to our condo and made margaritas.

Went to Avantika in Simpson Bay for dinner, great Thai food. We started with spring rolls; I had the fried ones and hubby had the veggie ones, they were both good. I had a red curry with shrimp and hubby had a chicken stir fry with glass noodles also good.

Marty’s restaurant was open so I’ve promised myself to go there this year and have one of his gyros. He has made some improvements to it and put up a nice sign so you can see where it is.

I’m not planning on posting any photos while I’m on the island, the internet is so slow and when it’s not slow, it’s not working at all. So I will post when I get home.

Birdwatcher,

It sounds like you're experiencing 'one of THOSE trips' where things just don't quite work the way you expected but I'm sure things will get better. We've had one or two over the years but the good ones always outweigh the NOT-so great ones.

At least your flights weren't delayed and you made it through C&I w/o any issues. And while I don't think you told us where you're staying, I guess the good news was there weren't any complications with your hotel accommodations. After all the other minor issues that would have been the icing on the cake for me.

It's gonna' get better and I'm sure we're all keeping our fingers crossed for you. At least I know I am!!

A few trips ago I too got bite badly and had bumps and they took forever to go away. We were on the French side for that visit so I went to the pharmacy to pick up benedryl and cortisone cream for the itching. It helped with the itching and swelling but still took days to disappear.

You don't seem to have much luck with Marty's Dream for HH. Have you considered Dinghy Dock, SMYC, Buccaneer? They all are outdoors, nice views of the water and reasonably priced good food.

I don't know where you are staying but none of them are very far from Marty's.