Trip Report, April 2010, long, part one
This may be the forum’s most tardy trip report from our great vacation last April. My notes were pretty complete, however, and most were written with less than one cocktail on board so they are reasonably trustworthy. The report is in daily diary style, and I’ll try to put the [color:"red"]restaurants[/color] in [color:"red"]red[/color] and the [color:"blue"]beaches[/color] in
[color:"blue"]blue[/color] so you can skip around to your areas of interest. Photos are at
http://s126photobucket.com/albums/p97/kubotaman/St%Maarten%202010/Arrival, Day 1When you live on the west coast and want to vacation in St. Martin, you know that redeye flights will be necessary at least one way if not both. This flight was pretty good though, because we got to sit up front and the service on United was incredible. I could easily be spoiled by warm washcloths, warm cookies, and cold drinks. We flew from our little hometown airport to San Francisco to Dulles, and then on down to the island without any problems or delays.
Lesley Bruce greeted us at the airport with his usual smile, and check-in at Oyster Bay Beach Resort was smooth even though the reception area was packed. Our unit for this week is #1631, a one bedroom with a great marina view.
Even though we could barely prop our eyes open, we had a nice dinner at [color:"red"]Daniels[/color]. Our server, Janet from Santo Domingo, remembered us from last year and served us veal picatta and spaghetti with bolognaise sauce.
Day 2Off to [color:"blue"]Orient Beach[/color] and it is packed, even on a Sunday at 10:00am. We got lucky and found front row chairs near [color:"red"]Perch[/color], and paid $12 (no umbrella). At the bar, Willie was her usual gracious self and helped us ease into island mode.
For dinner at [color:"red"]Capt. Olivers[/color] we had a delicious meal of grouper and mahi mahi. The French/English language barrier made getting my martini the way I like it a real challenge, but with persistence we got it right. A word of caution is necessary when paying the bill, however. The menu states that “15% will not be added to the bill.” Well, a gratuity is not added as a separate line item,
but every individual item on the bill is priced 15% higher than was listed on the menu. I felt this was just a bit underhanded, and declined the opportunity to add any additional tip.
Day 3After breakfast in the room, we headed to [color:"blue"]Happy Bay[/color]. Parking at [color:"blue"]Friars[/color] and the hike over the hill went smoothly. The beach had a few couples and the combination of sand and water was perfect.
When a rain shower threatened, we avoided it by leaving Happy and driving over to [color:"blue"]Baie Rouge[/color] for lunch. The shortcut through Marigot really saves time. The parking lot at [color:"blue"]Baie Rouge[/color] was packed, but the three parking “attendants” who sit in the modified treehouse really didn’t care about parking (or anything else) because they were so stoned. Our plan was to eat a quick lunch and then enjoy the far end of the beach. But after being seated at [color:"red"]Raymond’s[/color], ordering, and waiting for an hour, we got up and left. Service was both indifferent and slow, and not worth that kind of wait.
We drove to [color:"blue"]Cupecoy[/color] for a lunch with Danny, but couldn’t find him. There wasn’t much beach that day, anyway, so it was on to [color:"blue"]Mullet[/color]. By this time we were starved, and [color:"red"]Rosie’s[/color] ribs and chicken didn’t disappoint. After lunch, we took a nap on what may be the softest sand on the island.
The OBBR manager’s reception was at 5:30, and featured
lots of free drinks in those little bitty cups. Afterwards, I am pretty sure we walked over to [color:"red"]Beau Beau’s[/color] for dinner but have absolutely no idea what we ate—I’m sure it was probably delicious.
Day 4Surprise, surprise! One of us really slept in this morning, all the way till 9 am! That would never happen on the farm. Once we finally got to [color:"blue"]Orient[/color], the weather was the best yet.
Our lunch on the beach was at [color:"red"]Aloha[/color], in the old location of [color:"red"]Kokomarina[/color]. It was great! We had grouper in a lemon butter sauce with a nice Sancerre. The servers were delightful, and they take one for one in cash.
Back at Oyster Bay we had dinner in the [color:"red"]Infinity Restaurant[/color]. It was pasta night. It was good, but I mean, really, how good can pasta be?? Thank God for wine. It made sense to eat onsite so we could get a front row seat for the resort talent show; unfortunately, the talent failed to materialize so we went back to our room and entertained ourselves with Tom Bergeron and Dancing with the Stars. We even practiced a couple of moves and, thankfully, no one got dropped on their head.
