Thursday 7/22/10:
Drove to Pittsburgh from Cleveland at 4:00 AM. Connecting flight thru Charlotte. Arrive at St. Maarten at 1:15. Pick up our car from Thrifty/Dollar and make our way to the Flamingo. Along the way we made our traditional stop at Taco Macho for tacos and burritos. Got to have my first Caribe of the trip. As we were leaving it started to rain so one beer led to three. Essentially that was the last rain we saw for the next 10 days. Owner gave us of shots of a Columbian liqueur similar to Sambuca. She used to own it with her Mexican husband and he left it all with her when he went to the US.
So we checked in and went to Market Garden to get the weekly essentials. What a super, nice grocery store. Good selection and reasonable prices. Enough of that. Made reservations at The Red Piano to see Bankie Banx Sunday night and off to Lady C for rum punch and Pizza Galley for dinner. Met a couple of developers from who knows where. One of them did the Cuisinart hotel in Anguilla. We didn’t have any of the ribs, but they looked and smelled great. Brian took good care of us.
Just a little diversion here. This is our 4th consecutive year to St. Maarten. Other years we focused on restaurants. This year we went where the wind blew us. We are new to travel talk, just joined a few weeks ago, but have been reading it for about a year. I apologize in advance for the spelling of some of these names and places.
Friday 7/23/10:
Off to Club O for the day. Split a shrimp salad at Andy and Cheryl's. Ok, but a tad bit pricey. Stopped at Dinghy Dock for happy hour on the way home.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz125/rogerandbethpics/DSC00439.jpgAte at Abu Ghazi. A shwarma and kabob salad plus 2 beers for $19.00. As Guy Fierri would say, ‘off the hook’. That place was awesome!
Saturday 7/24/10:
Off to Mullet Bay for the day. We ate left over pizza galley and Rosies Ribs. What the heck does she do to those ribs? Like nothing we have ever tasted. Now we start the Rum Punch journey, off to the Driftwood. While one of our favorites in the past, it didn’t cut it this time.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz125/rogerandbethpics/DSC00441.jpgNext the Lady C where we talked to the 'legal pirates' (one from Aruba and the other from Norway) who were going to retrieve the engines off the boat that burned near Captain Oliver’s a couple weeks ago. My wife was invited, I wasn’t. Imagine that!
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz125/rogerandbethpics/DSC00447.jpgLast but not least, we headed to Toppers and engaged in a rum punch making lesson with Horsford. Horsford is an awesome bartender. We spent quite a bit of time talking to the owner of Toppers. What an interesting and nice man.
Dinner at Belmar. Very good. Waited on by 3 people. I guess that’s what you get in the low season.
Sunday 7/25/10:
Cupecoy Deli for Baguette sandwiches on our way to Mullet Bay. Without a doubt, these were our favorite baguettes that we came across. Only ate half of our sandwiches. Went to Toppers on the way home for rum punch. Rough start as Horsford was nowhere to be found. I rubbed Fiona the wrong way, but she eventually came around. Fiona is an awesome bartender also.
Coincidentally, as we were on our way back to the Flamingo from the Peli Deli, this group of guys stopped and asked for directions to their rooms at the pelican. It was Bankie Banx and the band. We ate the rest of our baguettes for dinner because we were off to see Bankie Banx at the Red Piano and didn’t want to be late. We got there at 8:30, he started at 11:00! Their performance was incredible. We had a ball and danced and all night long.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz125/rogerandbethpics/DSC00452.jpgColin took good care of us.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz125/rogerandbethpics/DSC00453.jpgMonday 7/26/10:
As a result of the late night we had, we had a slow start in the morning but made it to Pinel for the day. We ate lunch at Up On The Key. It was amazing.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz125/rogerandbethpics/DSC00458.jpghttp://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz125/rogerandbethpics/DSC00463.jpgOff to Toppers for a rum punch.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz125/rogerandbethpics/DSC00450.jpgWe had a quiet night at Thai Savahn in Simpson Bay next to Izi. Food was very good. The flavors were very authentic. Nice menu, great place. My meat had a little fat on it and I mentioned it to the manager as an FYI and he comp’d us 2 glasses of wine without even asking. Top notch in my opinion.
Tuesday 7/27/10:
We took a boat from Simpson Bay to Marigot marina and had lunch at Cugini—absolutely fabulous. Without a doubt, the best meal we had on the island. Somebody needs to put this guy on food network. Low and behold, he is from a suburb of Cleveland, OH that is about 20 miles from where we live. We did a little shopping in the marina.
We saw some of the homes of the rich and famous along the way.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz125/rogerandbethpics/DSC00467.jpgWe decided to have a rum punch at toppers and then hung out at Flamingo beach for a couple of hours. We headed off to Market Garden for a few necessities and decided to stop at Bucaneer for "1" rum punch. We started talking to a scrap metal recycler and the owner/captain of the Edge II. 1 led to too many and we were toast. Got take out from Pineapple Pete's and chilled on our balcony for the rest of the evening.
Wednesday 7/28/10:
Off to Club O for the day. While we were there we struck up a nice conversation with Richey and Joanne. We found out that they are on TTOL but I didn’t recognize him with his fedora. Very nice people. Headed to Tap 5 deli to try their pizza. Unfortunately they don’t start making pizza until 5:00. I got a crab baguette and my wife got cucumber salad. Both were very good.
Obviously, we stopped at Toppers on the way home for a rum punch and then went to the Hideaway for dinner. It was very good. Then we got sucked into karaoke. All I know is his name was Orlando and he had his whole family there.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz125/rogerandbethpics/DSC00473.jpgNobody but nobody can sing the Temptations’ music like me—My Girl and Just My Imagination.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz125/rogerandbethpics/DSC00475.jpgThursday 7/29/10:
We headed to Marigot to catch the Ferry to Anguilla and low and behold, who did we run into? Bankie Banx and the band!
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz125/rogerandbethpics/DSC00477.jpgI don’t know who the US Polo Assn. dude is. We spent the entire day on Shoal Bay East. It was heavenly.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz125/rogerandbethpics/DSC00482.jpghttp://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz125/rogerandbethpics/DSC00478.jpghttp://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz125/rogerandbethpics/DSC00479.jpgThe view from where I sat.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz125/rogerandbethpics/DSC00480.jpgHad Pizza from Mandeariman. Excellent. Taxi, ferry and car back to Flamingo and a rum punch at Toppers by the sea. We stayed there and had dinner and watched the cabaret show that was put on by a local dance school. It was somewhat of an emotional show because the lead dancer was killed in an automobile accident the weekend prior. They really put on a nice performance. Two things to note: I have never had calamari that wasn’t fried. They have a sautéed kamakzie kalamari that is to die for. Next time, I will ask for it over linguine and have it as a meal. So we meet a couple from England on their honeymoon and have plenty to drink. As such, I leave the Toppers Rhum sampler that we purchased sitting on the wall. Would you believe it was still there the next morning?!
Friday 7/30/10:
Went to La Succiere for baguette sandwiches and headed off to Club O. Met a nice couple from NC and spoke to them for quite a while. We headed to Toppers for rum punch, decided to stay and eat. By now, we were pretty tired.
Saturday 7/31/10:
We went to Zee Best for Breakfast and headed off to the airport.
The things that we wanted to do but it never happened:
1. Sunset bar and grille
2. Talk of the Town 2
3. Lal’s (it’s an absolute favorite of ours)
4. Mooi
Flight back to Pittsburgh through Philadelphia went without a hitch. Go in at 11:00. Spent the night in Pittsburgh and went to Primanti Bros. for a sandwich and a couple tall cold ones. The end.
