Wednesday, May 3

Boy - have we ever settled in here at BSV. So much so that the idea of leaving to go anywhere is somewhat repugnant to me and a few nights I cooked in by choice rather than having to leave even just to go out for dinner.

We had our am coffee on the porch. John spent most of his day watching airplanes while I enjoyed mine mostly with my kindle in hand but at least we wandered over to the pool for a couple of hours.

We picked up some salads at the Maho Market salad bar and lunched on our porch as well and we had sundowners out there this afternoon, too. Are you getting the picture here?!

So before we came down I had mentioned to DH there were a few restaurants I wanted to get to - one in GC that we didn't get to; Paradise View that we almost made it to but traffic wore us down and we went to FBBC instead; and lastly, Marks Place, which we hadn't been to for a couple of years but always enjoyed and which we had discovered many years ago shortly after they opened in their original Cul De Sac spot. How did we ever stumble into that one?!

Tonight we decided it's now or never for this trip so off to Marks we headed about 7:15 ish. No traffic to speak of though once we got there the parking lot was full. Our worse fear was that the place would be mobbed but once we actually got inside there were only about 6-7 other tables occupied and while a few people came and went, it never did get busy while we were there which seems to be the story of most places we've been to this trip.

We ordered apps to share and John had the rib-eye platter while I had the mussels with fries. OMGoodness - were they ever good, steamed in a cream and white wine and garlic based sauce which was out of this world - almost like a mussel chowder. The only problem was the portion was huge and I couldn't figure out how to get the left-overs as take-out, and truth be known, we have virtually no time left to enjoy them if I could have. Our server was lovely and I'm glad we fulfilled at least one of our plans for this trip since there were so many we slacked off on. Marks does not include the gratuity so after adding a generous tip, the check still only came to $75.00.

So! About half way through dinner we look up to the main road to see all kinds of flashing lights and sirens and we start hearing music. And it gets louder! And louder! And pretty soon, the first of what was to be five flat beds slowly crept into view playing island music like you couldn't imagine. This was definitely not the quiet little repast we had envisioned but it was fun, nonetheless. We had completely forgotten tonight was the last night of Carnival and the night they burn King Momo. The music on wheels was apparently the forerunner to the activity soon to happen. It was all pretty cool and a fun part of what the Carnival season is all about. They be jumpin and jammin all over the streets but thankfully, they were headed to Carnival Village and we were eventually going in the opposite direction but it was fun to see as much as we did.

Home by 9:30 and another day done.