Traveled with Wife, Daughters 21,19,19

Air: From Chicago Direct to SXM

• March 11th Left the gate and arrived 45 minutes early. 10 minute wait on the tarmac and immigration was a breeze. Bags out in 10 minutes.

• March 18th going home – 8 ½ hours late. Inbound flight broke down in D.C. and arrived into SXM at 9PM. Original departure time was 1:30 and we took off at 10:00PM arriving in Chicago at 2:30.

Chicago immigration and customs basically said just go through and leave.

Rental Car – Unity. $450 for a week Toyota Rav 4. Scratches but ran great. They picked us up right at the airport and a short drive we where on our way to Orient beach

Villa – Villa Joie De Vie in Orient Bay. https://www.vrbo.com/136461 We have rented it before and it’s one floor with three bedrooms and 2.5 baths. Private pool and about 3-5 minute walk from the beach. It has internet, Satellite TV with American stations and an outlet strip with 110V power. It’s surrounded by 6-8 other occupied houses and always felt safe.

Saturday 3-11 After unpacking, we headed into Grand Case and went to Pizza Pascal for dinner. Donna is a great host and had a nice meals. I’d say the highlights of the meal were the mushroom Risotto, Carbonara and a seafood special.

Also nice was the lasagna. Thought the Veal was a bit tough

Sunday 3-12 --- Breakfast from Good morning (Every day). Had a nice day at Sun beach clubber. The food is wonderful and the beach boys are great but..as an american I felt like a second class citizen. All the front chairs are held for the owners friends. We heard the beach boys talking how they could let someone sit up front as their boss was holding them for the bosses friend. He’d run out everytime someone showed up.

Also, they specifically said you had to eat a meal there to rent the chairs. So, I have to pay you and eat a meal. The food is very good. Love the wings, tomato mozzarella to name a few.

Dinner was at LePiment. Fabulous. Red snapper prepared in a foil pouch with potatoes is out of bounds (Guy Fieri). Lasagna, Carbonara and Dover Sole shut the front door delicious. Tiramasu also.

Monday – 3-13 - Le String - $8 for a chair – Food was great and the weather. L’Aubermand Gourmand for dinner! One of the top two dinners of the trip. Frog legs, Onion Soup, Rack of Lamb, Tuna with Soya sauce and Sea Scallops with shrimp unbelievable!!! Dessert was Le Crepe en Rose crepe truck.

Tuesday – 3-14 – Bikini – Chairs included with our villa rental. Food was good. Dinner at L’Ptit Bistro in Orient Village. This probably has some of the most French dishes of any restaurant. The Tartiflete (basically augratin potatoes with bacon) and their other Potato and cheese dishes are true French cuisine in SXM. Bravo. Dessert…just to full.

Wednesday – 3-15 Phillipsburg – We needed a break from the sun and headed into P’burg as there was one ship. The girls wanted Longchamp bags and had done there price shopping and they are a deal in P’burg. Bev got a necklace to replace one she lost. We price shopped Shiva’s, DK and Kay’s and DK’s was by far the best deal and nicest.

Dinner was at Pizza Mimo which is that storage container in the Cadisco gas station parking lot outside Orient. Great pizza and a Nutella Calzone for dessert.

Part 2…..Tomorrow.