It's our last week on the Island.<br> <br>First some development news, kind of. Perhaps Neil or others can fill in the blanks.<br>On the radio on Sunday, we heard an interview with the Government Information Officer who was urging people to sign up with the Labor Office for a bunch of jobs opening at a new construction site for a new Condominium Resort Hotel complex starting construction soon. He was rather vague about the location except to say that it was beyond Maho and was not Mullet Bay. Today there was a follow up report that the work would begin on July 29 and that it would involve about 120 jobs building "high end bungalows" and a couple of 7 or 8 story high rise buildings.<br> <br>Sunday was Bastille Day. We avoided the French cities and went to Orient Beach. We started with lunch at Bikini Beach Bar. Gretchen had the grilled shrimp salad that I had enjoyed earlier and I tried their Boulliasbe (sp). The Boulliasbe was delicious and Gretchen was anxious to borrow from my sauce and other contents. The dish was loaded with fish, mussels, shrimp, scallops and a small lobster. A very large lunch.<br> <br>After a hard afternoon at the beach, we violated our one big meal a day rule and went to the Turtle Pier to check out Mr. SXM night. No one else showed. Gretchen had their Shrimp St. Martin which she dearly loved and I had a 12 oz T-Bone steak. It was large but thin and quite tasty. I also had the French Onion Soup which was very very good.<br> <br>Monday was another shopping day in the morning, followed by a trip to the beach. This is the first vacation where I have ever decompressed to this degree and spent this much time lying around doing nothing! I'll blame it on Sand Gravity. Today was one of the windier days but the sun was out a lot of the time and I picked up a little new pinkness under the developing tan. Gotta watch that. The beach was really dead with Umbrellas on only half of the Club Orient beach, due in part to the wind but also due to a real lack of people. It is the most vacant I have seen the beach other than days when it rained.<br> <br>For dinner Monday night, we hit the Laguna Restaurante near the airport on Simpson Bay. Gretchen started out with a good Mixed Garden Salad and I had the Golden Fried Mozarella and Zuchinni. For the main course, Gretchen had Seafood Linguini which she liked. I thought the sauce was a little less creamy and a little more fishy tasting than I would have liked. I had the Veal Parmasianna(sp). The veal was tasty with good Penne Pasta and vegetables. The Parmesianna Sauce and cheese on the veal were among the thinnest that I have experienced and, to me, disappointing.<br> <br>And now, back to our regularly scheduled vacation.<br>