Hi Folks,<br>Just want to say up front, 'thanks' to this board and to all the people who post-and-respond. This was our fourth visit to the island, and each one becomes more memorable than the last.<br><br>We stayed in a hotel up near the Hartford CT airport because our flight left early morning, 1/21. That night, with the wind chill, it was minus 14 degrees .... freezing cold! The next morning we were at the airport (1.5 hrs. prior to takeoff) with our carry-on luggage. However, the plane didn't leave until half an hour later than it should; slight problem but nothing to worry about. We made the connection in SJN and arrived at Juliana @ 2:05pm. <br><br>Picked up the car from Hertz (had to upgrade to a larger car; hubby was too tall to be comfortable in the Toyota Corolla; picked up the cellphone at Cingular One in Simpson Bay; and took the long route to OB via the Lowlands. <br><br>Thanks to Ed Roman of Caribbean Travel Services -- thanks, Ed! we had the 3rd floor at Cap Caraibes for a week. It's 36 steps up, if you're interested. One evening we made a mistake and claimed the wrong stair-tower....that makes 36 steps + another 36 steps. Whew! My husband keep referring to our room 'in the loft' but the view is terrific from the third floor; highly recommended. <br><br>On our 3rd visit to SXM, we'd stayed at L'Hoste so we were well acquainted with the area and what to expect. However, we were both surprised at the beach-bar expansions at both Waikiki and LaPlaya Beach Bars. It seems they have constructed more seating arrangements, installed fresh-lobster tanks, LaPlaya installed a fresh-water pool on the beach, not to mention that ALL the beach bars in this area haul out and display every single beach chair and umbrella. Every morning, the workers would lay out their 'string' for a guideline and then carefully place 'chair-table&umbrella-chair' in rows. Two years ago this was done only when the cruise ships were in town, but now -- all the chairs are out every day. Unfortunately, seeing all those chairs & umbrellas out, I think, distracts from the lovely beach. <br><br>As usual, we didn't get to do all the things we'd planned because sand gravity set in. OB is so beautiful and such a great place to spend time. We walked every morning and every evening. Had breakfast sometimes at L'Hoste; cooked in one morning; we fell in [color:red]LOVE</font color=red> with the village bakery croissants. Had a number of lunches with Cheryl and Andy -- so accommodating and great people. <br><br>On Sunday, the weather was cloudy & somewhat rained so we used that time to go into Phillipsburg where hubby bought me a beautiful tanzanite & diamond bracelet. I was unhappy that not all the jewelry stores were open (only one ship had entered port that afternoon) and, like all woommeen, I loves to shop and compare. Not on this trip. <br><br>Definitely unplanned, we plunged straight forward and bought a timeshare at Caravanserai. The weather wasn't greath beach weather; it was cloudy. So we did the 'timeshare thing.' I prefer the French side; he prefers the Dutch side. I guess owning on the Dutch side is okay because it will now force us to get in the car and travel to all those places we haven't been to/done yet! Neither of us like elevators, so that ruled out a lot of places in the vicinity. The Caravanserai has a very small beach not worth mentioning, and the water looked a bit rough. If you own here, please send a PM. I used to correspond with 'John from MA' but John, I've lost your email address![img]/images/icons2/yikes.gif[/img][img]/images/icons2/yikes.gif[/img][img]/images/icons2/yikes.gif[/img]<br><br>Our life at home is stressed and busy, like all our lifes back home. Spending time away from family and work and commitments and the everyday crapola is what we look forward to -- a time to renew our love and friendship. <br><br>We celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary on January 22nd. Our pictures are posted at:<br><br> http://groups.msn.com/sxmphotos/PhotoAlbum<br><br>