Trip Report – Club Orient – May 15-25, 2003<br><br>This was our fifth time on island and our fourth stay at Club Orient. We had a wonderful vacation and returned home refreshed and renewed. Looking back, the absolute best part has to be the friendship and companionship of all the wonderful friends (old and new) we were able to spend a wondrous ten days with.<br><br>May 15th – Thursday. Ron & Beth pulled up at 4:30 AM and parked their car in our driveway. We all piled into our Blazer and headed up the road to BWI just after 5 AM, arriving about 6 for a 7:40 departure on US Airways to Charlotte. Easy plane change at CLT and then off to SXM on a 2/3 full 757. We arrived about 20 minutes late, just after Air Fence had dumped a full A400 load of passengers into the immigration line at Princess Juliana. Oh, well, we were at least on-island.<br><br>About 40 minutes later we had cleared the airport and picked up a new Nissan Sentra (white, of course) from Hertz and were headed clockwise around the island to Club Orient. We checked in to our mini-suites, got rid of unnecessary fabric items, and headed out to the beach around 4:30 PM. AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!<br><br>No sign of John & Toddy on the beach so Linda & Beth volunteered to keep a lookout at Papagayo while Ron & I picked up our credit cards to open our accounts back at the mini-suites. As we walked through the studio area there they were: John & Toddy and Jim & Carmen! After happy hour John & Toddy headed off to Maho to try their luck at a Casino and we four Marylanders just stayed at Papagayo for dinner and the entertainment. Linda & I each had the evening’s special of a “Shark & Mussels Stew” and really enjoyed it. With a goat cheese salad to share the tab came to $38 for the two of us. Entertainment that night was a horn player with an electronic “rhythm/percussion box” for accompaniment and he was really good, reminding us of Kenny G. We danced to several of his tunes before heading off, exhausted, for a good night’s sleep around 9 PM afer a very long day.<br><br>May 16th – Friday. Beach day. Breakfast in our room. Hung my TTOL flag and a green Nautical Naturist burgee between the umbrella and my beach chair and just hung on the beach with John & Toddy, Ron & Beth, Frank & Anna, and Jim & Carmen. This was the first time we had met Frank & Anna and within minutes were “old friends”. “Gamecock” (Merwyn & Shirley) dropped by when they saw our TTOL flag and said “Hi”.<br><br>Lunch at Baywatch, setting a trend for the week. I had Mussels a’la Andy and Linda had the fish & chips – both were outstanding! Back to the beach for the afternoon.<br><br>Anna & Frank hosted a pre-dinner cocktail party at their room in the Esplanade in Grand Case for those of us who were together on the beach that day and were excellent hosts. We also met Larry & Terri (SXM_couple) there and we watched the sunset from Anna & Frank’s balcony. L & T went off to a prior engagement and we five remaining couples inflicted ourselves on Le Reparie du Pirate in Grand Case. Linda and I shared a rib steak and a calamari dish with a goat cheese salad to start. The Pirate was pretty busy that evening so Frank unselfishly volunteered to help poor overworked Marcel with the after-dinner duties. The “Mort” flowed freely from that old blue enamel coffee pot that night! Total bill for Linda & I was $54.<br><br>May 17th – Saturday. Breakfast in our room. Rain was threatening so I dropped Linda & Beth off on Front Street for some “retail therapy”. I stopped at the True Value hardware store on the west side of the salt pond and picked up a six foot length of 1” dowel to make an impromptu TTOL flag pole. The store had no screw eyes so I uses a pair of brass cup hooks as alternates. The pole served well the rest of the week and held fast with the bottom foot buried in a hand-dug hole in the sand. Andy and Cheryl have the pole at Baywatch and will loan it to TTOLers for the duration of their stays as long as you fly the flag and return the pole at the end of your visit.<br><br>Linda and Beth returned around lunchtime….about the same time Jim & Adean motored back to the beach from their rented catamaran. After “meeting” on TTOL it was fun to actually see the folks we had been sharing information about St. martin with! We all headed back to Baywatch where I had the Margarita Buffalo Shrimp (yum!) and Linda a cheeseburger. The rains started in earnest after lunch as Jim & Adean headed off to a more sheltered anchorage, so the rest of us held an informal TTOL get-together in John & Toddy’s studio. Dinner was at Papagayo that night, with the Prime Rib special being the meal of choice. This was Karaoke and Dance night and it was a full house. Our table for eight on the patio grew to 6 couples, with Merwyn and Shirley joining us for dinner and Jim & Carmen showing up for desert and dancing. The three waiters really hustled and service was actually very prompt and good. We danced and danced while the wind blew strong and the rain poured down outside. When the band quit around 10:30 there was some commotion going on with the guards headed out to the beach with big flashlights, but we were tired and headed to bed.<br><br>May 18th – Sunday. Breakfast at Baywatch…with the sailing vessel Realite beached in front of the restaurant! A pin had snapped in the previous night’s storm and she had drifted ashore, scraping her hull on the reef enroute. Sad. It would be five days before she was freed and towed to Bobby’s marina, a total loss for insurance purposes. Beach again in the morning, with our numbers sadly diminished by the departure of Frank & Anna, and then on to Baywatch for lunch and John’s TTOL get-together. Bill had a Garlic Scallop Caesar and Linda a Grouper Sandwich, both excellent. In addition to the “beach eight” Nan (nan2sxm) and Jack showed up with friends Bill & Cathy. Presto: more instant friends!<br><br>Linda & I had brought some frozen Porterhouse steaks with us from Maryland, so that night the “beach eight” dined at mini-suite 137. We started two grills and dry marinated the steaks with Season-All, Garlic Salt, and Montreal Steak Seasoning for an hour before grilling to medium rare. The gang brought salad, potatoes for baking and veggies along with wine and ma doudou. Etna ice cream sundaes with ma doudou as a topping completed the meal.<br><br>Monday - May 19th. Linda fixed an Atkins-friendly breakfast of bacon and eggs for me in the mini-suite and I checked out the beach to find the S/V Christina beached in front of the Perch! We all looked at it and then started a small mass exodus to Front Street. Linda, Toddy, Carmen and Beth went shopping while Jim, John and I lost again in the Casino and Ron held down the beach back at Club O. Lunch at Papagayo since Baywatch was closed. Linda’s Club Orient sandwich was good, but the Calamari Romano wasn’t what I was expecting and I had to remove the thick breading to make it Atkins-friendlier. More beach time in the afternoon, with Diane (MyPearly) and Tim (timo) spotting the flag and joining us on the beach.<br><br>That evening we recognized that Monday is a “slow night” for restaurants but we didn’t realize how slow. Portofino’s kitchen was closed….Calamos Café was closed…so we took a blind chance and wandered into Les Brasseries des Isles. WOW! What a find! Great food, excellent service, and low prices! Linda started with a Caesar Salad and I started with the Goat Cheese salad. Each came on a 12” plate that overflowed! My entrée was a Fricassee of Sea Scallops and Jumbo Shrimp that was wonderful and Linda had a pasta carbonara dish that was made with a LOT of Panchetta and a sauce to die for. We split a Crème Brulet and Linda had a glass of wine to go with our big bottle of water. Total for the two of us was $43!!!<br><br>Tuesday – May 20th. Tiko Tiko day. John & Toddy joined us for our third trip (their eighth!). We also met Frank & Linda, Bob &Marti, and Bruce & Dana. A wonderful day…see John’s trip report for details on the triple mud bath. We also explored the island and found the remnants of a “beach bar” over on the side facing St. Barths in a small cove. I’ll post a photo of the “menu board” next week. <br><br>Returning to Club O around 5 pm, John & Toddy & Linda & I dressed and headed off to Hot Tomatoes for Dicky’s TTOL get together. Dicky was a gracious and attentive host, low key and an absolute delight to meet. Frank was his usual charming self and we met Ed and Sandra whose excellent aerial photography keeps us going between trips to St. Martin. Diane & Tim joined us as well as another TTOL poster whose nickname I forgot to write down (sorry). Diamond Princess Deepti and Jeff showed up after work to round out the group and it was a great time. Around 8 pm we excused ourselves as the “Tintamare sunburn” was starting to make wearing clothes uncomfortable. Back to Club O, exchanging clothing for Aloe Vera lotion. I had fish stew at Papagayo while the others enjoyed cheeseburgers in paradise.<br><br>Wednesday – May 21st. Market Day in Marigot! Ron & Beth joined Linda & I and we headed out for an early breakfast at Zee Best. Partway through the meal Walt and Roberta, who we had met a couple days earlier when they spotted our TTOL flag, sat down at a nearby table. We had a good time shopping, especially in the open air market. We wandered down to the food stalls and picked up Papaya and Mango for future breakfasts and then wandered over to the West Indies Mall to find restrooms before the drive back to Club Orient. WOW! Those were the fanciest restrooms we’d ever been in! The décor in the mall is worth the visit alone, even if you don’t even enter the shops.<br><br>Back to Baywatch for lunch (notice a trend here?) with Bill getting Mussels and Linda a Chicken Philly Cheesesteak. YUM! After spending the afternoon on the beach we spent a half hour at the wine and cheese party before heading over to the Dolphin Casino with John & Toddy, Jim & Carmen and Ron & Beth. After about an hour we had contributed about $40 to the island economy so we all decided to get some food….just as the rains started to come down heavily.<br><br>We decided to head to Peg Leg’s Pub, arriving around 8:15 for a late (for us) dinner. Sean set us up at a table for eight. Drinks came fairly quickly and we ordered meals ranging from shared nachos to my Filet and Linda’s Shrimp Caesar Salad. The food came within 15 minutes of placing our orders and was wonderfully delicious. I must agree that PLP has the best steak on the island! It was melt-in-your-mouth tender and very well seasoned. A great meal with great service!<br><br>Thursday – May 22nd. Breakfast in our mini-suite and then off to Front Street to introduce Bruce and Dana to shopping on the Dutch side. Bruce may never forgive me! Our first stop was at DK Gems and Jeff looked right after us. Deepti was off getting ready for her vacation in the U.S., but she also dropped in for a few minutes and made sure we were being well cared for and given the “TTOL Family Price”. I got off easy with “just” an emerald bracelet for Linda. As I said earlier, Bruce may NEVER forgive me….!<br><br>We left Bruce & Dana still shopping and returned to Club Orient where we had a quick lunch in our unit and then back onto the beach. Nan, Jack, Cathy & Bill were there and gave us directions to Maison du Miki on Mourne Rouge in Terres Basses. We showed up around 5:30 at their Villa for cocktails and munchies and to watch the sunset. WOW, what a great Villa! It is high on a hill overlooking Simpson Bay from the west. And Nan & Jack & Cathy & Bill were outstanding hosts! A great TTOL get together. After sunset we bid adieu and the eight of us (John & Toddy, Bruce & Dana, Ron & Beth and Linda & I) went to Poulet d’Orleans. We were the only guests and sat on the porch while Dad both waited on our table and cooked our meals (the boys were elsewhere that evening). Linda and I had the Creole Chicken and it was fall-off-the-bone tender and delicious (well spiced but not “hot”).<br><br>Friday – May 23rd. Breakfast in, beach in the morning with some light rain drifting through as Jim and Carmen head home. Lunch (where else?) at Baywatch where Linda had Eggplant Parmigana and I had the ribs. Delicious as always. It cleared in the afternoon and was a great beach day, if windy. Dinner was at Bistrot Caribes in Grand Case with the same crew as Thursday evening. The service, setting and company were outstanding. Linda’s red snapper special, unfortunately, was not completely deboned as promised but had lots of bones left in, and even had quite a few scales left on the skin. My “fisherman’s platter Bouillabaisse style” was good but mainly consisted of fish with one scallop and one shrimp…and the sauce was sorta bland and not redolent of herbs de provance as expected. We didn’t complain, not wanting to mess up the flow of the meal, and focused on enjoying the outstanding camaraderie and friendship at our table.<br><br>Saturday – May 24th. John & Toddy have left for their morning departure and our numbers have dwindled. A last beach day. Today’s Baywatch lunch was Chicken Parmesan for Bill and Beer Battered Scallops for Linda. The team from Lagoon Divers provided the entertainment for the afternoon, finally freeing “Christina” from the sand and towing her out to her mooring buoy with no apparent damage. I grilled the last two porterhouse steaks at the mini-suite that evening for Ron & Beth and Linda & I and then we went to Papagayo for the dance , with Dana and Bruce joining us after their dinner at Brasserie des Isles. (Which they loved).<br><br>Sunday – My 25th. Beach time in the morning and then depart by 10:45 to check in to out US air flights at 11:30…and NO LINES! We were at SSBB having lunch and watching the planes land and eating burgers and ribs by noon! Returned at 2:30 for Ron & Beth’s 3:50 departure for Charlotte, dropped off the car at Hertz and returned to and find no lines at security! Since out flight was an hour later and the waiting room was crowded Linda & I chose to pay the $20 pp fee and wait upstairs in the “business class” lounge. GREAT IDEA! Free coffee, tea, soft drinks and wine, free hot & cold hours d’ouvres, quiet, and very well air conditioned. <br><br>Our flight to Philly departed 10 minutes early and arrived 15 minutes early…and taxied right to the gate. Linda & I had carry-on only so we breezed right through Immigration & customs and had time to grab a snack on B concourse before catching our connection to BWI. Tim & Diane (timo & mypearly) were on the same flight, and report an HOUR wait for bags in customs….YUCK! Ron & Beth were waiting for us at BWI and we drove back to southern Maryland to end a wonderful 10 days in paradise! <br><br>If I had to pick one highlight for the entire trip from so many wonderful moments, it would have to be all the friends, both old and new, that we shared our vacation with this year. You truly made this a “trip to remember”!<br><br><br><br>