First off, I just want to say that with the help from everyone on TTOL, we had a great time. We went to a few of the restaurants that were recommended and we were not disappointed. Again, we just want to give kudos to everyone. I copied this report from Word, so that's why I'm not using any hilights or characters. <br><br>Monday June 30th – Flight from St. Louis to Miami to SXM went with no problems (we used American). When we arrived in SXM, we were the only flight in at the time, so going through customs was a breeze. Craig (that’s his middle name, his first name is Bob), from Pack-light was waiting for us as was Value car rental (also may be known as Prestige). Craig went to the Value Car Rental lot where we picked up the two sand beach chairs and an umbrella. Craig is a fantastic guy. He’s from the Boston area and decided to move to SXM 8 years ago (I think it was 8 years ago). After we finished with Craig, we went through the paperwork for the rental car. We got a Toyota Corolla as I specified. It was in okay shape, which is fine for SXM. We were out of the car rental place in 5 minutes. After we got on Airport road (the main road), we stopped right away at the Atlantico French Pastry shop (I should have pics of the pastry shop posted in the future). We picked up a french baguette (to die for) and other various pastries (their chocolate croissants are unbelievable) for breakfast the next couple of days. We than resumed our drive to Princess Heights, which is located in the Dawn Beach Oyster Bay area, but we had to stop at Le Grande Market. Mark’s Place is located next to the market. Great grocery store. Good selection of fruits, cheeses and meats. After picking up the necessary items (beer and rum and fruit juices also), we started on our drive to Princess Heights. Got to the resort by 4:00 and checked in real quick. My wife got a big surprise when she opened the door to the room and saw the tropical flowers I had ordered for her via Saskia and Anju at Princess Heights. The flower arrangement was fantastic. It lasted all week. My wife enjoyed them everyday. Left the room to go to Mr. Busby’s for a quick dinner. We wanted to get there for happy hour drink specials. Was hoping to meet up with stix6729, but they didn’t show up, or they showed up after we left. We stayed till 7:30pm, but then we ran out of steam. Getting up at 3:30am to catch your flight rather sucks. The dinner at Mr. Busby’s was okay. It was not as good as our first time in October. Also, the Carib beers are now $1.00 (or was it $1.50, me no remember) during happy hour and I can’t remember how much during dinner. <br>Tuesday – Ate breakfast in the room from the pastries from Atlantico Pastry shop. We stopped at Belair Beach Hotel to put a deposit down for our snorkeling trip on Swaligia II. Met Lorna who is the Activities Director at Belair. She promotes Swaligia II from Belair. Her email address is : lorna@megatropic.com. She said that she has had a few folks now come to her that were recommended from TTOL. We talked with her for awhile and she made a few restaurant recommendations. All of the recommendations were also ones that were recommended on TTOL. Lorna is a very nice lady and very helpful. We than decided to trade in the rental car since it appeared to have problems going up a few of the hills. Value Car rental exchanged the car with another Toyota Corolla with no problem (I think this was the same car that we had last October, same license plate number with more miles on it). The car turned out to be a winner all week. This wasn’t an issue since we were going to Rouge Beach. Rouge Beach was crowded (crowded to us after Dawn and Plum). Very few topless sunbathers and no one was nude until very late in the day, and than it was on the left side of the beach, pretty far away from the rental chairs. Wife and I decided to walk the entire beach, all the way down to the rock cropping at the end of the beach where there are two huge gorgeous villas. Most of the beach is very rocky, but there are spots where the swimming is great. It was rough late in the day which was fun to have the waves crashing in on you. This was also my first experience on going au natural walking down the beach. We finally left Rouge Beach and the traffic on Airport Road going through Simpson bay was a total nightmare. This was around 4:00pm. We were backed up from a little after Hot Tomatoes all the way to the intersection where you either go to Marigot or Philipsburg. Once we got there, we had no more traffic problems. But this made us a little late to Hot Tomatoes. We made it to Hot Tomatoes around 7:30. Brad showed us to our table and I asked if any other TTOL’ers were there. He said a few were there, but they left already. Brad said that he missed having Dicky their for the parties, but that he we really try to keep them going since he thinks it’s a great idea. A few minutes later, a couple came by (I have forgotten there names already) and said the Brad sent them over since they also very TTOL’ers. We talked for awhile and then they went off to one of the casinos. We told them about the July 4th party at Baywatch and they said that they would try to make it. We ordered our food. It was great. My wife ordered the Strongmans’ pizza, it was excellent. I had the special seafood pasta. The noodles were cooked to al dente. Service was good also. Would recommend Hot Tomatoes to anyone. Great place. After dinner, my wife and I drove back to the hotel and crashed. The sand just pooped us out.<br><br>Wednesday – Got up early to take pictures of the sunrise. Great morning. Then went to Les Tartines D’Elodie Bakery in the Oyster Pond area. Bought a french baguette and two chocolate croissants. These were okay, but were not as good as Atlantico’s. After eating breakfast, we headed off to Prune Beach. Coming from Philipsburg, there isn’t a sing on the road for Prune Bay, but there is a sign for Falaise des Oiseaux. You make a left hand turn into the street. As soon as you enter here, there are two roads, one to the left and the other on the right. We took the road on the right which has numerous speed bumps on it, but it is paved. There are villas on both sides of this road. Follow this road for about 2 ½ miles and than the road will become a gravel road. As soon as the road becomes gravel, the parking area is on the right hand side. If you are coming from Marigot, there is a sign for Prune Bay, but there isn’t a sign for Falaise des Oiseaux. There were a few couples on the beach when we arrived and we decided to stay on the right hand side of the beach (closest to the rocks). There were folks snorkeling by the rocks. In fact, a few small boats would come in and also have people snorkel in the area. A few of the women were topless, but no one was going nude. I decided to sunbath here in the nude. No one cared. A little later in the day, another couple on the left hand side of the beach were going nude. I decided to walk Prune Beach (decided to do this walk nude, since no one was on the beach). If you walk the whole length of the beach, to the point, you will eventually walk into Long Beach. Where these two beaches meet the water and view is unbelievable. It is a long walk, but it was worth it. From this point, you can see Cupecoy Beach also. After staying all day at Prune Beach, we stopped at Mark’s Place to pick up some vittles. Ordered the chicken and rib plate. While waiting for our food, we talked with Mark. Mark is a nice guy. Mark says that business is finally getting back to what it was when he was in Marigot. He decided to make the change after Hurricane Louis wiped him out in 1995. He had just left SXM 3 days before the hurricane hit. If he would have known how bad it was, he said he would never have left. It took him over 7 days to get back to the island. He had some interesting stories. The baby back ribs were fantastic. The meat just fell off of the bones. The chicken was the same way. Great food. And they give you a lot. The restaurant does not feel like it is in a parking lot because of the awning he has over the front of the place. We just stayed in the hotel room that night as the sun and sand wiped us out during the day.<br><br>Thursday – Ate Breakfast in the room. Left early for our Swaligia II snorkeling trip. This trip was worth every penny. Just fantastic. Captain Bruce was quiet on the trip, but he had a fantastic crew of two. The bartender/snack gal was fantastic. She knw how to treat the folks on the boat. The other guy who helped Captain Bruce and the bartender was also very good (He is from Southern California and is staying in SXM while his girlfriend is finishing medical school in SXM). We passed the Lamabada and the Heineken boats on our way to Pelican point on Anguilla. We snorkeled there for 1 hour. When we returned to the boat, we were served french bread, fresh fruit, pepperoni, cheese and snacks. We than left Pelican point and went to Prickly Pear. We first snorkeled for 1 hour and than had lunch at the restaurant that is located on the hill side. The food was good. And they gave you a lot. If you wanted to have lobster, you could have it ordered early when you first registered for the trip. It was extra, but the folks who ordered it said it was very good. We than walked the beach at Prickly Pear and snorkeled a little more. Great snorkeling. We left Prickly Pear and headed off to Sandy Key. We snorkeled here for another hour. The snorkeling here was fantastic. My wife and I saw a school of orange fish and than a school of the blue fish. I don’t know the names of the fish, but it was great to see them as a big group. When you returned back to the boat, they again served french bread, pepperoni, cheese, fresh fruit and snacks. Finally we were done snorkeling and were on the way back home. Again, we passed both the Lambada and Heineken boats. The Swaligia II was doing 25 mph (or is it knots) the whole way. The channel between Anguilla and St. Martin was a blast. We were hitting the waves pretty good. If you get a little sea sick, I would recommend taking sea sickness pills. But the snorkeling trip on board Swaligia II is worth every penny. It was great. I look forward to using Captain Bruce again when we return. We had dinner at the Greenhouse. We got there in time for the happy hour specials. Appetizers are $3.00 off and you get 2 for 1 drinks. Boy, 6 rums drinks in 1 hour 15 minutes can get you going. The appetizers were very good. We decided to order two small entrees. We thought they would be small. Boy, we were wrong. One entrée would have been enough. The food was excellent. Would return here again when we return to SXM. Right before we ordered the food, there was a rainshower that forced us into the restaurant. It only lasted a few minutes.<br><br>Friday – Returned to Atlantico Pastry for more goodies. Went shopping finally in Philipsburg. Met Deepti and Jeff. They are the nicest folks that you would want to meet. I bought a gold necklace from Jeff before Deepti showed up. Deepti than showed a few things to my wife. We didn’t buy anything this day, but did return the next day. They gave us complimentary drinks even before we were buying. There was a boat in town that day, but Deepti still spent her time with us, even though one of her brothers had gone back to India for a wedding. The all couldn’t go since they didn’t want to close the store down. We couldn’t find Bedazzled, but than we really didn’t go furthur down the street from DK Gems. We stopped at Penha and bought some perfume. Looked and looked for the Carib beer place and no one could help us. Someone thought they could, but we ended up walking for nothing. We finally gave up and were walking down Front street and noticed down one of the small alleys or streets a Carib Beer sign. Finally found it. It was across the street from The Last Mango In Paradise where they rent beach chairs (It is on the same side of the street as the Guavaberry tasting place, but down towards the old courthouse). Picked up a few Carib beer things and they give you a free beer with your purchase. Had to also stop by the Guavaberry shop and pick up more rum for the trip home. The Rum Jumbie place was closed again. It was closed last October also when we were there. But maybe it doesn’t open till later in the day. By now, we were hot and tired, so we decided to get back to the hotel and hit Dawn Beach. We ate lunch in the room before going to Dawn Beach. The beach at Scavengers was crowded. More crowded than last October. At this point of the beach, there were no topless women and no one nude. But if you go to the end of the beach, towards the rocks, that is very there were a few topless women and a few nude folks. We stayed right after the sand volleyball area. I decided to sunbath au natural here also. No one said anything. Even though a few folks looked surprised to see someone nude on the beach. But what the heck. We finally decided it was time to get back to the room so that we could get to Baywatch for the July 4th party. We arrived at 4:45 at the party. We meet Larry and a few other TTOL’ers (Dave and Jan(?) BeachBum was also there. Met Andy serving the food. Cheryl was off in New Jersey because of her mother. It looked like Andy had his hands full with the crowd. The hamburgers were great. He was serving all you can eat hamburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob and watermelon for $10. That was a great deal. The place was a hopping since the folks who had the parade on the beach were there. We missed the parade. They were not feeling any pain. It was fun just watching them all. We also again met the couple we met at Hot Tomatoes. They found Baywatch. We decided to leave Baywatch at 6:00. I do have to say, someone said that the road by Dawn Beach, after Scavengers is the worst road on the island. Well, I would have to put the road to Baywatch or Orient Resort is not that far behind. This road was a mess. I couldn’t believe it. At least the road at Dawn Beach is only bad for a very short piece, but the road at Orient is a little longer and the potholes compete pretty good with the ones at Dawn Beach. We stopped at Poulet D’ Orleans. We were the first diners for the evening. In fact, only one other couple showed up, right after we had placed our order. Since I had eaten at Baywatch, my wife and I just shared an entrée. We had the house salad and the chicken creole dinner. The salad was great. And the chicken creole was great. Recommend this to anyone. After dinner, the owner started to talk to us. He loved to talk about his island. He says that business has been bad since 9/11. It hasn’t picked up yet. He is hoping it does pretty quick, because he isn’t to sure how much longer he can stay like this. It is a shame. We passed the restaurant on Saturday night, and there wasn’t one diner at the place. When we passed it on the way home, he had closed the place early. That is a real shame because the food is good. He did say that his business has gotten better because of the TV show that he was on, but that it still is not up to the pre 9/11 days. He is a great guy. Did not feel like driving to Hot Tomatoes for the Bulldog party. We were wiped.<br><br>Saturday – A storm shower woke me up at 5:00am, so I had to close the bedroom’s balcony doors. It was raining into the room. Ate breakfast in the room. Have you noticed the trend here? Another day on the beach..again to Plum Beach..on the way, my wife finally decided that she would like to purchase the ring from Deepti. So, we stopped at Deepti’s place with our beach wear on. Deepti and Jeff were great again. Deepti showed us a few other pieces that would go with my wifes ring so that in the future I could just email her and purchase them online. They sized the ring and told us we could come back later in the day to pick up the ring. So, with the complimentary Heineken in hand, we decided to do some shopping at the Last Mango in Paradise and at a shop called the Boardwalk. The lady who owns this shop remembered my wife from last year. We purchased an earring from her and a 2004 SXM calendar. Than we were off to Marigot to find a french pharmacy. Needed to buy Biafine. Contessa has been talking about this stuff, so I wanted to buy some of it. They didn’t have mosquito milk, but she knew about it and actually recommended something else. We used it that night and it did keep the mosquito’s away. And it doesn’t smell bad either. With that out of the way, now we were on our way to the beach. We decided on Plum beach again. This time, the beach was more empty. There were maybe 3 other couples on the beach. This time we stayed on the left hand side of the beach (as you are walking to the beach area). We stayed closer to the first villa. Boy is that a nice villa. Met a couple from Nashville. She has been on the TTOL website, but is not registered. She says that she just loves the information on the site. They were staying at the Ocean Resort, but loved Prune Beach. He says that they are at Prune Beach everyday while at SXM for 14 days. He says that they have been coming to SXM for over 10 years and love it. There are trying to get rid of their timeshare in St. Thomas and Florida. They just want to stay in SXM. I also went CO here. As the day went on, more people showed up, but no one seemed to care that I was CO. A few women were topless, but no one else was CO. We finally left Prune beach around 4:30 so that we could return to Deepti’s to pick up my wife’s ring. Than off to the hotel and dinner in Grand Case. We decided on La California. The atmosphere was great. It was romantic looking over the water to Anguilla. We also had a rain shower here while eating, but we were under cover. So, that was nice. The food and service was excellent. The best we had so for. (Hot Tomatoes very close). Entrees were priced between $16 to $24. There may have been a couple over $24. We had one of there desserts and it was unbelievable. This is a definite must for anyone.<br><br>Sunday – We again had breakfast in the room. I went for a walk through the Dawn Beach Estates. Three new houses are being built at the end of Dawn Beach. They look like they are going to be pretty nice. Found out one of them is being built by Emil Lee’s construction company. (Emil Lee owns Princess Heights). Today is the day for Orient Beach. Took the road through Oyster Pond and stopped at Lucas Bay for shell searching. Found a few neat looking sea shells. After a little under a hour of shell searching, we decided to start off for Orient Beach. I decided that we should stay by the Rock which is located to the left of Coco Beach. As you get closer to the rock by Coco beach, that is where the CO folks are it. We found a pretty nice spot to ourselves, and cleaned out some of the seaweed from the area. Than off into the water. Here, I went CO the whole time. It was a lot of fun. The waves were a crashing and it was a little windy, but not as bad as Dawn. We saw one of groups from Baywatch come walking down the beach. They of course were also nude. That is one thing I do like about Orient Beach. No one cares. Stayed all day and loved every minute. But, if you like to swim, than Prune Beach is the place to go. If you like to ride the waves and eat a little sand, than Orient or Dawn is the place to go. We wanted to see one sunset so we left Orient in time to change and head on out to Sunset Beach Bar. But, with our luck, that was the night that the policeman died from his motorcycle accident. We went to Buccaneer Bar, but stayed in the parking area down from the bar. Met a couple on the parking lot and talked with them for awhile. Forgot where they were from. Nice folks. First time to SXM and they loved it. They are looking forward to returning in the future. There was no sunset tonight. It was cloudy. We decided to go to Peg Leg’s Pub, but alas, it was closed. Traffic was a joke again on the road. Since we knew the road was closed at the airport, Uncle Harry’s was out also. So, we went back to Hot Tomatoes. The place as hopping. The food again was great. Service was also good. There was a gentleman playing steel drums first and than after a short break, he was playing guitar. He was good. Brad was off tonite so I couldn’t talk to him. After dinner, we crashed at the hotel. <br><br>Monday – Last day in paradise. Again, ate breakfast in the room. My wife and I decided to take our last walk on Dawn Beach. We were surprised. It looked like Dawn Beach lost between 1 to 2 feet of its beach from Friday. They waves were huge. If you like to body surf, they would have been great. Stayed on the beach for one hour and than back to the hotel. While my wife was packing I had to go back to Deepti’s because there was a something that needed to be done to my wife’s ring. Deepti and Jeff apologized and said the problem would be fixed by the time we came back, which was going to be around 11:30. When I returned to the hotel, my wife was about done packing. I checked ourselves out and talked with Anju and Saskia. They are so nice. We finally left the hotel at 11:00. Stopped at Deepti’s and picked up the ring. Then off to drop off our luggage early. My wife was the only person in line and by the time I got to the service counter, there were about 5 other couples in line. Perfect timing. The service counter person was a little perturbed that my wife was in line without her husband, but she was still professional. We had no problems with the luggage. No checking was done. Paid our departure tax and off we went to Sunset Beach Bar. We were there a little before noon and stayed till 1:00pm. We actually saw our plane coming in and hopefully have a great picture of this. Had my free Presidente’ from a coupon in one of the books and than another Carib. It was great sitting in the patio area watching the planes coming in. Left at 1:00 to meet Craig from Pack-light at the Yummi Terrace. Craig was waiting for us and told us that they were getting new beach chairs next week. I old Craig that even though they were a little beaten up, they served us real good. I would say they saved us over $100 for the week. (Even though at prune beach, there are no rental chairs). From here, we went back to Value Car Rental and dropped off the car. We were out of there in under 5 minutes. They drove us to the airport and we were at our gate at 1:30. We did have one problem. At the X-ray machine, my wife lost her watch. The man at the end of the machine kept asking my wife if she did put her watch in the basket. My wife kept telling him that he did. They finally stopped the machine after two more passengers went by. We still didn’t find my wife’s watch in any of the baskets. That is one of the lady’s found the watch inside the X-ray machine. It had somehow fallen out of the basket. She had to crawl a little ways into the machine to get it. We thanked her and everyone just smiled that we got the watch back. We made our last homemade lunch with a fresh french baguette from Atlantico. Boy, those French baguette’s are just wonderful. I am going to miss them. Our flight home was uneventful. Had no problems going through customs in Miami. When we arrived in St. Louis, we noticed that they had searched one of our luggage’s. They put a cable tie back on the piece and they left a note in the luggage that it was checked. This was the piece where we had the Rum Jumbies in. <br><br>So, we had a great time in SXM. Better than the first time. It just went way to fast. One thing that I did everyday, except the first day, was to listen to Bulldog when we finally woke up. I had to put our little clock radio on top of a chair next to standing light with the cord wrapped around the light to be able to pick up Laser 101. Our favorite radio station, after Bulldog’s show is Island 92. It actually is 91.9. Island 92 plays old rock, blues, and some new rock. They are a great station (It appears they are trying to also stream their radio station via the internet). I wish we had one of these in St. Louis. I love their music mix. We also listened to stations 95.5, 103.3 and 107.5. These played either Soca or Reagge. I think two of them or all three are from Anguilla. It was great to listen to island music while in SXM. <br><br>Didn’t make it to Ms. Busby’s. This is the second time that we didn’t make it here. Also, didn’t make it to Scavengers. My wife thinks its funny because we stay at Princess Heights, but only go to the beach early in the morning are late in the evening. Otherwise, we go to all of the other beaches. But, we do love Princess Heights. It so quiet and romantic. And, Emil Lee is now selling certain rooms. You purchase the room like you do a condo and than they rent it out just like they normally would. They of course, get a certain percentage of the rate. If you have the cash sitting around, it doesn’t look like a bad deal. <br><br>Well, that a long enough trip report. We will hopefully have some pictures posted soon. I will drop a note when I post them on the SXM picture site.<br><br>Cindy and Dave<br><br>Waiting for the next time to SXM.