I have been on TTOL for months before my trip, so here is my report that I hope can help some people out. A bit of stats, I am 36 and my wife is 35. We have two young sons (6 and 8) who were not with us, as we were celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary. At first I was going to book my stay on the Dutch side of the island at the Sapphire Beach Club" where we had a nice stay back in 2001, but chose to stay on the French side after reading all of the positive things about the Grand Case Beach Club. (more on that later) When we were talking about the kind of vacation we had in mind, we thought this trip would be about spending five relaxing nights being alone with one another instead of our yearly cruise with our boys where we end up staying out late and needing a week off after the cruise to recover! I had the feeling that staying down by Maho would be too tempting to staying out gambling all night. We flew out of Newark on Continental with no problems at all and were met by a staff member from Best Deal car rental. Very fast and not a bad price (25.00 per day) and the car was clean and fine for the two of us. We had lunch at the hotel at the Sunset Cafe. Mussels were very good, as was the stuffed crab. Not a bad place for lunch in the rain. Thursday night was spent at Le Cottage. EXCELLENT food at a very good price. The four course lobster meal for $49.00 cannot be beat!! They do the dollar for dollar with the Euro if you pay cash. Woke to the sound of more rain, and went to La California for lunch, excellent seafood salad with lobster, scallops and shrimp and they also did the dollar for dollar conversion. I had made the mistake of blowing $20.00 for "The Value Guide to St. Martin" before the trip. This book is outdated and not worth the money, but they did have a coupon for a bottle of wine with lunch or dinner. I am not sure if the waiter understood the coupon and we did have to pay for the wine, but he took 10% off the bill (about six bucks) no big deal, and a nice place to dine. We then took the trip to Pinel Island in the rain. The rain stopped and we were able to lay out for a few hours in the clouds. I noticed people smoking pot out in the open on the beach and asked our waiter what and if any, were the laws. He smiled and said "It is St. Martin, you can do what you want," so for anyone looking to take part in that activity I do not think you will have any problems. I was also asked by many locals if I needed anything at all they could help me out. I do not mind if people want to smoke, that is their decision. I personally do not smoke, but if you do, just ask around and I am sure you can find what you need without any problems or hassles. Friday night was spent at Le Pressoir (in the rain). On a side note the weather IS NOT ALWAYS LIKE THAT IN ST. MARTIN, in my six trips to the island this was the only time we saw rain. I am out of time, I still have to unpack, so I will try to finish this later with some photo's. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cloud.gif" alt="" />