We were in St. Martin for our 4th or 5th trip August 10-19, 2004. (How do you count?) The trip was So good, it's just too hard to get back into the real world.

We'll try to keep it short. Just highlights.

This was our first trip to St. Martin Without the kids in 20 years! We Really needed a vacation. We booked it all less than 3 weeks before we left. We tend to do things like this last minute.

American Airlines out of Newark, stop in San Juan both ways. Arrived about 10 minutes early each time, but upon arrival at SXM we realized we never got Customs forms on board the plane, so a bit of a delay there. Checked bags came out Fast at SXM, very impressive. Bags took forever back at Newark.

For the rental car, Lesley Bruce (bruce@sintmaarten.net) at Kenny's Car Rental Is The Man! The Best service, great price, wouldn't do it any other way. Thank you Sir.

We got a cell phone from Sharon Harris (queenofsxm2000@yahoo.com) to keep in touch with the kids. We picked it up from Sharon at the Royal Palm and just dropped it off at the front desk when we were leaving. Great deal. The only time we had no signal was during dinners in Grand Case, but didn't really want to be bothered there, and we had voice mail anyway. Besides, we always had to call the kids, they were having too much fun to call us!

After picking up our phone we made a stop at a little store in Simpson Bay to get a case of water and a case of Carib and in a few minutes we were on our way. Yes, one of the larger supermarkets would have had a better selection and perhaps lower prices, but our shopping list was short and we were more interested in the speed and convenience of the little store. It turned out to be a good idea.

Jim & Mary Rous at Caribbean Islands Travel Service (1-800-476-5849) made our resevation again, this time at Club Orient. We've been to St. Martin a few times before and stayed in a few nice places. We've always loved the beach at Club Orient the best. We knew we'd end up there anyway, so the "3 nights for the price of 2 Special" worked for us. We stayed at Club Orient for the first time. Now we're convinced, Club Orient is the place to stay. After all, it is the nicest beach on the island, and, well, it's Club Orient. We like it.

Check in was fast and easy. We had Mini-Suite #138 which we were very happy with. We put our water and beer in the fridge. Our meager valuables went into the safe. We set up our account at L'Orientique and stopped at the Perch to start our account for there and Papagayo.

We slid right onto lounge chairs on the beach at Club O and Boom, our first attack of Sand Gravity! Sand Gravity seems stronger on the Club O beach than anywhere else in the world and it would continue to dominate our days throughout our stay.

Well, that's almost it! Lots of Sand Gravity, ya know!


Ok, ok, let's see...


I did the morning walk to Mt. Vernon for sunrise everyday except one. Pam made it about half the time. (She sometimes had Mattress Gravity!)

We had dinner at Papagayo a few more times than we had planned, but you see, we were already there, with all that Sand Gravity going on... Oh, well, it was good.

We got massages at Club O. Indescribable. We'll do that again.

We did the Tiko Tiko cruise again and it was great. We met some really nice folks and we're keeping in touch. We'll see them again. One of the guys brought some of that Tintamarre mud back and eleven of us did the mud thing again on the Club O beach the next day. Covering each other in mud and then parading along the beach definitely draws attention!

Oh, here's some almost devastating news. There was a major problem going on which we think included some kind of strike or something, but whatever the cause there was no Carib beer getting to the island! Can you imagine St. Martin with no Carib? Even Baywatch had no Carib during most of our stay. We found out we were So lucky to have found a case of it in that little store in Simpson Bay when we came in. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Cheers.gif" alt="" />

Andy & Cheryl at Baywatch are the Best! We love them! Did you know they're finally newlyweds? The food is fantastic. It's our favorite place for breakfast and lunch and it's nice to see our license plates are still there!

Awesome steak at Peg Leg Pub on TTOL night where we met TTOLers Don & Gloria. They were also staying in a Mini-Suite at Club O. We would continue to enjoy their company throughout the week. Nice folks. Hi guys!

We love Il Nettuno in Grand Case. The evening's entertainment was a terrific rainstorm, but we didn't get wet. Oh, we ran into Don & Gloria there again! Small island!

We really like going to Talk of the Town Too!

Johnny B was never there Under The Tree for me. It was closed every time we passed.

We went to Dawn Beach where we found out Ms. B's does not serve food on Saturdays. So we settled for ribs and $0.75 Caribs at Mr. Busby's. They had Carib!

Happy Bay is still gorgeous. Love that place!

Cupecoy is still beautiful with more sand than in previous years, but still not like it used to be way back when.

We checked out the Cliffhanger Beach Bar for some drinks, then we walked down to the beach and around some rocks to the east and rediscovered a cave we found 20 years ago on our first trip to the island. Cupecoy has changed so much over the years. That cave and the cliff there used to have 100 yards of sand in front of it!

We did some shopping in Marigot and we did some shopping in Philipsburg. We used to shop at Boolchands but they weren't very nice this time so we won't go back there. The same with Shivas. However, DK Gems is a Very nice place to shop. Everyone was wonderful, especially Charlotte. Yes, we bought some stuff there all right! Thank you very much.

Front Street is all torn up under construction. It's a beautification project that should be finished before the high season, but right now it's a mess. Watch your step! The new promenade/boardwalk area on the beach side is very nice.

Yeah, there were things we meant to do, but didn't get to. Too much Sand Gravity. Oh, well, just gotta go back!

We've been home about 11 days now. Still daydreaming about St. Martin.

Oh, I just called Mary at Caribbean Islands Travel Service and booked Club Orient for next year. I couldn't wait any longer. I needed the Countdown. 343 days to go! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Banana.gif" alt="" />


See you in Paradise,


Bob & Pam