This was our approx. 9th trip in about 12 years, but the first time we stayed (3 nights) on the Dutch side. Rented from St. Louis for the 1st time and Marius was there with a car right at the curb outside the terminal. He drove us about 30 seconds to Royal Turtle. Since we had to take a 6 AM flight from DC, we were very tired and quite happy not to have to drive halfway around the island this time. The first night we had a couple of drinks at Turtle Pier and basically crashed. Everyone connected with Turtle is very nice, the breakfast good and the animals interesting. For 2 days we had fun driving from place to place in Simpson Bay/Maho that used to be too much of a hassle (for us) to go to from the french side. Sunset beach bar, Peg Leg and one night just ate the ribs at Lido on a picnic table in their parking lot. The guy that runs the place is very nice, he sat and chatted with us for a while during a lull in the procession of folks coming to pick up ribs. we even liked being stopped when the bridge opened and watched the big boats going in. Beached at Mullet - never saw the parking lot so crowded before.
After 3 days we moved to one of the villas menorca in the Orient Beach complex. Liked that alot. we wouldn't have considered it but found out that one of the units has king beds, so that was perfect for us. Loved having a clothes washer also - no bag of dirty laundry to take back. Life slowed down for us at that point. I hate to admit this, but we ate at the townhouse most nights, either take-out or something we cooked ourselves, or just cheese and pate from Match. The older we get the less interested in driving at night to Grand Case or anywhere else - a couple of fogeys. One night we did walk over to Le Fish Bar and think it's a good value despite the euro bump. It was also nice to be able to walk over to Tap 5 for baguettes and croissants in the morning and to the DVD/internet shop to check email every couple of days. Was pretty windy many days on Orient, but all in all the weather wasn't too bad. Got some earrings from Deepti that she had special-ordered for me and she was even able to have them modified some while we were there. Thanks, Deepti!