Snowmobiling in Paul Bunyan State Park on Jan 30th, heading to SXM on Feb 6th. Hmmm.............both fun but SXM wins this contest.
GETTING THERE: Thankfully, Sun Country started flying charters to St Martin in 2004. Non-stop down, 1 stop back for $550. Some people don't like charter flights, but it works great for us.
CAR RENTAL: Called Kenny's 2 months prior to trip and he was already booked up. Marius from St Louis gave us a good rate on a Toyota Corolla. He met us in the airport lot on time. He had a new jeep for us, and exchanged it the next day at our hotel with a new kia cerrato. Both rented for more than he quoted us, but he honored his original price. These guys do a lot on trust and it's pretty informal, but it works and we would use Marius again.
LODGING: We stayed at Palm Court-Orient Beach and were very satisfied. There have been numerous posts about L' Hoste, Palm Court etc. L'Hoste and Cap Caraibes are both $1,000/week higher than Palm Court and St. Tropez is $570 higher per week. For a little less paint, no breakfast, no VCR and 100 yards further to the beach, Palm Court gets our vote. Cecile Lucidarme is a delightful manager. When not at Palm Court, she and her husband are sailing/windsurfing instructors.
SUPERMARKETS: Ram's seemed to be slightly cheaper than Grand Marche but Grand Marche is a nicer store with better selection (our opinion).
RESTAURANTS:
Breakfasts: Le Fish Bar/Orient Village, very adequate, opens early, 7 a.m.
Baywatch: hard to beat the setting and ambience.
Zee Best/Marigo: great pastries, too bad it's on such a busy street.
Barefoot Terrace near the small pier in Philipsburg: nice, quiet place with a great view, go early on a low cruise ship day. very nice breakfasts with juice, coffee and tips for $6. lots of locals eating there.
Bikini Beach: Our only negative experience all week. Waited for 15 minutes to be waited on (place was nearly empty). When I asked for a menu the waitress was very rude. She took our coffee order and went back to cleaning tables before she turned in our order. 45 minutes later we had our breakfast but I still hadn't gotten my coffee and I was damned if I was going to ask for it. I pointed it out when we left and she was mad I hadn't told her. This could be an isolated incident, but they obviously didn't need or want our business.
LUNCH:
Baywatch: the best! mussels, grouper, cod, and margarita shrimp all great! Andy, Adrian and Cheryl are all so friendly.
Ms. B's: best ribs on the island! love that place...the ribs are so finger-licking good that Norm noticed I was having a hard time hanging on to my beer bottle in the midst of devouring my ribs. Waitress Amanda is delightful.
Rib Shack/lolos--Grand Case: great food, slightly higher priced than Talk of the Town, but being right on the water is worth it.
Lido: What obscene portions for $6.00!!
DINNER:
Peg Leg Pub: The filet was every bit as good as everyone said, the broiled shrimp were below average. Waitress Patricia was great and got us a table outside which was quieter. We got to watch the Pub Crawl people board their vessel. No one drowned--at least not that anyone noticed. LOL
Mark's Place: Susan loved the ribs, slow-cooked style with sauce. Grouper was fantastic, large portion, lightly breaded with a peppercorn garlic dipping sauce on the side. This plus salad, potato, vegetable, beer x 2, wine and tip for $35.00. Many locals eating there, we'll be back.
Talk of the Town: Went there for Harmony Nights and I'm suspicious that the ribs were cooked up ahead of time due to the large crowd. They were actually almost cold, the lobster was smaller than we are used to, but good. It was better at lunch. Still a great place.
L'Alabama: went for the early bird menu (order by 6:15) which is $36/per person...snails fricasse, french onion soup, red snapper, pork tenderloin, ice-cream filled pastries with chocolate sauce, rice pudding and 2 glasses of wine. It's a relatively modest way to enjoy a great restaurant with great service.

FUN STUFF:
Made it to the TTOL Super Bowl Party at SSBB. One hour and 15 minutes to go 18 miles to get there. The place was packed and noisy. We found Norm and met a few others but not the best scenario to meet people for the first time. Ran into Eric and Carol at the bar. We are glad we went.

Spent most of our time at Orient Beach/La Playa doing nothing--sand gravity--and it was wonderful. The weather was almost perfect most of the week and the sunrise walks on the beach were great.

Presented Andy with a license plate from the White Earth Band of Chippewa Indians in northern Minnesota. The reservation is located near the headwaters of the Mississippi. It's hard to find a plate he doesn't already have. He had it up in the ceiling 4 hours later when we came back for lunch.

Ran into Norm and Betty at Ms. B's for lunch and had a great visit, and also saw and visited with Eric and Carol at least three more times during the week. Met so many nice people wherever we went.

One trip to Front Street--picked up a few Hummels for our collection and finally met Deepti. Didn't buy anything from her this trip but what a pleasant lady.

Stopped at the casino a few brief times and came out in the black!!! We use the match play coupons and if you play blackjack properly it gives you an advantage over the house. One coupon/person/day.

Closed out the trip at the Baywatch party on Saturday night. I took a lot of anatomy and some art in college, but never realized how closely related they are. The Canadian Maple Leaf will never be the same in my mind. What a fun evening!

OBSERVATIONS:
More people, more traffic, more suicycles, more accidents, more kids, more dogs, more construction. None of which will keep us away, but we wonder where it all will end up.

This report got way too long, thanks again to all of you who made our trip so much more than it would have been without TTOL.. 355 days til we come back.
Bruce and Susan