Wow! It was hot!

Did we say above that it was HOT! This was the hottest that we have ever experienced on ST. Martin. Every day but one was sunny and the breezes were almost non-existent. Even local residents complained to us about how hot it was. Unfortunately, the one rainy day was a day that we had allocated for beach time on Orient. At least it kept us from getting too sunburned.

We normally go to St. Martin in June/July when we own weeks at Pelican Resort. This year, we caught wind of a great air fare sale from US Air last summer and booked a trip in March to introduce our son and his family to St. Martin.

Flights!

Our US Air flights were all on time, all luggage arrived with us, and we had generally comfortable flights.

After sweating bullets for months through the US Air bankruptcy proceedings and reports, we boarded US Air from Seattle on March 1 at 10 PM and after a four hour layover in Philadelphia, landed in St. Martin at 2:10 the following afternoon.

Our travel planning was a bit of an adventure because of the way we booked the trip. We bought our air tickets through Cheap Caribbean and were pleased with their initial service but that later transitioned into an inconvenient situation. A few months after we bought our tickets, I went to the Cheap Caribbean site and found a message that our flights had been changed. The schedule was no longer available on the Cheap Caribbean site and when I called them, they reported that I would need to review the flights and make any changes directly with US Air. We called US Air and arranged to make some changes as the revised flights were not very convenient. They made the changes and reported that I would be able to review them online but that they could send me no written confirmation. After trying for several days, I could never see them online. I called again and found that only half the flights had been booked and got that corrected, but still no online view.

After more calls, we were finally told that we could not see the itinerary online because it was booked through a third party. Cheap Caribbean said they could not see the new itinerary because it had been set up through US Air. US Air finally did send us an email copy of the flight schedule. I finally figured out that I could learn about any changes and review the status by calling the telephone service number and using the automated service to review seat assignments on the flights.

So, at 3:10 in the afternoon, we walked off the airplane at Princess Juliana Airport. We were traveling with our 2 ½ year old twin grandchildren along, so our progress off the plane and into the airport was a little slower than normal and we were nearly the first off the plane but also nearly the last in line at immigration. Our trip through Immigration and picking up our limited checked luggage went fairly quickly and smoothly.

Our flight home was equally smooth and comfortable. We met Gretchen and Leslie and Cole and Michaela in the waiting lounge to fly home. We had a 24 hour layover in Charlotte on the way home and took advantage of that to rent a car and introduce my son and his family to some cousins who live nearby, When it came time for the final flight home from Charlotte, we decided to celebrate our upcoming 35th anniversary by splurging the winnings from my good night at the Atlantis casino on a first class upgrade.

We grabbed our bags and quickly met Marius from St. Louis car rental to pick up our Kia Carnival mini-van. It held all six of us and barely held all of our luggage. At the end of the trip, Marius was there at the passenger drop off lane at the airport to pick up the car.

We stopped at the Royal Palm to pick up two cell phones from Sharon Harris…one for us and one for our son so we could coordinate our disparate activities on the Island.

Villa Matisse!

Then we headed for Orient Beach and Cap Cairibes Realty where we picked up the keys and met François who took us to Villa Matisse which would be our home for the next two weeks.

We booked Villa Matisse through Jim Ruos at Caribbean Travel Service after we had “found” it when we were on SXM last summer. Villa Matisse was a wonderful find. We normally travel as a couple and spend most of our time at our Time Share at Pelican resort. This trip, though, we had two adult couples and our 2 ½ year old twin grandchildren so we needed more space. Villa Matisse is a three story town house in a building with five units right behind Waikiki Beach Bar on Orient. The unit was very nice and well maintained. A real positive for us was a fully fenced and enclosed back yard with room for the kids to run and play without fear of them escaping. They enjoyed the occasional lizard, many butterflies and the outdoor shower.

The first floor of the villa contained the living room, dining room, spacious kitchen, a storage/laundry room and an entry hall. The kitchen was well appointed with appliances, blender, microwave, oven, stove, and refrigerator. The Dryer was at the end of the kitchen to vent outside and the washer in the inside storage room. The living room had a nice sized TV with VCR and satellite service with many channels, including HBO. The only negative on the TV was that it was a South/Central American feed with most of the local channels in Spanish, but many in English with Spanish sub-titles. Great for the kids shows since they are learning Spanish. It had only CNN International, BBC News and Bloomberg for financial with few American stock screens. The same satellite dish provided feeds to TV sets in each of the three bedrooms, but all had to watch the same channel. We never really used the bedroom TV sets.

The second floor had the two main bedrooms with nice attached baths and a small day room. Both bedrooms had attached balconies, though one faced away from the beach overlooking a residential area. The foliage growing along the back fence provided great privacy from the beach but also resulted in only a limited view of the beach from the second floor bedrooms.

The third floor has a single bedroom and bath with a small deck that affords a gorgeous view of Orient Beach, Pinel, and Tintemarre. We enjoyed that deck and the view, though it was too small for reclining lounge chairs, it did have two nice outdoor chairs.

Electricity was 220v though there was one adapter to plug in US devices that support 220v.

The villa shares a nice pool with the other four units. It was well maintained and provided a good place to take the twins in the water. We never saw anyone else use it while we were there.

We did have a problem with the phone. I could not get it to dial a number. Francois responded quickly when we stopped at the realty office and verified that the phone did not work. It seemed to give a dial tone but nothing else. He provided a French side cell phone for our use while we were there. Apparently the prior guests had a similar problem because we soon discovered that there was another cell phone plugged in and charging in the kitchen.

The villa included a nice selection of books, and we left a couple of additional ones for future guests. The storage room also included a collection of sand toys that the grandkids really enjoyed and other miscellaneous items. We really enjoyed the villa and would highly recommend it. There were also nice local pictures and art prints scattered throughout the Villa. The kids, who had watched the Baby Einstein Van Gogh tape many times kept pointing at the print in the living room and pronouncing that “that’s Vincent Van Gogh.”

It would seem like there should be a quick way to walk to the Orient Village area from the villa but beachfront development has made that impossible. The shortest route is via the beach. All other direct routes are blocked off by fences or walls.

Beaches:

Our villa was next to Orient Beach so we did several beach walks and absorbed some sun on Orient. We also enjoyed a few late night swims off the beach near the villa.

Despite two weeks on the island, we had limited beach time. We did spend time at Dawn Beach and enjoyed some nice snorkeling off the beach near Scavenger’s beach bar.

We had wonderful times with the grandchildren at Pinel and at Le Galion. The very protected beaches, shallow water and lack of waves made it much more enjoyable and less scary for them. They found the waves at Orient near the villa to be a bit scary, and had a similar reaction at Dawn. The water was very good for a nice snorkel off Pinel. We got into the water at the second dock near the snorkel site and swam around the end of the island, returning to shore at the rocky beach on the back side of the island. We saw a wide variety of fish and coral in this area….one of the better snorkel experiences we’ve had on St. Martin.

Mullet Bay beach was more packed than we have ever seen it. There were cars filling the parking lot and more parked out on the main road. Some may have regretted that as we thought was saw some teens prowling cars along the road near The Towers and we drove through. When we did stop there, it seemed the waves were a little higher than we had seen in the past.

We stopped in a couple of times at Cupecoy but there was less sand at the main beach than we have ever seen. There was barely room for a few umbrellas right below the cliff and lots of rocks. We’ll post a photo.

Activities:

Our Son and Daughter-in-law took advantage of the warm waters to complete their open water certification for SCUBA through Ocean Explorers at Simpson Bay. They were very impressed and happy with the service that Leroy French provided. We also watched the kids while they took a day trip to Saba for a tour of the island and a climb to the top of Mount Scenery. Their guide reported that Mount Scenery is only clear for 28 days a year and they picked one of those days, so they had a beautiful view from the top of the mountain after the grueling 1000+ step climb through the rain forest. They also took advantage of a chance to do the Parasailing at Orient and had a wonderful time.

While the parents did SCUBA and exploration, we took the kids to the Butterfly Farm where they had a wonderful time and to the St. Martin Zoo. They had a great time there and really enjoyed many of the animals and birds. What they really enjoyed, though, were the climbing toys.

While we did not use her service, we learned that the receptionist that was working at the zoo that day does provide baby sitting services at the location where you are staying on the island. She has two small children and recently lost her husband to Cancer.

Regatta:

We did not realize when we chose our dates for this trip that it would be Heinikin Regatta time, but that was a positive extra. On Saturday morning, we joined a bunch of other TTOL regulars for the Lambada Cruise among the racing boats. It was great to meet and visit with Wendell and Lois, Andrea, Gretchen, Leslie, Ted and Cheryl and many other folks from TTOL. It was fun darting around among the racing sail boats, though I would probably have been less than happy about it if I had been one of the skippers on the sail boats.

The gathering of people for Regatta also provided an opportunity for many TTOL folks to gather at St. Martin Yacht Club for a TTOL get together. We enjoyed meeting and talking with many of the folks who are regulars on the Board.

Shopping:

We ate in a lot on this trip. We found a great supply of groceries at Le Grand Marche in Phillipsburg and at Cost-u-less. Le grand Marche has a very good bakery in house and had some really good Italian Ice Cream. We also picked up some items at Le Bounty and at Tap 5. RAMS was very disappointing compared to prior years. We noted in the Herald that RAMS was almost shut down and put up for auction because of failure to pay benefits payments for its employees.

Food Express at Maho is also a favorite. The main issue there is parking. When we stopped there for ice cream while waiting for our departure time on the last day, a Taxi Driver pulled in and parked behind us and went into the store for lunch at the Deli leaving us trapped in the parking space. While she was grabbing a lunch for take out, she was also pretty non-chalant about spending a fair time chatting with the clerk while we sat and waited.

We also made a stop at US Import at Sandy Ground to visit the bakery there for Ham and Cheese sandwiches and pastries and to pick up some Rambol cheese with walnuts. If you have not tried Rambol, we find it at both US Import at Sandy ground and at Match and it’s a wonderful cheese.


Dining:

We ate in a lot but did find a few opportunities.

There were too many breakfasts (for my waist line) at Zee Best at Simpson Bay. Those Almond Chocolate Croissants are my weakness. Gretchen really likes the Raison Rolls.

There is a small bakery on the road to Oyster Bay in Quatre d’ Orleans that had good Pizza slices and pastries that we grabbed for take out.

In no particular order:

Le Maeva in Grand Case:
We went to Grand Case for Harmony Night, arriving fairly early in the evening. We walked the length of Grand Case and looked for a place that would be kid friendly and where we could get a good seat. Most places did not have seating for Six near the sidewalk except Le Maeva. We have never eaten there or heard much about it but the menu looked good and they had a table for six right on the sidewalk. We found the dinner to be very good. I had a fish platter on which I expected to have three different kinds of fish but had several kinds of shellfish as well. Gretchen had a “wonderful” vegetable soup. Cheri had a Rum Chicken Salad which she really liked.

Bistro Caribes in Grand Case:
We went on a week-day evening and it was very quiet. Amaury said that March has been a very slow month this year throughout Grand Case when it is normally busy. I think there was only one other couple there while we were there at around 8 P.M. I thought that Amaury blamed it, in part, on Le Meridien being closed but I have seen no indication of that elsewhere. The dinner was quite good. Gretchen had Veal Scaloppini with Scalloped Potatoes. Larry had a whole Sea Bass special. We topped it off with warm chocolate cake with Hazelnut Ice Cream. No Euro/Dollar matching here, but there was a $10 off coupon and they did reimburse us for parking at the paid parking lot down the street.

Saint Martin Yacht Club:
We stopped here for dinner prior to the TTOL gathering on Monday night and enjoyed a nice visit with Dr. Dick and Pat over our dinner. They had been extremely busy following the Regatta activities and did not have many of the dinner entrees available. The lunch menu was available. Larry had a Tuna Melt sandwich and Gretchen had shrimp.

The Boat House
We stopped at our old favorite, the Boat House, for our last lunch before leaving the island. Gretchen had a Seafood Wrap that was pronounced “excellent”. Larry had a Seafood Sampler that was quite good. They had “chicken fingers” for the kids which were pretty good as well. Our son had Fish and Chips which he pronounced, “Good.”

Chez Pat at Le Galeon
This was a good find for lunch with the nice beach for the small kids. Gretchen had a Bar B Q Garlic and shrimp Salad that was very memorable.

Peg Leg Pub
We shocked Shawn by showing up at the wrong time of the year. The Coconut Chicken, Coconut Shrimp, Mushroom appetizer, Filet Mignon and BBC were as good as ever. The Mango Chicken and Garlic Shrimp entrees also got rave reviews.

Top Carrot – Simpson Bay:
This health food restaurant has become one of our favorites for lunch. The food is high quality and well prepared and not very expensive.

We had Spinach Greek Rolls, Tuna Salad and Smoothies.

We had a wonderful experience there. Our granddaughter became ill, apparently from the heat and travel, as we arrived and was losing her earier breakfast. One of the ladies at the restaurant noticed and quickly responded by offering some Coke, which here Dr. had told her was good for vomiting. She also ran across the street to her home and returned with an un-opened anti-vomit medicine that her Dr. had recommended for her son who had digestive problems.

Pinel Island Beach Bar:
We didn’t plan on eating on Pinel but several of us got hungry after snorkeling around the reef. We shared a Mahi Mahi Skewer which was very good, Brie Salad and a great Coconut Pie with fruit on the side. The ladies at the lunch bar were very nice and also allowed us free use of a blow up dragon float for the kids. They have a nice shaded sitting area to eat at or wait for take out as well.

Bay Watch
We had two lunches and a breakfast here. We also had a nice lunch with Sugarae and John and some of their friends at Baywatch. Larry had the Fisherman’s Platter twice, one grilled and one battered and deep fried (the latter is preferred except for the carbs).

Turtle Pier
We stopped there for a good lunch. The kids enjoyed the animals and watching large Tarpon swim by our table,

Coco Beach:
Breakfast was very good and reasonably priced.
Dinner was OK but not great for the price. We had a Ribeye steak that was disappointing. We also had garlic shrimp that paled in comparison with the much less expensive shrimp that we got from one of the Lolos in Grand Case. The Chocolate Cake dessert was good, but again not one of the best..

Sky’s the Limit Lolo in Grand Case:
$8.00 ribs and shrimp plates. $7.00 Chicken plates. The dinner plates included several sides. The ribs were not very meaty and the chicken was a little dry, but no-one went hungry. Gretchen did find the shrimp to be very good.

Tap5 Pizza:
We went there for Pizza our first night after waiting for a while with no service at Bikini. We never went back to Bikini. Good Pizza for take-out.

Phones:

We had a nice visit with Sharon Harris when we picked up our temporary Cell Phones at Royal Palm. We knew that there would be no service at Grand Case but had hoped to be able to use the phones from the villa at Orient Beach to communicate with those of us who were off traveling around the island. That did not work. There was no usable cell phone service at the north end of Orient Beach either. We ended up mostly using the phones to call home when were on the Dutch side of the island for other reasons.

Miscellaneous News and Rumors:
We did stumble across the Coconut Sorbet Ice Cream lady near the cemetery in Marigot during our Island tour and again on a subsequent trip. We had not seen her during our prior summer visits, but sure enjoyed it this time. The Ice Cream was surely memorable for the twins. When we went back to Marigot on a later trip and drove into the parking lot across the street, Arianna quickly said “this is where we got Ice Cream!”. Unfortunately, she was not there on that visit. If you see here along the road with her hand cranked ice cream machine….Stop! You’ll be glad you did,

We saw lots of construction going on at several locations.

There is an pending agreement, reported in the Herald, that a New York developer will soon agree to building a new Marriot resort on the site of the old Dawn Beach Hotel. Reports were of a 300 room hotel and 150 Time Share condominium units on the site.

There may be changes afoot at the Indiana Beach restaurant. Stay tuned.

Sunset Beach Bar seemed really busy every time we went by. We never stopped.

Only hit the casinos one night (Atlantis) and was fortunate to make a withdrawal of some of the funds that I left there last summer.

Traffic was fairly jammed from the airport to Simpson bay when we first arrived but after that, we had few problems. There were some slow periods but nothing too painful.