Jeana and I spent a wonderful 8 days on the island. The following are the highlights of the trip:

Royal Turtle: Spent all 8 nights here. The room was quiet, comfortable and romantic. Small balcony outside the bedroom allowed us to sit and enjoy a drink alone and still hear the band playing inside. TV was great and we were able to watch NCAA hoops, which we could never catch on the French side (I know what you are thinking, but we are basketball nuts). Breakfast was included and was great.

Traffic was a complete nightmare. Much worse than any of our previous trips. Notable were the amount of construction vehicles on the roads, especially in the Coupecoy area. One evening the traffic was so bad due to an accident (truck coming west on Cole Bay hill ran through a couple of buildings, killing a Haitian shoemaker and another person) that we just pulled to the side of the road and had dinner at Bananas instead. Very good meal at an excellent price.

We took the Rapic Explorer to St Barths, our first time to Barths. We were warned upon boarding that it would be a ROUGH RIDE. I estimate seas were running at about 10 - 12 feet and let me tell you, we had a hell of a ride. The Rapid Explorer is about 60 or so feet long and has a "big boat" feel to it. We sat up in the front to get a better feel for the ride. At about 40 knots the entire boat was catching air, one could feel the negative gees on the way down. Little kids were screaming in joy (yes joy, they were having a great time) and we really enjoyed the roller coater ride! In comparison to other boats (vomit comet comes to mind), this was a fun and exciting ride, but not scary. Not a single person was sick. Worth the price just for the ride.

We immediately caught a taxi to Saline Beach and enjoyed the day swimming, riding waves, and picnicing. Jeana was almost singing "It's raining Men" as about 25 gentlemen, all nude, soon arrived and set up all around us. We soon found out that they were from a gay cruise, that had sailed that morning to Nevis, but were not permitted to enter the country due to their sexual orientation and the fact that it was Holy Week. They decided if life gives you lemons, make the best of it, so they made lemonaide and went to St Barths instead. Nice gang of fun loving people, it is a shame that others have to feel the way they do about them.

We spent most of the rest of the week at Club O seeing old friends near the Perch and meeting new ones such as Joe and Terri. Fed the fish, snorkled, did Tiko Tiko and lowered my blood pressure at least 20 points.
A brief update on 1:1 dining, we ate at Spiga one night, had a fantastic meal. Their outside menu advertises 1 euro = 1$, and this was even in force for credit card purchases. Not a bad deal at all, unless you are paying in Euros.
We had the pleasure of meeting many of our fellow TTOLers at the party on 3/28. Let me take time again to thank Belair (Kathy and occasionally Harold) for setting this up. It was a great party. We actually met 3 or 4 couples who we had previously met at one of Contessa's parties (no slouch throwing a pahhhhty either).
Finally, we also stopped in to see Deepti. At my request, she managed to remove Jeana's small diamond ear rings (for a cleaning) and replaced them with ones twice the size, that I had previously picked out. We left the store and were half way up the block before I asked her if she liked her new ear rings. She did not know she now had 1.5 C ear rings! Needless to say, she was delighted and had to return to DK and give Deepti hell (yea right) for tricking her! Thanks, Deepti!

Can't wait to return!

Bob and Jeana