Our December trip came about as a spur-of-the-moment getaway. Two events occurred: my wife asked me where I wanted to go for my belated birthday dinner and I needed to rack up some points on American Airlines to hit the next frequent flyer status level. St. Martin and Mario’s Bistro solved the issues.

This was our 6th, and at only 4 nights, shortest trip. Since we have 2 kids in the 11-to-15 age range, it has become more difficult to get away since they don’t like to be stuck at home. I booked our flights for December 9th to the 13th and my wife lined up a neighbor to handle our kids. We weren’t sure where we were going to stay. We narrowed it to L’Esplanade (where we stayed last time) or Green Cay Village. We loved L’Esplanande, but since we were going to be there such a short time we voted for proximity to the beach and a private pool. I emailed Jim Ruos one Saturday afternoon and he arranged for a villa at Green Cay within a couple of hours. We were in Villa #5 which had beautiful views directly east with St Bart viewable off a bit to the south.

We were flying out from Chicago a day after a fairly decent snowstorm. It turned out that our flight, being the first out Friday morning was cancelled. Fortunately AA put us on the next flight at 6:45 AM. So instead of traveling through Miami, we went through San Juan. I’ve come to the conclusion from a number of trips through SJU, that if you have a personality that would lend itself to the customer service industry you will be banned from working at that airport (does not apply to AA personnel). The flights went smoothly and we made it though immigration in record time, as in no wait. I ran to Hertz to get our car while my wife waited for our luggage. Off to Green Cay – sort of. Even though we should have taken Union Road, I of course feel the need to tour the Lowlands, which added about an hour due to heavy traffic. I did what I was told the rest of the trip.

When we checked in the refrigerator was stocked with juice, beer, milk and bread. A few additional items were added over the next few days. A very nice convenience. Every morning fresh rolls and coffee were ready for us when we awoke. The Green Cay staff was very friendly and helpful. It took us about ten minutes to walk from Green Cay to Orient Beach which landed us near Bikini Beach. Green Cay’s proximity to the beach, as well as a quick ride to Grand Case & Cul de Sac, turned out to be a good decision for us on this trip.

One of our primary reasons for returning to St. Martin is for the dining. We had planned to try a few new places this year, but in the end returned to some old favorites. Our first night we were up for something close and relaxing so we chose Sol e Luna. A beautiful evening on the porch. Tuna carpaccio, cioppino, a nice Chablis, followed with dessert, rum and espresso provided a nice start to the long weekend. Our perception is that the staff can be a bit cool to Americans, but by the end of the evening we all warmed up to each other.

I called Mario’s prior to arrival on St. Martin for a 9PM table on the water for Saturday. We had a couple of errands to run that evening that went quicker than anticipated, so we arrived to the restaurant rather early. We saw Didier Gonnon, one of the owners, and he offered us a table in the middle of the room if we didn’t feel the need to wait, so we accepted. I actually preferred it as it allowed us take in the restaurant’s atmosphere better. We had a wonderfully relaxed 3+ hours of dining and talking. While I always want to try something new, I went with an old standby which was grilled tuna topped with blue cheese on top of gnocchi. We enjoyed a very good Meursalt along with it. As the time for dessert arrived a table opened along the water which Didier offered to move us to. We were perfectly happy to stay where we were, but it was a nice offer. As we were paying our bill, the skies opened up so Didier came by over with another espresso and after dinner drinks. A very nice way to wrap up a much anticipated dinner.

As an aside, I asked Didier to explain the tipping/service charge procedure that they follow. I believe Mario’s menu has a phrase such as “prix net”, which according to Didier means service is included. I expressed my concern as to whether the staff actually sees the included service charge and he stated that they do handle it properly and as proof he pointed to every server in the room and told us how many years each had worked there. As we always do, we left an additional gratuity.

Sunday was Grand Case night for us. We wandered up and down the boulevard looking for someplace we haven’t done, but went with L’Auberge Gourmand, another comfortable place for us. Escargot, sole and a bottle of Beaune. They were busier than usual which led to slightly stretched service, but a very nice evening.

We were starting to wear down a bit by Monday evening, our last on the island. Somewhere we had hoped to squeeze in something new for us like Temptation or Montmarte in Cupecoy or Bistro Nu or Le Marrakech on the eastern side of Marigot. We opted for a safe favorite with a relaxing atmosphere – Spiga. They serve some of the finest homemade pastas and seafood to be found anywhere. We ended the evening with a very intriguing conversation with a member of the waitstaff. We had ordered Grappa as after-dinner drinks and we were hoping to find out some specifics about them. The labeling was entirely in Italian, so a gentleman came over to loosely translate for us. We ended up talking for quite some time his background, how he trained, and he spoke about the importance of chefs to teach others about their passion for food in a down-to-earth manner. Each visit to St. Martin seems to lead to a conversation like this, one of the few places in the world that I find consistently so.

We ate only one lunch during the weekend and that was at Baywatch. We had the usual – mussels, calamari, grouper and lots of garlic bread to soak up the tomato sauce. Cheryl wasn’t there that day but we had a great time talking to Adrian and his upcoming marriage and trip to Florida.

We spent most of our time on Orient due to the proximity to Green Cay. While the beach is completely overbuilt, we enjoy talking to people there and taking numerous walks for exercise. As far as the size of the beach, the only point of reference I have is that two years ago the water was all of the way up to Kon Tiki. There is now plenty of sand at that point.

We did spend Sunday at Cupecoy, which is a favorite place on earth for me. It is interesting to see the recent photos posted as I believe they were taken while we were there. I saw a number people show up, take pictures and leave. I don’t know that there’s much else I can say about the utter destruction that has occurred. I find interesting that the land has been ripped open far prior to any meaningful work being done. All of the current development is out toward the road. It seems to me that by digging the land now, the developers are hoping resistance will die down when it’s time to start the major construction on the water. There seems to be too much confusion as to the boundaries of the private development. I am a strong supporter of absolute property rights. That being said, I am also a strong supporter of the protection of public property. It is disappointing when bureaucrats can sign away forever public ownership of land. So while the developers have every right to build this project, they should do so without any impairment of public land. Under similar circumstances in the USA, for a developer who knowingly destroys valuable public land, jail is a real option. I am especially disturbed with the governing status quo on the island. I’m not sure whether the upcoming elections on the Dutch side have any meaningful bearing on the governance, because the majority of the discussion on this board has focused on the fact that the bars will be closed. I left the beach on Sunday with no sadness, since it already felt drained of its life.

For the first visit ever, we actually took in nightlife. Our usual routine is beach during the day, dinner in the evening, and in the pool at the villa watching the stars with a bottle of wine until all hours of the night. On Saturday we headed out for a trip to Bliss. I would say we were in the upper age bracket of the crowd, but had a good time. Great people watching, go-go dancers, outdoor beds and cabanas. What’s not to like other than a long drive home? The next night we stumbled upon La Chapelle in Orient. Good cover band playing stuff from my post-college days and the Packer game on TV. What else could I want? – warm weather, liquor, live music, football, dancing – all attainable from a single bar stool.

I know a lot of questions arise regarding cell phones. I found that my Cingular Motorola worked fine when we arrived at PJIA and on Orient Beach. I did a network search and it returned a list of signals that it picked up. For example I’d see Cingular, F-3, F-Orange, Amigo, BouygTel-C, Tellcel GSM, C&W. Only Cingular worked seamlessly as at home, while the others admonished me in French for trying to use their networks. We found it rather funny that when we needed to make a call we’d hop in the car, drive down to the Haagen-Dazs booth near Bikini Beach, turn off the car and lights, search for a signal, and make a call. All very CIA-like.

As others have said, traffic jams seem to be increasing. The other thing I noticed is that kids on bicycles are riding much more like the motorcyclists. There was a group of young French girls in the Orient area who would routinely cut across the streets without looking. I had a close call with a young kid outside Marigot. One interesting sight near Rimbaud was a shirtless man walking down the middle of the road, liquor bottle in hand, mad at the world. He had a line of at least 50 cars behind him that could not pass due to oncoming traffic.

This quick 4 day trip seemed rather surreal in hindsight. With our normal week-long stays, one tends to have more invested in the trip in terms of preparation and planning. On the 6th day during those trips we begin to wish that we could stay much longer. This visit had a last-minute road trip feeling to it – plan very little, pack quickly and lightly, and go full speed once you arrive. And with all of the logistics working out well, we realized that a trip to St. Martin doesn’t have to be some 6 month in the future event so it was relatively easy to head home.