Shopping
Stopped twice at Bounty for pâte. The best we’ve found on the island. La Bohême in Grand Case is like a dress up store for the little girl locked up inside Bonnie. Bonnie bought a dress that they altered and we returned later in the week to pick up. Before we left home we saw a brief article in the May 2006 issue of Caribbean Travel and Life about jewelry made from sea glass. It is available in SXM at Last Mango in Paradise www.seaglass.us. Very pretty, unique, and affordable. We made two visits to see Deepti at DK Gems. She is so sweet and we really enjoy our time spent with “Bonnie’s jeweler”. The lady upgraded her tanzanite ring and picked up a nice set of earrings. The Belgian Chocolate Shop on Old Street warranted 3 visits. Missed MaDouDou, closed on Saturday.

Dining
Bacon, baguettes, and eggs in the room for breakfast nearly every day. Hereafter this shall be simply referred to as the “BR”…breakfast routine. Fresh croissants from Tap 5 were a delicious addition, so says Bon.
Most days we just had a light lunch back in our room consisting of pate, cheese, crackers, or sardines. Hereafter this shall be referred to as the “LR”…lunch routine.
Claude Mini Club for buffet on Saturday evening. $40USD all you can eat and drink. Brief shower chased us under cover. Food was quite good and plentiful. Especially loved the tree house setting.
Le Piment in Orient Village for pizza 4 times! Bonnie loves their goat cheese salad, and I like the Cannibale pizza…with the spicy oil! We renewed our acquaintance with Celine from last year. She is very sweet and the most industrious person I have ever seen on the island. After the 4th visit I finally leveraged a bottle of the oil!
Talk of the Town three times. Found the ribs and chicken are much better than the drinks though. Usually settled for water.
La California was a return for us again. 1to1 makes it attractive. Bonnie had the scallops and I ordered the grilled Wahoo. We met Lulu who was waiting tables for her first evening. She was great. We asked her for her favorite restaurant recommendation and she directed us to La Moulin Foo.
La Moulin Foo is located behind Cheri’s in Maho we were the only patrons for the evening. Again Bonnie had grouper and I had the MahiMahi. We went to La Plantation for crème brûlée to finish the evening.
Went to Tabba Khady for Bonnie’s birthday dinner. Had an appetizer of goat cheese on pita with broiled tomato. Saw Dave and Terrie whom we recognized from the TTOL gathering. Bonnie had the grouper and I had the MahiMahi. Topped it off with a very large crème brûlée. Tabba Khady has a new website largely designed by Phillipe. www.tabba-khady.com Hey Norm, your review made the website! You are now a recognized writer! Made another visit just for dessert later in our visit. Also 1to1.
Cote Plage, Bonnie had the Fettuccini Alfredo and I had the Grilled Salmon. It was very good but the service was slow. They were very busy.
As noted breakfast and lunch were mostly in our mini-suite but we did have one breakfast at Baywatch. Ate lunch a couple more times at Baywatch, had Grouper, Italian Sausage and Baked Ziti, and finally Mussels! We missed Cheryl who was still back home caring for her ailing mother. I may be the only one who didn’t previously know this, but we got the opportunity to hear Andy tell us about his daughter whom he didn’t know existed. He even shared the newspaper article with us. It was a fascinating story.

Beaches
Most days were spent at Orient. Often we took our chairs and sat up between BooBoo and Mt. Vernon. Very quiet.
Baie Aux Prunes was another remote beach with few in attendance. Only one other couple remotely close to us on the east end.
Grandes Cayes (take a right in Cul de Sac before the hill to Anse Marcel) We spent about 5 hours there and only saw one other couple the entire time.
Grabbed a sunset one day at Cupecoy where we met Dany Boy who was a great host.