This was our 11th trip to the island.

Continental Flight from Providence to Newark to SXM. All flights on time and uneventful. Landed in SXM just before 1:00. Picked up our car from Unity. Great service! Thanks Michael. Bob from Pack Light met us at Unity with our beach chairs, umbrella and cell phone. More great service!
Highly recommend both of these gentlemen.

Met up with our dear friends, Ann and Roger who were staying at the Royal Islander.

Hotels: Checked in at The Towers, Unit 501. Very nice timeshare property. The views from our unit weren't the greatest (Medical University), but the 2 bedroom, 2 bath unit was great. Nicest timeshare we've stayed at to-date. Checked out on Saturday and our last two nights were spent at Club O in a mini-suite. Great way to end the vacation! Thank you Jim and Mary Ruos for handling our Club O reservations.

Shopping: Stopped by to see Deepti @ DK Gems. We were warmly greeted by everyone. I bought a beautiful bracelet. Marc enjoyed a few cold beers. Thanks so much, Deepti!

Stopped at Rima's - great place to buy souvenirs to take back home.

Ma Dou Dou: stopped by on Friday around 1:00. Shop was open! Bought a couple of bottles of Banana Vanilla Rum.

Restaurants: We ate in for all of our breakfasts. Bought a few chocolate croissants at L'Orientique - heaven!

Ti Bouchon - located in Cul de Sac. Our finest dining experience of the week. The food and the service were outstanding. We enjoyed chatting with MoMo - he was
an excellent host. The menu is fantastic. I wish we would have visited here earlier in our stay - we would've definitely gone back again. For dinner, Marc had the Beef Tenderloin with Mushrooms/Pasta/Truffle Oil, and Jo-Ann had the Chicken stuffed with foie gras, served over spinach with a side of pear puree. We each had a dessert and shared a bottle of wine. We found the prices reasonable even though Ti Bouchon doesn't offer 1:1 Euro/$. We will definitely go back in August.

Lunch @ Enoch's Place - Marigot Marina - always good. Jo- was disappointed that the whole fish was sold out by 12:30. Bummer. The shrimp and cheeseburgers were very good and we like the location. Great for people watching and the view of the marina is beautiful.

La Petite Auberge de Isles - food and service was excellent. Their price fixed menu is such an excellent bargain. It was nice to see Bruno and Francoise again.

Tabba Khady - food very good. Ambiance is excellent. Service was a little off the night we dined there- it was busy and Bill & Philippe were running around quite
a bit. Still a great place, with a varied menu - we'll be back.

Boathouse - our first visit to this restaurant. Marc had the Peppered Chicken dish and Jo- enjoyed the pepperoncini calamari paired with an excellent Caesar salad. Very good food and service.

Peg Leg Pub - Our friends Ann & Roger really like it here. For dinner they prefer to just have drinks and appetizers at the bar, so Peg Leg fits the bill for them.
The fried calamari were the size of onion rings - never seen that before. Appetizers not the greatest we've had, but the service at the bar was always very good.

Bistrots Caraibes in Grand Case: For the past several visits, we've always had the rotten luck of this restaurant being closed. We were happy to find them open
this trip. We shared the frog leg appetizer, which was very good. Marc ordered a veal dish which was excellent, but, unfortunately, Jo-Ann did not care for what she
ordered - the Shrimp Thai (way too salty). They graciously took the meal back, offered the chance to re-order a different dinner, which was declined, and took
the meal off the bill. That left room for dessert: the crème brulee was heavenly! Service was very good!

Kissing Fish Bar (our favorite watering hole) - We enjoyed a couple of happy hours here during the week and stayed for dinner - Thierry's pizza is excellent! It was so great to see Chloe and Thierry again. We always meet such nice people at The Kissing Fish. We're looking forward to our stay at the Summit in October.

Baywatch - Jo-Ann always has to stop by on Friday and order the mussels marinara - yummy as always.

Lido LoLo - the ribs were the best we've had on the island. The amount of food you get at this place is unbelievable. The rice and scalloped potatoes make for great leftovers.

Yvette's in Orleans for lunch - a great local restaurant. The service is so friendly and the food was very good. The conch and dumplings was fantastic! The chicken dishes were good also.

Friends:
Ann and Roger - we enjoyed another fabulous vacation with both of you. Always a fun time!

Jeff and Bonnie - so sorry we didn't meet up for drinks or dinner. We were happy to chat with you at the airport, though. Perhaps our paths will cross next year!

Brian and Brenda - it was nice meeting both of you at The Kissing Fish Bar. And no, we were not stalking you, even though we bumped into you four
times during the week! Thanks so much for the basketball t-shirts!

Rusty - nice to see you again this year on the beach. Thanks for showing us the pictures of your new Harley! Say Hi to Paula for us.

Strange occurrences:
As we were leaving Club O one evening, the radio was playing a tune named Fire on the Mountain. Lo and behold, as we looked
to the mountains to our left, there was a brush fire on the mountain in Orleans. Kid you not - Spooky! We passed the fire truck while we were
driving to Cul de Sac.

While sitting on the beach in front of the Perch one day, we noticed that one of the large catamarans (out of Oyster Pond) was drifting very close to
the shoreline. We thought we'd have to go out there and help push it out. A couple of the inflatable boats came to the rescue and helped push / pull the catamaran back out into the Bay. Many of us on the beach applauded as the catamaran sailed on its way.

Other Miscellaneous Stuff:
We were finally able to watch the KLM 747 depart from the airport. What a beautiful sight - unfortunately Jo- didn't have the camera.

The weather was great. The only rain we encountered was while we were driving into Philipsburg one night. Once the rain stopped, we were rewarded with a gorgeous rainbow!

Enjoyed a few drinks at The Perch and at Papagayo's. Willie's Frozen Lemon Breeze hits the spot on a hot, sunny day.

The traffic on the Dutch side was awful. Too much construction going on in Cupecoy! One day it took us nearly an hour to get from The Towers
to Club O!

We never felt unsafe on the island, but we never stay out beyond 10 or 11 PM. We were very shocked saddened to learn about the murder of Angelique. Our prayers go out to her family.

All in All, it was another wonderful trip to SXM. We look forward to our 12th trip in August. Only eight more weeks to go!