SXM Day 6 Friday June 9, 2006

Slept till 8:30, had been getting up much earlier. Lynn was the early riser today. We had groceries that we hadn't touched since Monday, so I fixed breakfast - strawberry waffles, fried deli ham, with OJ, coffee and milk. The milk was French and bought warm, a strange concept to us, as there was no cold milk at Grand Marche. It tasted fine, and we finally ate some of the food we bought. Some really good looking beef pastrami went to waste for the most part, as we ate out almost exclusively.

We decided to spend the day at Phillipsburg beach. We headed to Front Street, and parked in a tiny spot in front of an orange colored hotel which turned out to be beyond the end of the developed part of the boardwalk. It was just fine with us, few people, 2 chairs and umbrella for $10, and right in the middle of Phillipsburg bay. We arrived at about 11AM, and even though the clouds threatened early, they rolled past and we had yet another day of glorious sun. The water reflected the beautiful blue we had seen everywhere else, but in was not nearly as clear, kind of milky. As in other places, the walk into the surf started out shallow, and then had a dropoff of about two feet. I don't know why that is, but it is the norm everywhere we went. The view was very nice, with the cruise ships on the far left, the bars and resturants with their multi-colored umbrellas lined up towards us and a long strip of white sand. To the right, we could see the mountains between us and Simpson Bay with the Divi Little Bay resort and it's red roofs dotting the scene.

Took a few swims, copped a few rays, and decided to walk towards the boardwalk and take some pictures. I passed some local bar and grills in which I would have liked to spend some time, and continued on towards the boardwalk, which is actually a cement and cobblestone walk, very well done. Made it to the main pier and walked out on it, snapping pictures all along. The pier looks straight down a street that is palm tree lined on both sides and connects the beach to Front Street. Between the pier and the end of the beach, there were many bars and grills lined up along the beach with their color coded umbrellas out front, filled with cruise ship daytimers. At the far end, closest to the docks, there was a beautiful grove of yellow-green palm trees, a nice bookend to a pretty beach.

Made it back to our chairs, and told Lynn about what I had seen - there was a two- storied resturant / bar that was playing a World Cup soccer game out over loud speakers that I thought might be a great place to eat lunch, and enjoy some local flavor. We packed the backpack with the towels, etc, and walked back towards the boardwalk. Along the way, there was a Jose Cuervo sign on the side of a dillapidated building with the caption, " Make strangers your friends, and your friends a lot stranger". Had to get a picture there. Made it on down to the place I had seen before, found our way upstairs, and found it was too loud to enjoy a lunch at the Blue Bitch Bar, so we went downstairs and settled at a table in front of a window with a gorgeous view of the beach, palms, beach furniture and the Royal Caribbean cruise ship in the background. The view out of this window, with the shutters propped up made for a great photo op. I waited for a long time for 2 Japanese ladies to take their pictures of each other out on the beach by the brown seats and Heiniken tent. They seemed to have found their own personal paradise, as they would take a picture of the other, then get together and look at the photo. They repeated this several times, and just when it seemed they were done and would move on, they were joined by another member of their party and the ritual repeated itself several more times. It got comical - all I wanted was a shot through the window with no people in it! Fear not, I eventually got my shot, and it was an entertaining prelude to lunch...........

We had a couple of Caribs, and Lynn ordered a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich, I had a Mahi Mahi BLT, which was delicious. We split a basket of fries. Note to self.........don't go to the Caribbean to get a Philly Cheese Steak. Lynn was dissappointed with her lunch. I could eat one of those Mahi Mahi BLT's every day! The ambiance of the resturant was great and the staff was very friendly, we had a good time messing around with them.

On our way back to the car, we stopped at one of the bars still open, as they close down soon after the wave of cruise ship passengers make their way back to the ship. It was owned by a Norwegian who was very cordial, and we had a couple of a couple of rum punches, and enjoyed the conversation and the view.

We took the back road by the salt pond back to the area around Grand Marche, which turned out to be a shortcut, despite the traffic. Once back at the studio, Lynn took a nap and I went in search of charcoal and reinforcements for the rum punch. Found a grocery store much closer than Grand Marche, right there on the road towards Phillipsburg, about a mile from Billy Folly Rd. That was way too easy so I headed back to Billy Folly and the Buccaneer Beach Bar for a drink and some phot ops on the beach . I'd heard about the Lady C, and it was close, so I went there to check it out. There is a pizza place in front of the boat that is Lady C's, and there were a couple of tables occupied, but to my dismay, the ship was empty. I ordered a Corona at the pizza place, and wandered onto the Lady C. It was a beautiful view of Simpson Bay from the ship, as the sun was going down. I took my time, enjoying the view and the brew as the ship bobbed at the dock. I would've loved to take the bay cruise on the Lady C, but maybe next time!

Back at the Flamingo, Lynn was still asleep, so I doctored up the rum punch, and hit the beach there, where there was a steel drum guy at the Palaypa Beach Bar. I laid out on the beach there, taking in the sunset, and a local artist walking by showed me some of his work which included sand from the beaches of the pictures that were depicted. He was pleasant but persistant, and I just wanted to take in the sunset. Soon afterwards, Lynn came out to join me and we enjoyed the sunset together. She did some laundry, and I fired up the beachside grill, and we coooked brautwurst on the beach in St.Maarten, looking towards the Princess Juliana Airport. We had dinner on the beach there and life was beautiful..................!