Here we sit at Ric's enjoying the Sunday morning all you can eat buffet, looking out at the sunny lagoon and preparing to head for Orient Beach. How touch can life get!

Just another crappy day in paradise!

Larry and Gretchen


Trip Report – Part 6

Wednesday, July 12

What a beautiful day! The weather is sunny with a light breeze. Wednesday is the day we have maid service, so we organized stuff and headed out a little earlier than normal after a light breakfast in our room.

We stopped at Rima so Gretchen could do some shopping. This was her first visit to the new Rima location. They had a good supply of the towel bags that Gretchen likes so she bought three of them and a cute dress for our granddaughter as well as a matching fish purse. You have to spend $25.00 to use a credit card.

From Rima, we went to Bikini Beach Bar for lunch. This was a two boat day and we made a mistake of taking a convenient empty parking space in front of the restaurant. It was very clear when we went in, but when we finished around 12:30 and got ready to leave, it was blocked by a long line of waiting taxis picking up boat people to return to Phillipsburg. It took a little while, but we finally escaped to head for the beach. The beach at Bikini was quite full of tourists

For lunch, Gretchen had a bowl of Gazpacho soup that she enjoyed. I had the Caribbean Fish Soup which I found very tasty but Gretchen through it was too fishy tasting for her. I followed that with a Calamari salad. The Calamari was tender and well done but the salad was loaded with a very spicy salad dressing which I found stronger than I like and which prevented Gretchen from sharing any of the salad.

We found friends at The Perch Happy Hour and had a nice visit with them. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing on the beach and soaking and visiting with new acquaintances in the warm surf.

We wanted to update computer information, so we went to Ric’s for dinner. Gretchen had the Chicken Salad Grande that she had enjoyed on our previous visit. I had the Wet Burrito…a bean burrito covered with Chili Con Carne and melted cheddar cheese. I found it very tasty and filling. With drinks, our dinner totaled $28.65.

After dinner, we stopped by the Hollywood casino where Gretchen made little money on the slots and I lost a little more at the Blackjack tables.

Thursday 7/13/06

Thursday opened with very overcast skies. We decided this would be a good day to relax, catch up on shopping and update our trip report. While doing a little shopping, we noted that traffic was the heaviest we have seen it. During this traffic jam, we met or were passed by three Dutch police cars headed east at a high rate of speed with sirens and lights blaring. We later learned that there had been an armed robbery at the Atlantis World casino. Larry visited three casinos early in the evening, trying our Atlantis, Dolphin and Hollywood. An incredibly bad streak continued!

Atlantis is the larger and nicest of the casinos co-located with a number of very nice restaurants. If you sign up for their membership card, you can get a $10 slot and $10 table match play coupon each day that you visit the casino.

Dolphin was practically empty when we visited and is a fairly small and crowded facility.

We’ve always enjoyed Hollywood, in part because it is within walking distance of our Time Share and also because it has a more friendly atmosphere. They have a “welcome” package which includes a $5 slot match every other day and a $10 table match play on alternating days.

While Larry gambled, Gretchen visited the Red Piano for their Thursday night Karaoke session from 9 to 12. She enjoyed listening to others but did not participate.

Friday

The weather cleared for another beautiful day on Friday. After breakfast in, we went to Cupecoy for the day. We enjoyed ribs from Danny and a pleasant and relaxing day at the beach, visiting with old friends and enjoying the warm water. The waves were a little higher than our previous visit to Cupecoy. Entry and egress from the water at Cupecoy continue to be a challenge with the steep drop off and moderate waves. The day ended with a couple of brief but light and refreshing rain showers.

Construction at Cupecoy continues with the old road and parking area largely inaccessible. Access is from the road from the Ocean Club parking lot along the top of the cliffs. Footings are progressing quickly on the new villas at Cupecoy with some walls now at about three feet high. We’ll have some photos on our return home. The construction is very close to the new rock wall.

After returning to our unit and cleaning up we went to Los Gauchos at its new location at Pelican Resort. This is where the Pelican Reef restaurant was formerly located. Friday night, Los Gauchos has an “all you can eat” ribs and chicken dinner, though we chose to order from the regular menu. That “special” may have contributed to the crowd. We arrived fairly late, at around 8:30, and the restaurant was very busy, both inside and on their outside patio. Our service started out slow due to being packed in next to a big family group but a waitress finally came to take our drink orders and thereafter the service was great. She summoned the food waiter and he moved us to a bay view table which was vacated after our arrival. Our order was quickly taken and service was great after that. He also commented that this was supposed to be the slow season so they don’t have as many waiters but it is turning out to be unusually busy on the Dutch side this month. Other friends who had visited Grand Case in recent weeks reported it very quiet. Orient Beach has also been fairly busy. Views from the restaurant were very nice across Simpson Bay. The ambiance in the restaurant was very nice. We wanted to have their “traditional Argentine” appetizer but we were fairly late in the evening and they were out of that. Gretchen had their soup of the day, Pumpkin Soup, which she enjoyed thoroughly. We also shared an order of stuffed mushrooms which were tasty.

For her main course, Gretchen had sautéed garlic shrimp with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and vegetables. She was very pleased with both. Larry had the 12 oz Rib Eye Steak with garlic fried potatoes and a salad. The steak was very tasty and moderately tender. We both enjoyed the dinner and will plan to return.

The evening ended on a positive not with Larry’s string of bad luck at the blackjack tables finally coming to and end with a positive evening.

Saturday, July 15th

Friday had been a late night so we slept in on Saturday. We stopped at the Pelican’s Lord and Hunter store to pick up a copy of “West of the Equator” that they found for Gretchen who was running out of books to read. By the time we got going, it was lunch time, so we continued out tour of Beach Bars on Orient Beach. Waikiki Beach Bar was our first stop, but the menu tended to have too many raw dishes for Gretchen’s taste. We moved a short distance down the beach to Coco Beach Bar. After taking open air seats next to a window with a refreshing ocean breeze, Gretchen chose the special salad of the day, a salad with melted cheese wrapped in bacon on a bed of lettuce and cucumbers. Larry chose another special; a whole grilled Sea Bass with rice and vegetables. The whole fish was cooked and brought to the table where it was boned and served.

After a stop at Tap 5 for Green Tea and other supplies, it was off to the beach for the rest of a very relaxing afternoon.

After a good lunch and relaxing day, we chose to snack in for dinner and have a relaxing evening at “home”.