This was our 14th trip to St. Martin and one of the best. It's still like going home for us. I will try to keep this as short as possible. This year we stayed for 16 days, three days at Club O and 13 at Pelican Resort. Club O was great. Arrived there around 3:00pm on Thursday and never wore anything until we checked out. MaryAnn was so happy at Club O that we tried to stay another day, but "there was no room at the inn". All sold out that week (4th of July). So off we went to Pelican.

Restaurants:

Papagayo—We had 2 very good dinners here. Food and service was top notch. There’s nothing better than having dinner in the nude and dancing afterwards. Great time!

Topper's- This is the old Banana’s in Simpson Bay. This was the worst meal of the vacation. I tried their highly recommended brisket, and it was 90% fat. They asked me if I wanted another one. I said no, I'll take the strip steak instead, and that was very, very dry. That’s the last time we’ll eat there. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/thumbsdown.gif" alt="" />

Tabba Khaddy--Excellent restaurant with very large menu. They offered 1 euro to $1.20. We had a great meal with our friends in a very relaxing setting. It’s definitely one of our favorites.

Mark's Place—This was the 1st time eating at Mark's since before hurricane Luis, when they were in French Cul De Sac. I had the best steak of the whole vacation here. The food was plentiful, good and reasonably priced. This place is a definite winner.

Mario's—We had an excellent, romantic dinner here. The food is always wonderful, although a bit pricy with the current exchange rate.

La Petit Auberge de Isles--One of our favorite restaurants in the Marigot Marina. Price fix meals at 23 euro. Very ample portions, delicious food, friendly service---------what more can you ask for? Plus, we just love Mic-Mac the dog. We were glad to see he’s still going strong!

Brasserie de la Gare—We went here for the pizza but wound up ordering from the specials menu. Good food in a fun atmosphere. We spent our last night here and the Marina was celebrating Bastille Day. There was a French DJ, parties, fireworks and a very lively atmosphere. We had a ton of fun.

Le Chanteclaire--Went here for their special "dessert with no name" after BDLG. This is MaryAnn's favorite dessert on SXM.

Pizza Galley-Very good pizzas at a good price. Convenient to the Pelican.

Spiga—Great restaurant, but I was not very happy with the menu this year (but I am a very fussy eater). Everyone else loved their dinners.

Skip-Jack—The name says it all. Highly overpriced, mediocre food. We wouldn’t go again. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/thumbsdown.gif" alt="" />

The Stone--I wasn't impressed with the menu (remember me being very fussy), but they worked with me to come up with something that I liked. They bring your meal out to you with the meat or seafood on a hot piece of granite and you finish cooking it at the table. Everything was delicious and we had a nice time with Larry and Gretchen.

Jimbo's—Good Tex/Mex and an enjoyable place to eat. Make sure you get your Jimbo dollars for free drink.

Beaches:
The weather was amazingly beautiful this year (except for a few showers on July 4). We were kind of lazy and only made it to 4 beaches this time around.

Orient Beach-- Very calm this year. Light to no breeze at all. Club Orient beach was a little narrower than last year. They were not charging for parking at the Club O lot. Just walk onto the beach and pay for chairs and umbrella. We had our traditional 4th of July parade and then on to Baywatch for hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. and a fun party.

Cupecoy--Sand was about 5 feet deeper this year but not too wide. The construction of Shore Point ruins the whole atmosphere of the beach. It was very noisy at times, and lots of construction workers all week, including Saturdays. Danny has a nice little lunch business going. John was off island this time. As others have stated, the whole Cupecoy area is going to be unbelievably overdeveloped. We’re just very, very sad to see this going on.

Baie Rouge---Still one of the most beautiful beaches on SXM. Rocks were covering the sand, so it was easy to get in and out of the water. New homes being built at the far end.

Oyster Pond--The water here is always fun. Lots of construction here too. Too bad!!! The security guard let us take a look at the condos behind Ms. B’s. They are beautiful, but that area is now way overdeveloped also. Once again, very sad.

Shopping:

We went to Phillipsburg to do a little gift shopping. We stopped at Alpha Jewels, the new shop owned by Sanjay, previously of Touch of Gold. It is located just past and across the street from Guavaberry Emporium. (11-A The Village, Unit # 3 Front Street). Make sure you stop in and tell him MaryAnn and Paul sent you. He is very nice and he will give you a very good deal. We both up-graded our wedding rings. He has been around for a long time and treats everyone fairly. Tell him we said hello.

Westin Hotel: <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/thumbsdown.gif" alt="" />

We went there to check out the casino one night. While checking out the hotel, we were walking around the pool area. You would never expect to see a pool like this on SXM. It’s beautiful to say the least. While walking around we ran into one of the night security guards and started talking to her. She invited us to come and spend the day if we wanted, as the hotel was at such low capacity this time of year. She said if we had lunch and drinks there would be no problem, and to tell the manager that she had invited us (she gave us her name). We decided to take her up on her offer and spend an afternoon there. We arrived with our friends Tom and Joan and we were all impressed with how beautiful the pool and restaurant area is. There were 10 people there between the beach and pool. After being there about a half hour we stopped a waitress to order drinks. She asked for our room number and we told her we weren't staying there, she said we couldn't use the pool. We told her that _______ had invited us and off she went to the bar. She came back with a manager who told us we couldn't stay there but could use the beach. So off we go to the beach and grab 4 lounges. We went over to the bar and got 4 pina coladas. Right away a guy comes over and asks us for our room number. After telling him about the security guard and the pool manager, he said we could use the beach but not the chairs, and get off of them now. We offered to pay for the chairs and he said "no". So we said okay just let us finish our drinks we’ll leave and again he said "No- I want you off them now”. So much for hospitality. I could understand if we were taking regular guests chairs, but there were literally 10 people there between the beach and the pool. There were four of us prepared to spend money on food and drinks. We left and went over to Ms. B’s to spend the rest of the day.

Random Wind:

This was the 3rd year that I ran a CO cruise. It was on the Random Wind for the 2nd time. We had a blast. There were 20 people plus the Captain and mate. The Random Wind has a new owner (Diane). A very wonderful person to work with. She more or less let us decide what we wanted to eat and drink. The cruise included breakfast, lunch, snacks, and open bar. It also included all your water toys. We had the same Captain as leas year (Leary), a great sailor and fun to be with. Jackie was the mate and she was very nice too. We sailed out of Simpson Bay down and around to Friar's Bay where we anchored and swam while they got lunch ready. On the way back we anchored and swam in front of La Sammana (Long Bay), which is always beautiful. We left around 9am and returned about 5pm. It was a little bit choppy this year, but that only makes it more fun. We had a few first timers this year and they had a blast. Just one person got a little seasick.

All in all, it was a great, relaxing vacation. We had a good amount of rest and great weather. We met up with a lot of friends, old and new, which is one of the best things about vacationing on SXM. I got to spend a wonderful time with MaryAnn, which of course is the icing on the cake!


Paul and MaryAnn in NJ