Day 5 (Tue 7/3)

We woke up early and enjoyed breakfast in the cooler air. You could see Anguilla much more clearly now, as the haze had lifted. After breakfast we drove over to Phillipsburg and I noted to myself how much my wife was enjoying herself now that the luggage incident was behind us and we were able to start appreciating this lovely island. I was very happy. We got parking in the public lot by the bay pretty easily because we noticed a woman walking to her car. It was still early and all the shops weren't open yet, so we walked down to the water and went into a couple of shops near the pier. When we did walk up Front street, I was happy that there weren't many people as no cruise ships were in port at that time. We stopped in DK Gems and I surprised my wife by telling her she could pick out a birthday present because her birthday was on Thursday. She was very surprised, and picked out a pearl necklace and matching earrings (which I of course knew she wanted). I knew Deepti was on vacation so I was sorry I didn't get to meet her, but we were taken care of by a man who I believe was her brother (Mack?). The pearls were lovely and my wife was beaming. The shopping experience was very pleasant, I got to enjoy a beer while my wife looked around. However, I was surprised that the salesman was a bit aggressive to sell us more. I guess with no ships in port, he knew it would be a slow day.

We priced a lot of liquor, and I picked up a bottle of Absinthe, Guava berry liquor, cigars, some other souvenirs, and a bottle of Don Julio 1942 Tequila which I got for $89. We were planning to make it over to Anguilla one day and once there I would visit the Pyrat rum factory to pick up a bottle of Cask 23. My wife enjoyed the selection of knock-off Coach bags and picked up 2, with which she was and is very happy.

We had lunch at the Kangaroo Court. I had a mahi mahi sandwich which was excellent. I think the wife had some kind of wrap. I like the restaurant as it was a very nice, tropical setting. The notable thing about the lunch was that my lower legs got destroyed by mosquitoes! A helpful hint: I learned on the way out that they have Off for your use at the bar. I which I knew before I entered!

From Phillipsburg we hurried home, dropped off our purchases, packed a cooler, and headed over to Orient beach. We parked and entered over by Bikini beach. I can now see what all the hype is about this beach. It's absolutely GORGEOUS. White sand, beautiful blue water. For our trip I didn't have much interest in Orient as we were thinking more about seclusion, but we did want to check it out so I'm glad we went there early in the trip so we would have time to go back. My wife really liked Orient also, so a return was a must. We didn't do much but swim and relax, but then again that's what vacation's about isn't it? I took a walk and scoped out all of the places I've heard so much about… Baywatch, Le String, Kon Tiki, etc. The beach did get a little narrow over on the south end however.

On the way back we stopped at MaDouDou and she was open! What a nice, friendly lady she is. After sampling several of her products, and practicing what remained of my high school french, I purchased one whole bottle of the banana-vanilla rum, and about 6 other pint size bottles of different flavored rums, and a bottle of the vanilla extract. I also bought 2 very nice hand painted shot glasses. Ma also threw in an extra pint for us.

When we got home, I took a walk into town to get some milk while my wife rested a bit. She was starting to feel a little drained and I didn't want to push her too hard, so I decided to grab dinner at Skies the Limit and bring it home to eat on our balcony as the sun set. Problem was, it was getting late and the people at Skies the Limit don't really rush to fill your order, so I pleaded with them to hurry so we wouldn't miss the sunset. 2 orders of ribs, red beans and rice, and mac and cheese came to a whopping $12. I ran with the food all the way to GCBC. Funny because the guard they have posted at the entrance (a very nice touch for security) saw me running forward and I said "have to catch the sunset!" and he opened the gate for me and I ran right through. My wife was happy when she saw the food and that we didn't have to go out for dinner that evening. We had bought some french bread and cheese, and all this with a bottle of Merlot made for a wonderful, romantic impromptu dinner on the balcony. We did catch the sunset, but by the end of the meal it had gotten dark. There was enough left over for lunch the next day. After the meal I enjoyed some of the rum and a Romeo y Julieta cigar. Paradise!

For the remainder of the evening we went over to the Sunset Café for a drink. A little relaxing night time swim and it was back to the room.

Day 6 (Wed July 4)

We started the day at Friar's Bay beach with plans to hike over to Happy Bay. However, after an hour or so it started raining pretty heavily so we went over to one of the bars there (I think it was Chez Kali - Friar's Bay Beach Bar was closed for renovations) and had lunch and hung out until the rain stopped later in the afternoon. The food was really good (love this Island), especially the Creole Conch.

We returned to the GCBC and snorkeled around the beach. The snorkeling over there wasn't too bad. I planned to take the 2 hour snorkeling excursion over to Creole Rock one day but it never worked out.

I didn't realize until a couple of days later that this day was, in fact, the 4th of July and we could have went to one of the parties on Orient. Oh well...

For dinner that evening we drove to the Lottery Farm and had dinner at the Hidden Forest Café. We got there during sunlight so we could get a good look at the area. It was really beautiful. Dinner was magnificent. For starters I had the crab cakes and my wife had a brie pastry. Both were amazing. The 2 nice sized crab cakes were full of crab meat and the sauce was sweet and spicy. The main courses were curried chicken w/spinach for me and salmon with ginger apple salsa for my wife. Everything was wonderful. This with a bottle of wine, water and espresso came to E 78 $102.

As we were finishing dinner something rather large landed on my wife's shoulder. As she began to scream and jump out of her seat in an absolute panic I yelled "it's a frog!" and knocked it off her shoulder. The little green guy hopped around the restaurant for a bit and returned to his forest home. The whole restaurant chuckled and enjoyed my wife's antics. She laughed at the bug in my sandal, now I laughed at her. It was all fun, although I don't think my wife wants to return there! I'll have to work on her.

We left and drove to the Dutch side to meet Brian and his wife at Fathom's. There was a live band and it was nice to get out for a little night life. On the way back we passed a Gendarme check point, and also encountered one around noon on the main island road (just past the french airport) earlier in the trip, but both let us pass.