We had planned a 2 week trip this year for our 30th anniversary. One week would be in Anguilla and the other week in SXM meeting up on the beach with friends we met & made there about 3 years ago.

Saturday 10/25
Spent Friday night at the Hyatt near the Tampa airport. No hot water for shower Saturday morning – great! Left the Hyatt at 5:00 AM to get to the airport and get through security which is unpredictable. Had to take a taxi as the shuttle doesn’t run until 6:00 AM. We are leaving the car there for 2 weeks on the Park & Fly program. Breezed through security without a hitch and found Starbuck’s! Flew TPA to SJU, had an hour between connections and on to SXM. We were through customs in about 5 minutes, picked up our bags and hopped a taxi to the ferry docks in Marigot. Stopped along the (back) way at a few stores to try to find some ½ & ½ for our coffee – no luck. Arrived at ferry docks, got a sandwich & waited about an hour for the ferry. Customs in Anguilla was slow but not bad. Once outside hoped a Taxi (Monsel’s) to Allamanda. Again stopped to try to get some ½ & ½ with no lock. Once in the room we dropped our stuff & headed to Gwen’s & the beach. The beach was beautiful but rough. Had dinner at Gwen’s and soaked in the waves.

The rooms at the Allamanda were nothing spectacular but adequate. We had a top floor queen. Kitchen was galley type complete with sugar ants. Bath was small but okay and the bedroom was fairly good size, 1 chair and a small TV. Most of the TV watching was done from the bed, a rather uncomfortable position after a couple of hours.

Sunday 10/26

We decided to take a walk down the beach. We were headed to Ku to check out the store and to see what restaurants were open. Uncle Ernie’s was open, everything else was closed. The store was also closed. Nothing was really open.

The Allamanda actually copied the menu from their on site restaurant, Zara’s and emailed it to me. However, the restaurant was not open that week. I found this a bit deceiving & unethical. If we had known the restaurant wasn’t going to be open, we could have picked up some more supplies on the way in. We had brought 2 boxes of instant oatmeal, 12 packages of Ramen noodles and 2 boxes of Kraft Mac & Cheese. When we stopped at the store on the way in we picked up some French butter, fresh bread, milk & cookies.

Our only option for dinner was Gwen’s so we ate late to get us through the night. I must say that Gwen & her husband were GREAT!! They weren’t busy all week and we had some very interesting conversations about politics, economics and whatever else came up. They were very nice people who worked with us on the food issue all week.

Basically we went to the pool first thing every morning for awhile, then down to the beach near Gwen’s all day. It was pretty nice to sit in those Palm groves, listen to some music (IPod), read and veg out.

Wednesday was the only day we ventured out by taxi. We called Monsel to come pick us up so we could go to the bakery and get some Almond Croissants. He came about 9, and we headed over to the bakery to arrive and find out it was closed. He then took us up by the drugstore to a restaurant and we got some “real” breakfast. I had an omelet & Judy had French toast. The coffee was really good! We then hit the drugstore for some souvenirs, then went into one of the craft boutiques behind the drugstore, stopped at one of the larger grocery stores for some supplies (found the 1/2 & ½) and back to Allamanda. $60 for the taxi including tip.

By about Thursday or Friday I was looking forward to our week in St Martin with our friends.

Saturday 11/01/08

Back to SXM!!

We headed out first thing Saturday morning (11/1) and caught the ferry to Marigot. Once through customs, we headed to the bakery behind where the public toilets are located. That bakery has some of the best pastries & coffee. We both had a Café Au Lait and pastry. It felt good to have some “real” food again! We then walked around the market for a bit as we had to wait for Mickey at tropical car Rental to pick us up as we had requested a 1:00 PM pick-up which he acknowledged. Nobody showed. We found a taxi (for $12) and he took us to Tropical. We were staying at LaVista this week which is right behind Tropical’s offices so I thought a taxi was worth the price not to get stressed out & yell at workers who don’t care anyway. We got our car & headed to Lavista where check-in was a breeze.

We walked down to Topper’s at the Flamingo for dinner that night. Judy had Mahi Mahi and I had the meatloaf which was delicious! Everything was going well until the dessert menus arrived. From that point on the service was non-existent. They forgot about us until one of the partners (Natalia?) stopped and asked us how everything was. We explained we had been forgotten and she took our dessert order and assured us we would be taken care of. The coffees came then the desserts took another 15 minutes to come out, by then the coffee was gone. We finished, got the check which was $70.16 (including service charge). I gave them $100 and waited for the change. They brought back $39. Considering the fact that the service was poor and the partner was apologizing for it, the rounded the bill UP not down. I don’t think it would have bothered me if the service had been good, but it was the principle of “fleecing the tourists”. If that is done on a fairly consistent basis, the server can make some additional money on people they will never see again.

Sunday 11/02/08

Massages at Good Life Spa. We have gone there every year and have enjoyed their service & massages. Judy will have Gabriel and I will have Johanna. They both do an AWESOME job and always remember us from the previous years.

After that we went to Marigot and walked around the market, then on to Orient Beach to find our friends that we would be hanging out with on the beach all week. We found them in their usual place down near the Perch. It was so good to see Dave & Ann, Pete & Pam, Bob & Mitzi, Chris & Paul and Paul & Vickie. It now feels like we are home. We chatted for awhile and left. Dinner that night was at Mama Pizza in the Oyster Bay area. They have good food, and a very nice view of the marina in front of Captain Oliver’s.

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday were spent the day on Orient Beach with our friends. There is nothing better than being on OB with a few friends and having a good chat. This is what vacation is all about! Most of the time we stopped in Orleans & picked up sandwiches for lunch & stuck them in the cooler. One day we did go to Baywatch for Fish & Chips (me) and Scallops (Judy). Both were AWESOME!!

Monday night (11/3) we went to Le Petite Auberge (sp) at the Marina Royale. We never knew all those restaurants & shops were out there. We were meeting Dave & Ann, Pete & Pam there for dinner. They have a fixed price menu and offer 1:1 exchange. The food was GREAT & the company was even better! We got there early and walked around and decided we would have to go back & explore that area some more. This was our 6th trip to SXM and we keep discovering new things every year.

Tuesday night (11/4) was dinner in our unit again. Didn’t feel like venturing out anywhere. I ate Fruit Loops and watched election returns. The only thing about TV this week is that the US in now an hour behind because of daylight savings ending 11/2. That makes the 10:00 PM programs come on at 11 which makes it hard to stay awake.

Wednesday 11/5
Judy & I decided to take the day off from the beach and do some shopping. She had seen a pendant in one of the shops in Marina Royale that she really wanted so we headed back to Marigot. We went to the bakery for breakfast, then walked around the Marina and got her Pendant. We then ventured into Phillipsburg to walk Front Street. We walked around some, stopped into Park Ave Jewelers where Judy has purchased some rings, ear rings and necklaces in the past to say “Hi”. She ended up getting her ring resized (it was loose from losing quite a bit or weight). The last time we stopped in there to say “hi” and not purchase anything, we walked out of there with a larger ring for Judy. Not this time!! Just clean, resized jewelry. They are great people and we enjoy catching up on their children stories.

We ate lunch at Taloula Mango’s. The food was very good and the entertainment (street vendor) was very entertaining. It had been raining off & on all day so we headed back to our unit to shower & get ready for dinner. We were meeting our group of friends tonight at Peg Leg Pub. We got there and were directed to a table right in front of the stage. The rest of our party arrived a little while later and things were going good – UNTIL the entertainment started, once that happened, we couldn’t carry on a conversation because the music was SO loud. We asked them to turn it down, which they did for a time, but then it started to ratchet up a notch at a time. By the end of the night, I was glad to get out of there. We enjoy sitting around chatting with friends we only see once a year. The music put a bit of a damper on the evening, but it was sure better with our friends there then back home, working for a living.

Thursday dinner was in the unit. Don’t remember what it was, but I’m sure it wasn’t fancy.

Friday night (11/7) was the first TTOL party of the year at Baywatch. It was a good time and the food was so-so. Our whole group was there which allowed us one last chat about whatever. We enjoyed every minute of that get together.

Saturday (11/8) we were headed home. We dropped our bags off at the airport, secured our exit row seats and headed to the Top Carrot for breakfast. That place will be back on our list the next visit. Their food was VERY good! I had a sandwich and Judy had a veggie omelet. We also took a carrot muffin to go. We sat around for awhile then headed back to the airport to get through immigration & security. That went pretty fast. We did some last minute shopping (Last Mango) and relaxed. We were going to have a 5 hour layover in San Juan so we were NOT in any rush.

Once in San Juan, we got through customs fairly quickly and headed to Starbuck’s for a brew. Can’t seem to pass up a Starbuck’s coffee. We walked around exploring the shops (again) and decided we would go into on of the sit down restaurants near gate 8 (I think). We went in sat down and started looking around. I spotted a couple that looked very familiar. They were some friends of ours from Massachusetts which we hadn’t seen for about 8 years, since moving to Florida. It was a great time of chatting about our families. What are the chances of meeting friends in San Juan???? I still chuckle about that whenever I think about it. Small world! Well, we tried to compress 8 years worth of happenings into an hour and they were off to St Lucia and we were headed back to Florida.

Once in Tampa, we called the Hyatt, got the shuttle back and got some coffee, Starbuck’s of course for the ride home.

Since we have been home, the overnight temperatures have been hovering in the low 30’s to the low 40’s and daytime temps in the 50’s. I’m NOT used to that! Take me back to SXM!!

It was another good trip, with time spent with good friends . . . until next year!

Brian