Fourth trip to SXM for Donn & Irene Turner.<br>Irene & I left from Richmond Va., adult daughters Brittney & Becky left from Dulles; we met in Charlotte, arrived in SXM at 3:30 PM on USAirways. Picked up Hertz rental and checked into Pelican Resort by 4:30 PM. Daughters stayed one week, Irene & I stayed for two. <br>The Pelican looked good – freshly painted, attractive landscaping, and no bugs that I could find. We liked the new location of the Peli Deli and the gift shop. <br>I’ll break the report into categories rather than a daily log.<br><br>BEACHES<br>Beaches visited:<br>Dawn – too rough for snorkeling the day we were there, Orient (three times), Baie Rouge, Friars, Shoals Bay Beach on Anguilla, & Pelican. Next year we’ll visit some others, but always gravitate back to Dawn and Orient plus a day trip to Shoals. Watch parking at Baie Rouge, we got blocked in and had to get the band to announce the tag number of the car blocking us.<br><br>BOAT TRIPS<br>All day snorkeling trip to Prickly Pear on catamaran Tango; included beer, soda, wine, rum punch, bread & cheese, and lunch.<br>A 3 hour snorkeling trip to Creole Rock on motor boat Sand Dollar.<br>2 Monday night sunset sails on catamaran Tango; included beer, soda, and rum punch.<br>The above 4 trips were booked through Aqua Mania at the Pelican marina. All were well run, great crew, and lots of fun. The snorkeling was very good on both snorkeling trips.<br><br>We also took an all day excursion to Anguilla on the catamaran Tahuna I. This trip was booked through the La Vista resort and included the round trip boat trip, round trip bus transportation to Shoals Bay Beach, and dinner at the Hideaway in La Vista. I wouldn’t recommend this trip. The crew on the Tahuna should take lessons in hospitality from the Tango crew, we thought the bus trip was going to be a tour, but was simply a shuttle from the boat to the beach and back. On the trip back to the boat some had to sit on laps because the return bus was smaller than the original bus. The snorkeling was great at Shoals Bay, but the highlight was dinner at the Hideaway which was outstanding. Next year we will ferry to Anguilla, taxi to Shoals Bay Beach, and have dinner at the Hideaway.<br><br>LUNCHES<br>We had lunch at:<br>Mr. Buzby’s (didn’t make it down to Ms Buzby’s – next year), Pelican beach, Prickley Pear, Kangaroo Court (twice), Elioda’s at Shoals Bay (didn’t find Uncle Ernie’s until we were leaving – next year), Bikini Beach three times ( Irene loved the Calamari), Chez Raymond at Baie Rouge, Friars Bay Beach Club, and Talk of the Town.<br>Most were similar – ribs, chicken, salad, coleslaw, Caribs, etc., tough life! Talk of the Town was best bargain - $11.50 for ribs, one chicken leg & thigh, coleslaw, and Carib. Most memorable was Bikini Beach where the four of us shared an order of Calamari, large cheese plate, and a tropical fruit plate – decadent!<br><br>EVENING MEALS<br>During the two weeks we had dinner at:<br>Lee’s Roadside Grill, Banana’s, Pasta Pizza, Hideaway, Le Planteur (twice), Le Bec Fin, Mario’s Bistro, and nachos take-out from Peg Leg Pub. <br>Pasta Pizza was the only disappointment. The rest were all wonderful in different ways. The fish is very fresh at Lee’s, the service was a bit disorganized. Banana’s food is excellent; Bob says “hello” to Carol & Eric Hill and praises them highly for all of their work on this board. At the Hideaway the food and service are wonderful and the ambiance, especially sitting by the pool, is very romantic. Le Planteur was our favorite, I’ll have a separate post on our experience there. I thought Mario’s and Le Bec Fin were similar – great food, wine, and service, but we preferred Hideaway and Le Planteur. <br><br>We meet Neil at the Peg Leg Pub. He said he would put up a sign when he had consistency from the kitchen. If the kitchen consistently puts out food like the Nachos Grande that we ate I’ll gain ten pounds next year. They were, without a doubt, the biggest and best nachos I’ve ever had. <br>The Pub is on the lagoon side of the Simpson Bay road, in the back of a small shopping center with Dominos, & ReMax, and a Scoops sign out on the street. <br><br>The remaining evening meals were usually wine, cheese, & leftovers on the balcony overlooking Simpson Bay and the airport.<br><br><br><br>OTHER ACTIVITIES<br>Shopping – the women managed to purchase jewelry in Maho, Splash at the Pelican, and even the airport. They also really liked the shops up on the view point hill overlooking Orient Beach. Saturday in Philipsburg is great: many shops (jewelry) are closed (no cruise ships) and the streets are empty. <br>The food vendors at the Marigot market were starting to move into permanent structures along the waterfront when we were there.<br><br>Island tour – Irene & I took one day off from the boats and beaches and conducted a self guided island tour. We left Pelican turned left and proceeded clockwise around the island. We tried to discover as many new places as possible. We stopped at La Samana, rode around the estates near Plum Bay and Terres Basses, found a great new beach bar “Layla’s” near Baie Nettle (too early for lunch – definitely go back next year), visited the market and marina in Marigot, lunch at talk of the Town, found and sampled the Ma DouDou factory (bought coconut), went to Anse Marcel, on through Coconut Grove and Oyster Pond, out to Guana Bay, and the last stop was Point Blanche. We didn’t get all the way out to the point – next year.<br><br><br>REMAINING OBSERVATIONS<br>Many new road signs on the Dutch side.<br>We started cutting through Middle Ground to get from Pelican to Orient. A definite time saver but I don’t think I’d feel comfortable at night.<br>A lot of construction everywhere.<br>I think they use front-end loaders as traffic control. Every day we’d find one or two of them driving around the island backing up traffic.<br>Drank lots of inexpensive yet very good French wine.<br>Often found ourselves saying “There’s too much to do”.<br><br>On 11/03/01 we flew home on the 5:10 PM USAirways flight to PHL and on to Richmond with no problems.<br><br><br><br><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Administrator on 12/10/01 03:00 PM.</EM></FONT></P>