Trip Report 9-18 November 2001<br><br>Left Dulles near Washington DC right on schedule at 7am, lots of long lines and spot checking of luggage, but we allotted plenty of time.<br><br>Arrived St. Maarten about 2 pm. Michael from Unity Car Rental was waiting for us. Took us to his place near the Pizza Hut and picked us up a brand new car, just off the boat that morning. Gosh we hated to even go to the beach in it.<br><br>Summit Hotel—we stayed here on our first night and our last. Nice accommodations. They even let us check in early, even when we left our time share at 1000 we went straight to here and promptly got checked in before noon. <br><br>Timeshare at Oyster Bay: We almost had heart failure when we made the turn off the main road to go over the hill to the timeshare. The old rickety road is now nice and paved. What a relief. Now if they would just take care of the road going down into Oyster Bay. Construction was halted on the new units, but they are making progress on finishing. We’ve heard people complain that the one building will have a view of another. Well how much time do you plan on spending in your room? <br><br>Eating places:<br><br>Several places are a must to eat: <br><br>Baywatch (Orient Beach), the chicken finger hero is to die for as were the mussels with red wine sauce that Andy fixed up one day. Course, the Philly Steak isn’t bad either.<br><br>Ric’s Place: Wonderful Tex-Mex food, and don’t forget those onion rings. Yummy. Ate here 3 times, does that tell you something.<br><br>Turtle Pier: Had the best grilled lobster that I have had on the island. Not to mention we had a free bottle of wine with our dinner (see the coupon off the internet). My hubby had the London broil with pepper sauce. It was also outstanding. <br><br>Zee Best (Marigot): We also stop in to see Danny when we are in town. He had some new pastries that were wonderful. Of course he doesn’t make a bad one.<br><br>Ms B’s: To us still makes the best ribs on the island.<br><br>Willey’s Bakery (Philipsburg): Have to stop in and get a Kuba cake. What a great cake. Hard to describe, but almost better than s-x.<br><br>Captain Olivers: Went to the seafood buffet that is every Saturday night. They have crème brule that is to die for, almost better than s-x. We even ended up here for just for desert one night.<br><br>Paradise View (overlooks Orient Beach): Stop in and say hello to Claudette for us. She makes the best Guava Coladas on the island. She has a special recipe and she won’t share it with you. She’s getting ready to open a restaurant and also has a little gift shop.<br><br>Oyster Bay: Ate at the restaurant for all you can eat rib night. Ribs weren’t as good as they were when we ate there in May. But do stop in and say hello to Junior, Rosie, and Thomas for us. <br><br>Last but not least is The Peg Leg Pub, had a hard time finding it as Neil has not put any signs up yet. Once we found it the food and atmosphere are like a real English pub, even the fish and chips. Had a good talk with Neil and wish him well in this new adventure. <br><br>On the 10th we went to Orient for a TTOL happy hour. Glad we got to meet some wonderful people and thanks to Bobbie and Rich for their work putting it together. <br><br>We took a long time friend of ours with us this trip and she enjoyed the island as much as we do. We spent each day going to different beaches. Found Happy Bay but could not get down the hill to the bay so we left. A lot of construction of new homes there any way. First time to Mullet Bay and enjoyed the beach a lot. It was calm the day we went. Of course we spent 3 days at Orient Bay. <br><br>Finally it was time to leave, we will miss all of our friends we made this trip and hopefully we will meet again soon. <br><br><br><br><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Administrator on 12/10/01 01:46 PM.</EM></FONT></P>