Tuesday June 4th

Left the house at 0500 for the 3+ hour drive from Sarasota to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) for a 10:54 flight. Arrived at FLL at approximately 0815. Took almost 30 minutes to finally find a parking spot. Got off the tram and checked the bags. TSA Pre-check was a breeze and we were at the gate by 0910.

Get a text from JetBlue that they are changing the gate from F7 to F10, no biggie, just across the way. Got some coffee and partook in my favorite thing to do at the airport, people watch! The flight scheduled before our SXM flight was boarding and left on time at 0952.

An announcement comes over the P.A. that our flight will be delayed due a minor mechanical issue at 1015 and hence the scheduled 1019 boarding will be delayed by about 15 minutes. At around 1035 a plane is towed into the gate and the next announcement comes along that the plane is here and is currently being cleaned and catered and boarding should be starting in 15 minutes. At 1100 boarding starts and we take our seats.

I booked us in Even More Space seats for a small increase in fee. The seats give you a nice amount of leg room, but not really any additional width. (My problem isn’t height, it’s width, heee). The flight was only about half filled, maybe because it was a Tuesday.

We departed somewhere around 1140 but landed only about 15 minutes later than scheduled. There were 2 Delta planes and an American plane parked at the terminal. We used those nice ramps rather than the steps to deplane. Not really needed for me and or my wife but I could really see why those with mobility issues appreciate it.

We were bused to the terminal and the other flights must have already gone through because we were the only ones going through customs. That took all of 7 minutes then on to the baggage carousel. We must have been lucky because our bags came out in approximately 5 minutes. After retrieving the bags we went outside and as usual, Mr. Dependable, a.k.a. Lesley Bruce of Kenny’s was waiting for us. We got our rental and were out of the airport in less than 30 minutes.

We drove to our rental in Orient Village and hit an absurd amount of traffic between Marigot and Grand Case. Took almost 45 minutes but it turns out there is some roads being torn up to, what appeared to be, burying the utilities.

After arriving at the rental unit and getting our familiarization of the unit, and the password for the wi-fi, we emptied the baggage from the car and then went to the small grocery store in the village, Le Petit Casino and got a very small amount of items to make a quick dinner. Egg sandwiches to be exact.

After unpacking we spent a little while trying to find English Netflix because everything in this rental unit is French. Watched the last season of FULLER HOUSE and was able to get English version. Long day and crashed!


Wednesday June 5th
Woke up around 0630 to a beautiful day. Had a lazy morning sitting on the patio. I made coffee while Babs made friends with the 2 cats that seemed to have taken up residence outside the condo. After coffee, we took showers and then reluctantly got dressed. Walked a few minutes to the village and had a great breakfast at Good Morning and spent about an hour there. After breakfast we returned to the condo, got the car and went to the Leader Price for a better selection of groceries.
Major difference that I saw between September last year, when we were on the Dutch side, and this year being on the French side, is that the grocery stores on the Dutch side cater more to the American tourists with many more familiar brands with far more choice of items. Everything in the 2 stores we went to on the French side had much less choice and everything in French. If we couldn’t figure out what was in the package based on the picture, we ignored it. Having said that, we got the basics and a few extras.

After Leader Price and heading back to the rental, we went for a quick dip in the pool. At around 1200, the condo manager left after making a minor repair to the ceiling fan. I realized that according to a posting by a recent visitor on a different blog that the Perch Lite happy hour was starting soon.

We had a few issues to take care of but we left the rental at 1245 and headed to Club O beach and made it to the Perch Lite for happy hour. Upon arrival we met with Shawn and got 2 chairs in the first row then headed to the Perch Lite for lunch and drinks. Yes the drinks are 2-4-1 and it happy hour ended around 2:30 P.M. We ate a burger and fries at the Percj Lite. Was very good and filling. The parking area was almost full and it seemed that there was around 150 people along the stretch from the Perch Lite to the former Papgayo’s. Cedrick and his guys are doing a great job trying to keep this beach going. There was no seaweed on the sand and only a few strings in the water. I hope the owners at Club O can get to agreeing on a solution and rebuild soon.

After lunch we went back to the chairs and enjoyed the sun, sand and breeze au naturel until almost 4:30. Left the beach went back to the rental. The lunch was so filling we decided to forego any dinner and instead sat around the pool.

Don’t know what’s on tap for tomorrow, but sand gravity isn’t too bad either. For us country music lovers there’s a Kenny Chesney song that just may describe this vacation. The title is Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset, Repeat!


Thursday June 6th
Since SXM doesn’t recognize daylight savings time the sun rises earlier here than at home in Florida. So, this morning the sun was illuminating the rental through the curtains at 0545. No big deal because we are usually early risers anyway.

I got up and made the coffee while my wife slept. The smell of the coffee woke her up at about 0600 and I poured us each a cup of coffee. We had some conversation and another cup of Joe. It was just a nice relaxing morning and we just enjoyed sitting around the table on the patio and drank the rest of the pot of coffee.

It was about 0715 when we decided to go for a stroll on the beach. We changed into gym shorts, t-shirts and flip flops. From our rental it is about a 5-minute walk to the entrance of the Club O beach. Once we passed the chain we walked to the Club Orient Nude Beach sign and I took a few pictures. (Even though my better half is getting comfortable with being naked on the beach in public, she still is not comfortable with posting pictures in the old interweb, so I am sorry, no pics.)

We strolled along the water's edge from the Perch Lite to Papagayo’s then turned around and walked back. During that walk we saw two people in the water and approximately 5 people walking the beach but we were the only ones nude. Once we got to the area before the rocks we both donned our shorts and t-shirts again. Unless we were too early or too late, it seems that we missed the masses doing their morning walks.

We got back to the rental, took a quick shower and decided to head out to the village for breakfast. Since we had experienced Good Morning yesterday we decided to stop at Yellow Sub. NEVER AGAIN!!!! Upon our arrival there were no more than 8 people in the entire establishment. We saw a staff person and asked for a table for two. We were shown a table near the street side and she gave us menus and pointed out the breakfast side of the menu. We looked it over for a few minutes as a few of the other people were paying their bills. Another couple arrives, probably locals because they spoke French, and were greeted by staff and shown a table. The server cleaned the table next us then walked back towards the kitchen. Another 5 minutes passed and the server appeared but went to the French speaking couple and took their order. She walked away again, not making eye contact with us and disappeared into the kitchen area. After another 5 minutes, and a total time sitting ignored fora total wait now of 20 minutes, I looked at my wife and said let’s go to Good Morning since this place is totally ignoring us and obviously doesn’t want our business. We stood up and walked out. We went to Good Morning, sat at an outside table and within a minute the owner was taking our order. Another great breakfast! Three fluffy pancakes, fresh fruit mix of mango, cantaloupe, pineapple, coffee and juice. Too much food and neither of us could finish. Next time we order that breakfast special, we’ll split one.

After breakfast was a stop in the market to get cat food for the stray cat that has taken up residence on the patio along with a few of his/her visiting friends that make random appearances.

Once back at the rental with fresh food, the cats are fed too. We hung out at the rental and watched the workman in the area. There is a lot of work being done in this complex of homes. Part of the string that we are in is having the roof replaced and others in the area are being painted. Around the corner there was a crane lifting plywood to the roof for the roofers.

At about 1130 we decided it was time to head to the beach. I wore my gym shorts and t-shirt and my wife wore a flowy coverup. We again drove there because we had 2 bags: One had the towels, books, sunscreen, clips for securing the towels to the chairs and rental keys while the other was a soft side cooler which had the ice, a few bottles of water, a few beers and Tervis tumbler drinking cups.

The parking lot was pretty well packed and one of Cedrick’s guys was in the lot directing cars where to park. We headed to the beach and found 2 chairs in the front row that were unoccupied. We placed our stuff there and Shawn came by to collect the $20 and put the tags on them. I removed my t-shirt and shorts as my wife removed her coverup and we let that sand gravity take effect.

We met and spoke with a few people who were from the areas we used to live, New York Metropolitan area and New England. Happy hour was from 1:30 to 2:30 so we had to partake in the BBC frozen drink. The next thing we knew it was 4:30 and we decided it was time to go.
I should have had my wife spray me with that sunscreen that we had in the beach bag because even though I was under the umbrella and only in the water very briefly, this Irish Fair Skinned lad got a bit of sunburn, luckily though, not in those sensitive areas nor under my man boobs, lol.

We got back to the rental and figured out how to get Netflix in English, Yay!!!!

I guess tomorrow will be another verse from Kenny Chesney’s Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset, repeat.