We’re definitely on the downside of our trip and it’s all been good so far.

Awoke this morning to sunny skies and a busy day soon come. We had coffee-and at our villa, showered and potsied around until about ten o’clock when we finally left to head into P’Berg.

Very little traffic once we got beyond Sunset Beach Bar/Maho Beach area and we made good time going to town. DH dropped me off by the Courthouse in town and was able to get into the midtown lot with the car and eventually rejoined me as we headed to Caribbean Gems main store as our first stop.

We have been shopping at Caribbean Gems and with the Budhrani family since they opened their first store on the island in 1983 and I think we may have singlehandedly put at least one of their kids through private school and/or college through our yearly purchases……just kidding.😊😊.

They have always treated us very well and today was no exception to that rule, not to ignore the fact their merchandise has always been top-shelf and their customer service is incredible. We went from their main store to the second one because we wanted to offer our hellos to some of the other staff we’ve come to know. As a bit of an aside, we happened to bump into one of Rajish’s kids at JFK. If I got it right, he had met Assan (sp?) Budhrani for lunch while he was waiting for his connecting flight home to SXM.

Anyhoo, we walked across the street to visit Max, formerly of CG and who has recently opened his own store. It was nice to say hello and see his new home. I know he had been with CG for about 25 years so this was a big move for him and we wish him well. I thought it very gracious of him to admit to having learned so much from Manu over those years.

Back to CG to pick up our purchases and meet Manu and his wife, Neelam for lunch. We all headed off to Old Street to have a lovely light lunch at The French Touch and to visit with the owner there while we ate. We’ve known Jeanne Pierre since he started at Antoine’s so many years ago as a busboy. He went through all the stages from busboy right up to ownership of Antoine’s before he sold it and opened his sidewalk cafe. Lunch was excellent - different entrees for all and a shared fruit platter that was scrumptious. Every piece of fruit was perfectly ripe and totally enjoyable. So nice to spend quality time with good people and long time friends.

Before we knew it, it was 3:00 - where did the time go?! DH came with the car and picked me up on Back Street at the rear entrance to Old Street and off we went. Next stop - a quick hello to Barbara Cannegieter and visit her menagerie once we spotted her round blue roof and get our bearings again. This is a lady who truly loves her island pets. And as we were preparing to leave a while later, another of her creatures wandered across her pool deck - a huge turtle whose shell alone had to be at least ten inches, not counting his legs, feet and head. Between the turtle, the dogs, the free birds and the caged birds plus those big green creatures, she will never want for animal entertainment.

And here we are back home at BSV trying to decide on what to do for dinner and we are amazed by the change in the character of the waves this evening. They’re rolling in and almost up to the foundation at times. And I hesitate to add this but today is the first day we haven’t had a brief rain shower blow through. Or if we did, at least we weren’t around when it happened. Or it didn’t happen where we were?

Dinner ended up being at El Zafiro since we just didn’t want to wander too far. I ordered a cheeseburger plate and it was very good……and we didn’t have to get all dressed up or wander too far.