This is our trip report from our February 1 to 9, 2002 trip to St. Martin. We used FF tickets on AA, booking them 330 days out in order to guarantee seats in February. We do not normally go to SXM in February, as we don’t like to pay high season prices or put up with high season crowds. Crowds were not as bad as normal for February, due to 9-11. The weather was a little chillier than I would like and the water colder than I would want. I barely went in the water at all, as I like my water bath water warm. Apparently all of January was very windy this year, so that could explain partially the cold water.<br><br>Sorry for the length of this report, and for the duplication of some notes I posted on TTOL earlier in the week, regarding hotels and the lagoon cruise, which I have cut and pasted here in the report. When you get to those parts, you have my permission to skip over them, but no OTHER parts! <IMG SRC=http://"/images/icons/grin.gif"> Break out the new ream of paper, hit “print” and grab a cold one!! <img src="/images/icons/grin.gif"><br><br>We booked AA, Washington Dulles to San Juan to SXM. Our flight left Dulles at 7 AM. After the obligatory 3 hours sleep, we arrived at Dulles around 5:30, through security and everything with very few problems, except the one about the knife in my carry-on. <img src="/images/icons/crazy.gif"> Other than that, we were fine...... They were offering $350 per person to take a bump, but we didn’t really consider it, since we had a party to go to that evening and had to meet the guy to get our keys to the villa. The plane to SJU was full and left on time. We actually had breakfast, which figured, since I had brought food for the flight. According to flight attendant, February 1 was the first day that they had served breakfast on that flight, since 9-11, I guess. It was some kind of omelette with cheese. At least it was warm. Arrived in SJU, on time, no problems, flight from SJU a couple of minutes late, no biggey. Even though there were no other big planes in, we parked all the way at the end of the airport, so they could get maximum mileage out of the busses, I guess. <img src="/images/icons/crazy.gif"><br><br>We booked our car through SXM Cars with Hertz, thanks Jack, for a great price! The car was fine except we initially had a problem as it was not always starting first thing in the morning. We took the car to the Hertz place right at Captain Oliver's. The guy there determined the alarm was the problem, disconnected it and it started fine after that. <br><br>We were met by Olivier Arens, from Soleil Villas, whom we rented our villa through. The name of the villa was Sienna, in Oyster Pond. (Please see the separate report on the villa itself for a full description of Sienna.
Sienna Villa Report He gave us the key for the villa. We knew the way to the villa, since we had been there before. We stopped at Food Center to get necessary supplies. We realized that FC has a measly selection of cheeses, and ended up only with some gouda, along with all our other supplies. We got to the villa fine and then couldn’t remember exactly WHICH one it was. Basically, Sienna is a townhouse, in a row of about six townhouses, exactly alike. We kind of bumbled around, and decided which one we thought it was, so stuck the key in, and thankfully, it worked!! <img src="/images/icons/grin.gif"><br><br>We were happy to see that–despite our having stopped on the way to the villa for such supplies–that the refrigerator was stocked with wine, some beers and sodas, chips, eggs, milk, bread, nuts., etc. What WASN’T stocked, unfortunately, was toilet paper, a somewhat necessary item!! <img src="/images/icons/crazy.gif"> There was also no soap in the bathrooms, although truth to tell, there were some bottles of stuff in the shower, written in French. We weren’t sure we wanted to take a big chance there, and just use something without knowing what it was!!! <img src="/images/icons/rofl.gif"> We knew that we had to go to a TTOL party that evening anyway, so headed back to Food Center for those necessary items on the way to Peg Leg Pub.<br><br>We arrived at Peg Leg something like 6:30. The PAHTY had been planned by Contessa for 6 P.M., I think. Neil’s place is weird from the outside, you can’t tell if there’s anybody in there or not. We walked up and I was thinking I couldn’t see anybody in there. Opened up the door and the first thing I hear is Contessa saying “Here’s Carol and Eric now!!”. Wow, there were like 30 TTOL folks there. We talked to a huge number of people, didn’t get much past the front door! Then it was off for dinner at Bananas. We probably had 20 people having dinner at Bananas. I had a burger (huge and good), and Eric had the mahi-mahi stuffed with crab and shrimp, that he said was great. We talked to many more folks there, had a great dinner, but we were dead tired, so headed back to the villa and were in bed at 9:30.<br><br>Saturday morning I felt like death warmed over, as I had not really slept well at all. After some croissant and coffee and a shower, I felt a little better. The kitchen sink at the villa had been backed up, so a guy came to fix it, then we were off to Orient for the day by around 10:30. We felt like the beach was pretty empty for February, but this was a Saturday. The weather was a little iffy, the wind very strong. Apparently the wind throughout all of January was very bad, and supposedly this day, the wind was better than it had been. Wow, not good news. We had one small shower around noon. We went to Andy and Sheryl’s Baywatch for lunch. As we were paying, the guy brought up the bill holder, emblazoned with a big “BAYWATCH” emblem. Eric and I burst out laughing. According to Sheryl, the folks from the Dutch Baywatch GAVE the stuff to Andy when they closed. Whatever you say, dear.... <img src="/images/icons/grin.gif"> I had the meatball parmigiana and Eric had the cheese ravioli. Wow, both were great, but TOO MUCH food. We should have split it, as I was stuffed all night. BTW, Andy says that, starting this PAST Monday, that he will be having live music in front of Baywatch in the afternoons, for about a month. Andy has also repainted the whole place, and put up all new flags, INCLUDING a new TTOL flag, courtesy of US!! <img src="/images/icons/grin.gif"><br><br> We hung out with Contessa’s crew on the beach all afternoon, then went by Alizea to check out her digs. Alizea is an older hotel in French Cul de Sac, which has an absolutely tremendous view of Orient, Tintamarre and St. Barts. It’s a smaller, family run type hotel with a variety of rooms with different layouts and views, ranging from good to spectacular. The pool and main bar area also have a fabulous view, looking over toward Orient. We saw two of the rooms, one on an upper floor with a fabulous view, belonging to Contessa’s friend, LeeLee, plus the lower unit which belonged to Contessa. Contessa’s unit was a two floor job, with bedroom upstairs, more room, quite comfortable. Furnishings were older and the mini-kitchenette was out on the balcony, which I somewhat disliked, but the view was very nice. The management treats you like family, which is very nice. <br><br>Contessa had told me about the owner’s shih tzu, who is kind of the mascot of the hotel. We have a shih tzu of our own and in general, love dogs. I looked for him and didn’t see him, till we were ready to leave, when I saw a dog up on the reception desk. I made Eric stop the car and back up, and ran up to the desk, only to see Contesss’s shih tzu magically morph into a Yorkshire Terrier! Not exactly the same thing, my dear! <img src="/images/icons/grin.gif"><br><br>The drive to Orient is maybe 10 minutes from Alizea and I would imagine the price is right. The only negatives are, again, like Princess Heights, if you are on the top floors, there would be a lot of stairs to climb. The restaurant is closed, but there are many restaurants within walking distance, and again, one really needs a car in SXM anyway. It’s not a brand spanking new hotel, but once you know that, it’s very nice and comfortable. <br><br>Home for a shower, then we met Contessa’s group at Calmos Café in Grand Case for dinner. We had a crew of 10 folks altogether. We had about five appetizers, various mixed drinks, a bottle of wine, and meals for everybody, with a total bill of $250. Not bad... I had the ribs and fried potatoes, Eric had grilled tuna. After dinner, Eric, feeling no pain by this time, practically insisted that everyone come over to Oyster Pond to see our villa. The villa is about a block from Captain Oliver’s, which we figured most people should be able to find without any problem, so we told people to just follow us. We didn’t realize that there would be your standard “road-block” on the way–a car STOPPED in the lane of travel, no lights on, just sitting there, at something like 10 PM. <img src="/images/icons/crazy.gif"> Of course this wasn’t QUITE as good as the car that we saw on another occasion, going 30 mph IN REVERSE in the correct lane, mind you, I GUESS!!!! (Hey guys, we couldn’t make this stuff up!!!!!!!) Eric decided he would go the round-about way instead of the way straight by Captain O’s, and I could fairly hear the folks cussing us out from the cars behind us, going, “Where the _ell are we going??????” <img src="/images/icons/crazy.gif"> Anyway, everyone finally arrived safe and sound, and we were able to show off the villa. We pounded on the TV, trying to get something other than ***mned French channels to come out of it, as the next day was to be the Super Bowl, and this villa would have been a truly fabulous place to have a Super Bowl party. No such luck, though. <img src="/images/icons/sad.gif"><br><br>Sunday morning the weather looked pretty rainy early on, so we decided to check out Princess Heights and do a little driving around. WOW! I tell you, I was very impressed with this place. All units are at least a one bedroom suite, in the truest sense of the word. The furnishings are first rate, the floors all marble, great kitchen, refrigerator with ice and water through the door, microwave, dishwasher, all marble baths with jacuzzi tubs, balconies that open out from the living room AND from the bedroom, with two chaise lounges and a small table and chairs on the balcony, all with views of the ocean, TV with 50-some cable channels, according to the gal who showed us around. <br><br>The hotel has no restaurant, so you need to go out for meals, but one needs a car in this area anyway, as it is not really close to town although only about three minutes to Oyster Bay Beach Resort in a car. You can walk down the hill and across the road and end up basically at Scavenger’s. The pool area is beautiful also, although looked lightly used. The only real negative is that there is no elevator and the resort is something like 6 stories, which I would not want to climb all the time. Rack rates are $200 per night summer, $300 winter, but they have been running lots of specials lately. Again, as with OBBR, the road is definitely now NOT an issue, as the road is very smooth and nice all the way.<br><br>We arrived at Kakao on Orient around 12 noon. I got a great thin crust pizza with ham and mushrooms and Eric ordered a fabulous chicken and shrimp in curry sauce dish. That and two drinks each was $45–not cheap for lunch, but good. As we are leaving, we happened to see that there are several TV’s over the bar and I asked the guys whether they were going to be having the Super Bowl on and they replied “of course”. We went down the beach and let Contessa know, and she made reservations for 10 for that evening. We got there around 6:45 and ended up staying, along with most everybody else, till 11 PM.<br><br>There were probably 60 people at Kakao that night, so I’m sure that they made a good penny that night!! It was kind of a surreal experience, standing with a group of mostly Americans, singing the Star Spangled Banner on the beach in SXM. The game, of course, was great, a good Super Bowl for once. I got the lasagna and Eric the pasta with shrimp and lobster sauce, and we shared an order of spring rolls. We had two bottles of wine and unknown number of other drinks, and our bill was something like $120. BTW, do NOT ever order a Long Island Iced Tea at Kakao. Contessa claimed that she had never had one before, and so we both got what they CLAIMED was a LIIT. Well, Contessa has STILL never had a LIIT, cause that were’nt it!!! It was nasty!! <img src="/images/icons/frank.gif"> Now, the black russians were good, though. ...<img src="/images/icons/grin.gif"><br><br>Monday morning we thought we would check out Captain Oliver’s for breakfast, since it was about a block away from the villa. I have one word for that breakfast–nasty!! <img src="/images/icons/frank.gif"> We should have had some clue when we walked into the restaurant and no waitress appeared to seat us for close to five minutes. We should also have taken a clue from the fact that there was only one other table in the restaurant being used. It was just after 9 AM, so we figured maybe we were just after the main breakfast crowd. This was truly the WORST dining experience we have had in SXM, bar none. The buffet was $10 US per person and consisted of cold eggs, cold sausages, cold pancakes (are you detecting a pattern here???), a plate of over-ripe pineapple, 3 pieces of cheese, some pound cake, OJ and coffee. Wow, was that nasty. Needless to say, we did not return.....<br><br>After our lovely breakfast, we drove around a little bit, in search of Pepsi (no luck until Thursday, time to go home!!) and the large bottles of MaDouDou rum for some gifts for folks back home. No luck with the DouDou, so we thought we’d try US Import/Export later on in the week and headed back to the villa for a few hours. We fixed burgers on the grill for lunch and headed out to Papagayo’s to meet TTOL folks for drinks. We saw JD (Ruralcarrier) walking down the road toward Papagayo’s in his TTOL shirt, so introduced ourselves. We had a nice few drinks with JD and Surfergirl and Mario. <br><br>Monday evening we tried once again to go to LePinel restaurant in Cul de Sac, to find it closed once again. Over the past three trips to SXM we have tried at least once every trip to try this restaurant and it has always been closed. <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif"> We headed then to Grand Case, electing for Le Escapade, which was a new restaurant for us. Eric had the onion soup, which was good but too thick. I had the filet mignon with bacon and bleu cheese and Eric had the seabass. We shared a creme brulee, coffee and a bottle of Gerwurtemeiner. Altogether $100. A good meal, not great. We headed to Tropicana Casino and to Dolphin and wound up down by $65 for the night. Not too bad...<br><br>Tuesday morning we had breakfast at the villa, croissant we had picked up at Food Fair. Eric called Mr. Arens, at my insistence, to inquire about my CD player, which was missing in the villa, even though he had promised me one on several occasions. He apologized, claimed he would go buy one and bring it by. Of course, he never did, which ticked me off. Today the maid did not show up either, which made me even more happy... Tuesday was an absolutely PERFECT weather day on Orient, light breeze, warm temps all day, no rain. Life is good. Many folks know Jerry, a guy who lives in SXM and spends a lot of time at Orient. Today he showed up with a lady (who promptly took off further down the beach) and a little dog, Yorkshire terrier. Eric and I joked that Jerry was using the dog to pick up chicks, and it seemed to be working fairly well. <img src="/images/icons/grin.gif"> We had lunch at Andy and Sheryl’s Baywatch, sharing a chicken parmesan sandwich and onion rings. As always, it was good, and not so much food that I was uncomfortable as I was the first day.<br><br>We decided to try out LePetit in Cul de Sac for dinner, since neither one of us was in the mood for a big dinner. This place is great. Mostly locals eat there. I thought that they served ONLY pizza, but they have other things there also, all at very good prices. They had a lunch special–not sure what the entree was, but it was soup, entree, glass of wine, dessert and coffee for 10 Euro!! I’m sure that they don’t have a huge lunch crowd because of the location, but it certainly looked a great deal! We looked at the menu and most all the prices were 8 to 10 Euros per pizza, so we, stupidly, thought they were like personal pan pizza size and ordered two. When the guy brought out 2 15 inch pizzas, we burst out laughing. The pizza was very thin crust and good, except I didn’t like the onions on my pizza, as they were very sweet. Not sure what they did to them. Anyway, a bottle of wine and the two pizzas was something like $30. We had almost a whole pizza left over. Since we didn’t have a microwave at the villa, we told him to just dump the rest. After a brief and rather horrific trip to Dolphin casino, we went home to bed with our tails between our legs....<br><br>Wednesday morning we tried to go to the restaurant at the Columbus Hotel, right by us. The name of the restaurant escapes me at the moment. They weren’t serving, so we decided to go to Rancho del Sol, which is in the former Mexican restaurant, former hardware store, now kind of a 7-11 on the hill above Orient. I got my daily fix of “canine”, with the dog there, who finished the last of my ham & cheese omelette. Eric had the spanish omelette. Those and coffee and it was $18 total. Not bad, but not great either. The view can scarcely be beat, however.<br><br>We headed down to Orient for a few hours, eating a hot dog at the Perch for lunch. By 2:30 we had to leave to head out for the sunset cruise on the Lagoon Princess. We had never done a sunset cruise in SXM before this trip, other than a “private” sunset cruise that we did on a sailboat out of Grand Case from the OLD Surf Club South, a lot of years ago, so we were looking forward to this trip The Lagoon Princess is sort of a pontoon boat, with comfy padded seats all around and a roof in case of a passing shower. The boat is operated by Bas and Yenny Reijntjes. The boat leaves from Turtle Pier on Tuesdays and Fridays for sunset lagoon cruises. You can book only the sunset cruise or a cruise and dinner combination. We chose only the cruise, and asked Bas to do a special TTOL cruise, which he cheerfully did. We had 12 people sign up as interested. Several of those folks didn’t show up, which was definitely THEIR loss, as we had a great time, with JD (Ruralcarrier) and Betty and Norm (SXM Norm). Thanks, guys, for making it a great trip! We, as well as Bas, greatly enjoyed JD’s cashews. <br><br>The cruise leaves from Turtle Pier at 4:30, but you need to be there by around 4:15 to check in and make sure you get there in time. (During the summer, I think the time is later.) They can accommodate around 25 people. You can make reservations from home ahead of time, but they like you to check in also once you get to the island. The cost is $25 per person, or $50 per person with dinner. On the dinner cruise, you can print out a coupon off their site for $10 off per couple. The cruise is 90 minutes, and they do not have a restroom onboard, so Bas makes sure he warns folks to take advantage of the bathrooms at Turtle Pier before leaving, if necessary. They serve beer, red and white wine, sodas, frozen rum punch, and various mixed drinks. I didn’t look in particular as to all of the brands of liquor available, but they did have a decent selection of standard shelf liquors. They are not stingy with the liquor and Bas’s wife makes sure everyone is fully supplied with drinks. For our trip, they provided chips, because JD brought cashews, but I understand that they normally also have cheese snacks and pretzels.<br><br>The cruise stays ONLY within the lagoon, which means that the ride is very smooth. You can occasionally get a couple of waves come by if one of the monster yachts starts moving around, but in general, it is dead flat calm, so no reason to worry about seasickness. (If you see a particularly interesting yacht, as we did, just ask Bas to buzz it, which is what we did. <img src="/images/icons/cool.gif"> The Simpson Bay Lagoon is the largest lagoon in the Caribbean, a fact which I didn’t know before the cruise. Bas does a great job of taking you round the lagoon and showing you various items of interest, villas owned by famous people, along with imparting some nice stories, which even he says may or may not be true, but are enjoyable nonetheless. I think with our group, he had a somewhat unusual group, as we had all been coming to SXM for some years and knew most of the standard stories, including Luis and the forest of sailboats on the bottom thereafter, I think that is one of his prize stories, which apparently I ruined for him this trip. <img src="/images/icons/grin.gif"> Strangely enough, between the TTOL group, we decided that the cruise actually is more interesting for folks that know the island well, as it is so unusual to see the BACK side of many resorts that one is familiar with, but which previously one could only see from the island side. <br><br>Depending on whether Air France is late (which it often is, apparently) you can occasionally get quite a bonus, as the AF 747 takes off right over your head. We were the lucky ones this trip, as it took off right over our heads and Bas did a pirouette with the boat right under the plane as it took off. Quite cool.<br><br>Our particular trip ended with a nice sunset--not spectacular--but still in all, very nice. Since you are not on the open ocean, you cannot see the sun ALL the way to the water, but it is very low before it disappears below the slip of island between you and the sun. The trip was very enjoyable, especially with some folks you already know onboard. Highly recommended! Check out their web site at
www.lagoon-princess.com.<br> <br><br>After the cruise, we went to Bananas for dinner with Norm and Betty and JD. Eric and I both had the filet mignon, served with steak fries and salad. This had to be about the best filet mignon I have had in SXM. There was nothing fancy about it all, just a REALLY good piece of meat, cooked to perfection and fork tender. <br><br>JD invited us over to the Flamingo to see his room afterwards, and offered us some champagne. We really didn’t see the whole resort, just his room. I personally am much more affected by the view than I should be, I guess, but JD had a really crappy view of a parking lot. Now, this was February and JD paid $450 for the week, because he booked through Cheap Caribbean, so I would assume that Flamingo probably put him in one of their worst rooms. For $450 for the week in February, JD certainly was happy with the room, but I would have liked a view.<br><br>The room was a decent size, with kitchenette, of course, microwave and coffeepot, bedroom area and separate seating area, separated by a curtain, if desired. The furnishings were older than some, but certainly acceptable. Overall, it was a place to sleep. As I said, I didn’t get a look at the rest of the resort, only JD’s room, so this is probably not a fair assessment. We appreciated his hospitality more Wednesday night than we did Thursday morning, when my head felt like I had had much to much to drink!!! <img src="/images/icons/hangover.gif"><br><br>Thursday morning we met Norm and Betty at the Barefoot Terrace for breakfast. This is right outside the Oyster Bay Beach Resort, where they own a timeshare, and this was the best breakfast we had this time, by far! Eric had an omelette, I the french toast, both with juice and coffee. Total bill was $11. Great food and service, great bargain. Check it out, if you’re in the Oyster Pond area for breakfast. They serve lunch also–burgers and fries. Don’t know that they serve dinner though. Afterwards, we went with Norm and Betty to check out OBBR. <br><br>Oyster Bay Beach Resort is a timeshare resort and these folks are still in the midst of a major building effort. They have built a couple of new buildings and in the process of a couple more. They also apparently completely rebuilt the pool area pretty recently. There are several different sections of the hotel, with differing views. Norm and Betty’s unit looked right out over Dawn Beach and had a particularly lovely view. The particular building they were in is almost new, with nice clean bright fittings and furnishings. They had a one bedroom suite--not huge but very nice. They said that they had also stayed in a marina view room and enjoyed that. Actually, it looked to me that the ocean view rooms, which looked directly out toward St. Barts, etc., did not have as good a view as the Dawn Beach view, as there is no sand on the ocean side of the resort. Be very careful here though, with rooms, as there are a couple of buildings that look into the back of another building and have NO view whatsoever.<br><br>As I said, the main pool area was apparently re-done recently and is beautiful, with a pool with disappearing edge into the ocean, jacuzzi and lots of nice chairs, right by the water. The restaurant was closed, but apparently was due to reopen the end of February or so. The location of the restaurant, including the outside terrace, provided a very lovely view, as did the bar in the main lounge. For the moment, there are still restaurants within walking distance, Ms. B’s, Mr. Busby’s, and the Barefoot Terrace. <br>Possibly the best recent improvement at OBBR is the ROAD! Wow, no more potholes from hell to get there. Great road, all the way to the gate for the resort. With that improvement, OBBR is now 15 minutes from Orient, maybe 20 minutes to Simpson Bay.<br><br>We went back to the villa and filled up the collapsible cooler with makings for lunch, plus drinks and hauled it and ourselves to the beach. We had a lovely lunch of wine and cheese and crackers and grapes on the beach. The weather was a little iffy, kind of cloudy and windy, but all in all, still we were on Orient!! <br><br>Prior to dinner, we knew that we needed a bottle of wine for the beach the next day, so thought we would stop by a little grocery store recommended to us by Surfergirl and Mario. In Orleans, right across from the Gess gas station is a store called Amigo Supermarket. This was a store frequented mostly by locals. We were the only Americans in the store. However, what was MOST important about Amigo is that they were apparently the ONLY store on the WHOLE island that had Pepsi! Those among you who are dedicated Pepsi fans know the pain one must go through, drinking Coke. My normal drink is actually Diet Pepsi, but I knew that there was almost no chance of getting that on the island. I think by my count we went to about 10 different grocery stores looking for Pepsi and of course we found this place on Thursday night, basically a day before we went home! Anyway, as of February 7, 2002, they had about 6 cases! We heard that there was some problem with the Pepsi supplier for the island. Get your act in gear, fellow!!! Incidentally, here, as in several other places we went, some prices are still in FF, so just be sure what price you are paying! <br><br>For dinner, we went to my personal favorite restaurant, Auberge Gourmande. We arrived around 7, with no reservations, of course. (We are still very proud to state that we have NEVER made a reservation for dinner in SXM. Not having to worry about reservations for dinner is one of the main reasons–in addition to it being cheaper, that we almost always travel to SXM off season) We had no problem getting a table. I suppose that is an indication that the island business is still off from 9-11, that we were able to walk right in and sit down. Eric had the lobster bisque (light, very good, not too heavy like many restaurants make it) and the dover sole. They brought out the fish whole and it was astounding, watching the lady debone it. Eric said there were NO bones whatsoever in it. I had the chicken. We shared the three chocolate dessert. Oh my God, was that good!! <img src="/images/icons/oink.gif"> A bottle of wine, coffee, free before and after dinner drinks, rounded out the meal. After another perfectly horrible trip to Dolphin Casino, we decided maybe this wasn’t our trip for gambling.... <img src="/images/icons/crazy.gif"><br><br>Friday morning we knew that we had to head over to see our friends at LaVista and check out their new LaVista Beach Resort. LaVista Beach is the new section of the older LaVista timeshare resort, with the new units just opened in December 2001. LaVista Resort has been around for a while, with most of the resort being the older section, with various room configurations up the side of the hill, with great views from most. The older rooms still have clean, comfortable nice furnishings, nice accommodations. The new section is across the road from the main section and right ON the ocean, with one and two bedroom units, all with balconies or patios with unobstructed direct views of the ocean. Furnishings are new, of course, clean and bright, Caribbean and colorful. The new section has it’s own pool (in addition to the pool by the main restaurant, the Hideaway) and will soon have a new tiki bar and shade huts in a section with sand by the new pool. There is also a stairway down to the ocean, where there is a small sand beach. They are still trying to get all the rocks out of the area, but it is a nice little beach. <br><br>One of the very best parts of LaVista is the people, from the owner, Peter, and his daughter, Andrea, who manages day to day business at the resort, their personable staff at the Hideaway (which serves great breakfast and lunch, by the way--sorry, never been there for dinner!!) along with Debbie, their computer person, and their sales staff, including Piet and some others. Lavista does timeshare differently, with no gifts, no gimmicks, no hard sell, no come-ons. If you’re in to buying timeshare (which we’re not, but know many people are), I kind of doubt you could do better than at LaVista is you are looking for a clean, comfortable, family run place who treat guests like family also. <br><br>Once again, we had packed up our cooler for our trip to Orient for the day. We decided to check out the little 7-11 type store in the new shopping center right behind LaPlaya Restaurant. Check it out sometime, as they have absolutely WONDERFUL pastries and bread, plus liquor and mixers, etc., and rotisserie chicken. The chicken was 8.50 Euro ($8 US, which is a rip-off–pay with Euros here, if possible!!!!). We had the guy whack it up, although he didn’t do a terribly good job of whacking, by the way. If you decide to get a chicken there and take it to the beach, make sure you bring your own knife, or examine the chicken to make sure he REALLY cuts it up. <img src="/images/icons/grin.gif"> Anyway, we took our chicken, wine, cheese and crackers and grapes and had a merry old lunch on the beach. Highly recommended! Of course, I had packed plates, salt and pepper, silverware in our bag, also! The weather was a little windy and chilly when we first arrived around noon, then it cleared off beautiful and sunny from around 1 PM on. JD showed up and spent the afternoon on the beach with us and Mario and Surfergirl. Dave and Cinde came down the beach from LaPlaya to say bye and I presented her with a cold can of Pepsi, fellow Pepsi-ite that she is!! <img src="/images/icons/grin.gif"> Jack Rinaldi also showed up and we chatted with him for a while. We were also pleased to see Dave and Pat, fellow TTOL’ers we had met in September, who just showed up on Friday.<br><br>Well, all good things must end, I suppose.... <img src="/images/icons/sad.gif"> Around 4 PM, the sky started looking REALLY, REALLY black. I suggested that we leave, which of course, Eric would have no part of. Well, I tell you, this was no five minute quick shower that Larry (Sword) would laugh at! <img src="/images/icons/yikes.gif"> This thing was a 40 minute DOWNPOUR, with 20 mph winds. More fun than decent people need. After all that, when it finally calmed down, we, Jack, JD, Surfergirl and Mario, were 99% of the folks still left on the beach. We took our leave of them and hauled our cold bodies and soaked towels back to the villa for a WARM shower and a drink and to pack up our stuff for the dreaded day going home tomorrow..... <img src="/images/icons/sad.gif"><br><br>After our big lunch, we weren’t in the mood to do something elaborate for dinner, so decided to head to Peg Leg Pub. We had jalapeno poppers, Eric had the roast beef sandwich, I the club sandwich. Both sandwiches were HUGE and came with BOTH french fries and potato salad. Well, at least I couldn’t finish all of my sandwich. By the time we finished our dinner, we still hadn’t seen Neil so we asked the waiter if he was coming by later. He said that he was there in the office. Eric responded with “Well tell him Eric says to get his _ss out here!!” The guy looked a little shocked, and asked for Eric’s name again. Of course, Neil showed up a few seconds later, kind of grinning. <br><br>We talked with Neil for a while, and then headed to the grand opening of TA-DA “Paradise Plaza Casino”. Paradise Plaza is in the old Lightning building. They have a lot of slots, very few tables, maybe 7, plus a roulette table. They have NO craps table. When we walked in, around 8:30, I saw that there was no one playing roulette. I saw the pit boss, whom I know I have seen before at SOME casino in SXM–the Italian guy with the slicked back hair?? You all know who I’m talking about!! <img src="/images/icons/grin.gif"> Anyway, I told him, “Why don’t you open up that roulette table with 25 cent chips and I’ll play??” He said, no, we don’t want to do that. I gave him a little more STUFF and then Eric and I went over to a blackjack table to sit down. There followed the BEST night of blackjack I have ever had in my life!! <img src="/images/icons/grin.gif"> I tell you, I could do no wrong! We sat at that same table for 4 hours–didn’t leave except to go the bathroom. I even lost some of the money back that I was up, but still tripled my money. Eric also doubled his money. That and champagne for 4 hours, as fast as I could drink it.... Man, life is good!!! That night more than made up for what we had lost the previous nights. Plus, it’s always nice to come home on a winning note for once! <img src="/images/icons/thumbsup.gif"> BTW, Lightning had put in a whole new sportsbook, really nice, with a great new bar. That whole area was just walled off. Not sure what they are going to do with it. Also, they apparently saved a few bucks on the neon sign by the road. Where it formerly lit up to say “Lighning Casino”, it now lights up to say “Casino”. Hey, anywhere you can save a few bucks, huh??<br><br>We stewed about what to do Saturday morning about checking in, but finally decided to go over around 10 AM and check in and check bags for the trip home, so we didn’t have to haul them around. AA and US Air are both hand searching all checked bags, which makes for nice lines. We arrived around 10:05 and it was around 10:45 by the time we got through the line and had paid our departure tax. At that time, the line for US Air was MUCH longer than AA, which doesn’t really make sense. We went back to the villa for a couple of hours and Mr. Arens came by to pick up the key, at around the same time the maid showed up, around 1. We gave him the key and left, as we were all ready to go.<br><br>We knew we didn’t want to go to the airport at that point, as our flight did not leave till 4 PM, so decided to go to Orient for some lunch. We ended up at LaPlaya, which was OK, although kind of more than we wanted. They have basically full meals, although they do have a couple of sandwiches. Eric had the ribeye, which was a large piece of meat, but not a very good cut. I had grilled chicken with vegetables in coconut milk. It was good, but would have been much better if it had been served with rice. Ah well, the dalmatian that was hanging around thought the rest of my chicken was VERY good. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif"><br><br>Off to Hertz to turn in the car and on to the airport. No lines at the airport at AA by that time, and maybe 15 people at US Air counter. We bought some more DouDou at the airport for some friends back home, plus a 2002 SXM calender. The boarding area was FULL, with people standing all over the place. Flight left basically on time. We barely made our connection in SJU, as the luggage took forever to come and ours was THE last luggage, probably because we checked in first thing in the morning. We got on the plane as they were making the final boarding call. They served some mystery meat chicken with rice and beans that I HATED for dinner. Eric ate his. The other choice was a pasta dish, which would be my personal suggestion. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif"> Arrived at Dulles around 9 PM local time (one hour earlier than SXM).<br><br>Well, that’s it, guys. Great trip, met a whole lot of great TTOL folks. I’m sure that we missed lots of folks’ names–sorry, guys!! Alzihimer’s is setting in!! The weather was a little windy, but apparently not as windy as it had been for the month of January.<br><br>Carol & Eric<br><br>
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