Trip report Jan 27-Feb 5 2010

Dialogue:
Let’s try something new!
Well, no, how about St. Martin?
Again? Why not somewhere we’ve never tried?
Don’t you like St. Martin?
I love it, but…
Okay, let’s go to St. Martin!

So, again to St. Martin, I think our seventh trip. And, although I am the one who pushed for something different, I loved our trip, and I am happy we did not go elsewhere.

Flew from Boston on USAir thru Charlotte, no problems except gettiing up at 3AM. Arrived a little early, but Unity was there waiting for us. Picked up a Hyundai Getz, picked up a cell phone from Sharon, and off to Orient!

Rented Villa Gary through Sandy Molloy and Foncia Cap Caraibes, and settled in – husband was poking around with his laptop and the wifi as I grew more and more impatient, and finally we went down to the beach. Lovely warm wind (actually a lot of wind), had a Margarita at Kontiki (no food, too late), and relaxed after a long days’ travel. Feeling peckish at around 6-6:30, no restaurants open yet but we can’t stay awake too much longer---- pizza at Tap Five! Perfect! A bottle of wine, and some bizarre pizza with an egg on top – not recommended, but you do look like a European if you have an egg on your pizza--- and off to bed.

In the AM, we get croissants at Tap Five, coffee on the patio, and head for our chairs at La Playa. It’s pretty windy, partly cloudy, paradise. We find chairs next to the water. We read, relax, repeat daily, with only minor variations.

I know, it’s not exciting. Periodically we had the “let’s do something new” discussion, but my husband knows that passive inertia will overcome – the immovable object defeats the less-than irresistible force, because I also like being immovable.

So what did we do new? We went to dinner at Ti Bouchon in Cul de Sac, and had a great meal, with very attentive service and a wonderful food. We spent a day at Palm Beach, lovely chairs, lovely food, lovely day.

What did we do old-but-good? Orient Beach, almost every day. Baie Rouge once. Loved the new supermarket US Market by Orient. Totally foreign to see a refrigerator case full of foie gras, snails and eels in the fish display case, and salads (antipasta) with octopus, not to mention liquor and cigarettes in the aisles. I could spend a lot of time and money there. Waikiki for lunch one day, Andy and Cheryl’s for mussels, Le Cadre for dinnner, and a superb meal at Le Cottage in Grand Case. Old-and-not-so-good? Already forgotten, almost. (Don’t order a fish dish at Cote Plage – overcooked. Stick with Duck Shepherd’s Pie.)

Do I wish we had done more new activities? Of course, but I know we’ll be back, and probably won’t do them next year either!