Now that I've recovered from a wonderful week in beautiful SXM, it's time for the trip report. I am not only doing this report for myself & husband Bob, but also for John & Sugarae (I promised)! 2 days before we were leave for SXM, another couple that was scheduled to go with us called to say the husband was in the hospital (come to find out he had Salmonella (sp?) poisoning) & they had to cancel. I PM'd Sugarae with the news & her & John came to our rescue as follows:<br>3/14: Arrived in SXM at 2:30 & off to the Divi Little Bay Hotel which was very nice by the way. John & Sugarae picked us up at 5 pm & took us to the Greenhouse where we met several other TTOL members, such as the host Cole, Dickey Patty Italy, the Browns, Augie & I can't remember all the rest as we were feeling no pain at that point. I think it was all the Bloody Mary's on the plane Anyways, John & Sugarae took us back to the hotel after. I have to explain for those who have never been to the Divi that it has two sides. One is the Time Share side & the other is the hotel side. After we were dropped off & walked out back we noticed that nothing looked familiar had only been there 1.5 hrs so far at that point. But we looked down the beach & realized we could get there from here!!! <br><br>3/15 Headed for Orient Beach to find John & Sugarae. I told my husband before we left, "Honey, I don't think I can take my cloths off." Well, let me tell you! I wasn't on that beach 5 minutes & felt soooo uncomfortable with my suit on that off came the top, then the bottoms too!! Needless to say, that was the only beach we went to the rest of the week. Went to Baywatch that afternoon for a "MAINE LOBSTAH" feed thanx to John & Sugarae for providing the lobsters & Andy & Cheryl for all the cooking.<br><br>3/16: Was going to go to dinner with John & Sugarae, but he failed to tell us they locked the gate near the Kontiki at 6pm & it took us an hour to figure out how to go 5 mins away! Needless to say, they had left, which I don't blame them for they must've been starved. So we journeyed thru Grand Case & Marigot & wound up back by the airport. We finally found a restaurant called Rancho's & had wonderful argentinian (sp?) steak at 9:30 pm.<br><br>3/17: St. Patricks day on Orient beach where Sugarae & John were decked out in Green, 4 leaf clovers for pasties too! Sugarae's Leprechuan hat was a little large tho, as once it fell down & covered her entire head!!! Too funny!!<br><br>I can't remember if it was Sunday or Monday, but poor Sugarae got up in the middle of the night to find a puddle of water on the floor, slipped (sober & mad as hell) & fell ripping her entire nail off her big toe!! Needless to say it put a crimp in her vacation, but she had a positive attitude & was thankful nothing was broken & she wasn't hospitalized. She did alot of self "medicating" (Coors Light) We went to Le Nettuna in Grand Case that night & had another wonderful dinner. That was the night Bush gave his speech on the war. The waiter came over to tell us our "Boss" was talking. We looked at each other not knowing what he was talking about only to find out it was the President. Also not knowing what the French's attitude about it quite was. Of course, then my husband says "It's about time they go in & blow em up" (My husband is 6 foot & about 240 lbs) I thought... Here we go.......The waiter took off & never said another word about it!!! I don't think he dared to.<br><br>3/18: TTOL Party at the Greenhouse! Met more people from TTOL, I'm not going to list all the names, because half of them I can't remember & I don't want to offend anyone. Except for DICKEY!!! Hey Dickey, at least I have an excuse for being blonde...... You were a great host too!!<br><br>3/19: Shopping Day-What an Adventure!! Headed for Front Street around 10 am. Parked the car. My husband bought me a beautiful Gucci watch from Deepti at DK Jewelers. Deepti was wonderful & has beautiful jewelry. She almost gave my husband a heart attack tho when she put an $8,000 bracelet on my wrist that matched my wedding ring set! It really was beautiful, but I could see my husband turning white, which at that point he looked like a Jamaican Mon with his tan, so I graciously took it off & gave it back & settled for my watch Finally at about 12:30 we set off to find the car. We walked up the street, down the street, back up the street. No car......I knew where we parked it but it was gone! I went into a jewelry store to ask an employee if they towed cars. Yes, she said, go to the Court House. We walked back to the Court house & they gave us a map to the Police Station, where of course, is a big parking lot for free. We get to Police Station where there are 3 other couples (Can you guess?) Yup! They were looking for their cars as well. The towing company sent a bus to pick us ALL up & took us to their office where it cost us $50.00 per car! After we paid the fine, then we got the royal treatment where they gave us a free Heiniken & sent someone to bring our car right to the door! They (employees) were ALL grinning[img]/images/icons2/devil.gif[/img] Needless to say all you NEWBIES, DON'T park on Front Street. Take a left at the court house, go down 2 blocks & there is FREE parking. It was 2:30pm before we got to head for the beach. We were on our way only to find a DETOUR because of road paving. Of course that was the only detour sign we saw as the first road we took brought us right back to square one. Off again & finally found the right road. It was 3:45 when we finally hit the beach. It normally only took 15 to 20 minutes depending on how many goats were in the road. What a day!!! What an ADVENTURE!![img]/images/icons2/crazy.gif[/img] crazy] Off that evening to Papagayo's Wine & cheese party. My husband was told (by John) he was a TRUE REDNECK! He was the only one drinking Budweiser at a wine & cheese party[img]/images/icons2/laugh.gif[/img]<br><br>3/20: Another beautiful day on Orient Beach!! We had our own beach bar going on in the water thanks to Lisa & Ridge & Sharon & Tim. Good Zachery joke Tim....[img]/images/icons2/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/icons2/laugh.gif[/img][img]/images/icons2/laugh.gif[/img] Being our last night on the Island John, Sugarae, & Lloyd & Karen from Indiana took us to dinner at the Le California for again, another wonderful meal!!!! Lloyd & Karen paid for our meal too. We can't thank you two enough for that. <br><br>3/21: Last day there[img]/images/icons2/frown.gif[/img][img]/images/icons2/sad.gif[/img] We checked our bags in at the airport at 11 am when US Air opened & headed back to Orient beach for a couple more hours of rays & also to say Goodbye to all the wonderful people we met that week. That was hard....[img]/images/icons2/sad.gif[/img] We were hoping they would cancel ALL flights & that we might get stuck there[img]/images/icons2/devil.gif[/img] but no luck, the plane left on schedule. We flew from SXM to Philly where we went thru Customs. We then had to claim our baggage & recheck it then go thru Security again. It was pretty tight as we had just enough time to catch our flight to Portland ME.<br><br>SO ANYWAYS, we have the DIF & we will definitely be BACK[img]/images/icons2/clapping.gif[/img][img]/images/icons2/joy.gif[/img][img]/images/icons2/cheers.gif[/img] next year! We've found our Island paradise!!!!<br><br>I have to say, we have met the most wonderful people & made new friendships that will last in our memories for a lifetime.[img]/images/icons2/love.gif[/img] John & Sugarae, we can't thank you enough for coming to our rescue & the friendships we made because of you two. Your hospitality was genuinely moving & we are forever grateful to you both. Lloyd-I'm expecting to see you register under "NES" (not enough sand) real soon. Karen-I hope your birthday was wonderful & that you can have many more on beautiful SXM. Tim & Sharon-Lisa & Ridge-We hope to get to go on the Tiko Tiko next year so you can laugh at us when we get off the boat......[img]/images/icons2/cheers.gif[/img][img]/images/icons2/hairy.gif[/img][img]/images/icons2/grin.gif[/img] <br><br>THE END..........<br>Patty & Bob from Maine