This was our 14th trip to SXM, and our 5th anniversary. We were married on SXM on July2, 2000. Coming to SXM is like coming home. Familiar faces and familiar places. Hardly any surprises.

We flew down on US Air. Great price of $251.00, roundtrip. No problem going down, but when we arrived at Pelican and opened up our suitcases, we were missing one of our locks and we found somebody's flashlight in our suitcase. Must have happened in Newark on a spot-check of our luggage. Return flight was a different story. 3:50PM flight didn't leave until about 4:45, and we were never told why. Got to Charlotte and it was a madhouse in immigration. Rushed to get our luggage, and suitcases were all over the place. After finding ours, rushed on to customs. By now it was time for our scheduled flight to Newark to leave but we were reassured that all flights on US Air were behind schedule. We then ran to drop off our luggage and on to our point of departure to find out they were waiting for a lot of travelers that were late landing. So we had to wait about another hour to depart. We wound up getting home about 2AM.

We arrived in SXM to be met at the airport by our friends, Ben and Susie, who were waiting with our car from Claude of Sommerset car rental. Claude showed up in our room about an hour later to do the paperwork. $110.00 a week. At the end of your vacation you drop the car off at the airport and he picks it up. We stayed with Ben and Susie Friday night before checking into Pelican on Saturday morning for 2 weeks. Sunday we went to the TTOL party at BBC. It was a small turnout, but a good time was had by all. We saw Leighanna & Andy, old friends Larry & Gretchen, Bill and Lori, Roger & Joanne, and a few others. Thanks Leighanna for putting everything together, although there was no 2 for 1 if you had TTOL shirt on and no Neil. The bubblegum shooters were great!

Restaurants this year were: The Wharf, Saratoga, Pineapple Pete's, Jimbo's, Pizza Galley, Le Petite Auberge de Isle, Chesterfields, Pizza Pasta (where we got together with old chums Bruce and Edie from the old Prodigy BB), SSBB, Baywatch, El Gaucho (now in Simpson Bay) and on our anniversary we ate at Chez Martine. All were great, but I have to mention that my favorite this year was The Wharf. I have a problem ordering appetizers because I don't eat seafood, and most appetizers are seafood based. The Wharf had an excellent choice of seafood and non seafood items. The steak was very good, and something happened there that seldom happens to me--- I was full after the main course. But I did force myself to help MaryAnn finish her Profiterole’s for dessert. We would highly recommend this place. Chesterfields was very good and filling and very reasonable. So, to all you Dutch side naysayers, there are good places to eat on the Dutch side.

Beaches this year were the usual-- Cupecoy, Plum Baie, Baie Rouge, Orient Beach, Guana Bay, and Dawn Beach. There was plenty of sand at Cupecoy the first week, as compared to last October when there was absolutely NONE. The 2nd week tropical storm Dennis took a lot of sand away right in front of our eyes in one day, but was back two days later. Quite a few people, including MaryAnn, got tumbled around in the waves that day. Club O has plenty of sand this year, as well as Baie Rouge, which also had a lot of erosion last October.

The first week it was extremely HOT!!! There was very little breeze on the whole island. Week 2 was back to normal. We had a total of 3 cloudy days, 2 of them due to Dennis, but we can’t complain because we had no rain other than the usual brief showers at this time of year.

On Wednesday of week one I organized a CO cruise with Neil on the Celine. We had 20 people aboard. It was fantastic!!! We left at 7:30 am from Turtle Pier Restaurant. We had a breakfast which included cereal, croissants yogurt, and fruit and juice. We sailed through the lagoon past Mario's into the sea and on to Tintemarre (a little rough sailing there). We did the mud bath thing and had lunch which included ribs (very good), a seafood Paella (excellent according to the seafood fans), yellow fin tuna, salad and a hamburger for me. Remember, I don't eat seafood. After we ate we sailed to Creole Rock for some great snorkeling, and on to Happy Bay for about an hour. We then sailed back, with me navigating the catamaran. Larry took the wheel on the way out to Tintemarre (could that be why it was so rough?) 1st time for me, had a blast. We arrived back at Turtle pier at 6:00 pm. What a day!!! All this for just $75.00 per person. If interested in doing the same get in touch with Neil. He is a sponsor here.

On the 4th of July we spent the day at Club O. I got painted up for the parade at 10:30, and at 11:00 we marched from Papagayo's up to the large rock by Coco Beach and back. At 12 o’clock Andy at Baywatch had his usual 4th of July extravaganza. All the burgers, hot dogs, fries, watermelon and so on for $15.00 per person. We had a great time dancing and getting naked. What fun!!! You just have to be there for the experience.

They opened up the new road around the airport and blocked up the old one. New construction on the airport terminal is in full swing, and it looks like they’re filling in the lagoon to extend the runway eventually. We drove over the new road over the hill from P'burg to Cole Bay—I think it’s called Cake House road, although it’s not marked at all.

In case you happen to like croissants and pastries, you have to try Le Suciere (sp?) in Marigot. It is next to Mini Club, across the street from the market. It is an open air pastry place with THE BEST croissants on the island. You must try this place. There are also roosters walking around which will jump up for you to get some crumbs. Second best is Cafe Atlantico across the street from Hot Tomato's. ZeeBest, which is our old favorite, just didn’t seem the same this year. We heard a few different stories, but apparently Danny is selling the place. We’ll certainly miss his friendly greeting.

If you like Karaoke, you have to go to The Red Piano at The Pelican resort. It’s a nice little bar with a big crowd on Thursdays.

This year we did well with the free money coupons at Atlantis Casino, Paradise Casino, Beach Plaza and Hollywood Casino at Pelican Resort. We had about $400.00 in coupons for coins and free bets. However, I was asked to leave the Beach Plaza in P’Burg because I was wearing my pareo. The manager said I wasn’t allowed inside wearing a skirt-----I had to wear pants. We just walked around to the other side and no one said anything else. We did fairly well gambling this year, coming home with money for a change.

We had some bad news this year. Our car was broken into twice, and all the locks were jammed. The first time it happened at Plum Baie. Our car and our friend’s car were hit. We never leave anything in the car, but it was annoying to have to get the car fixed. Two days later, on our last day on the island, our car plus a bunch of others were hit at Cupecoy. After Claude came to fix our friend’s car we got into our car and couldn’t start it. Good thing Claude was still hanging around to take care of things. We heard this was going on all over the island. Just remember, don't leave anything in your car and don't bother to lock them either. If unlocked, hopefully they go on to the next one with no damage.

The other bad news is there is a tremendous amount of construction going on around the island. The Cliff and Rainbow Beach Club are going full force. The Cliff is right out to the street. Over by the Ocean Club, on both sides of the street, they are going to build 265 luxury homes, called Cupecoy Village. These homes will be starting at 1.2 million. On the right side of the entrance to Cupecoy beach, right behind the rock wall they will be starting this week to build about a dozen luxury homes called Shore Pointe. I know that this is good for the economy of the island and all that, but we don’t want to lose that sleepy little island feel that we love. We’re hoping that no one buys the darn things! Dawn Beach has been completely excavated from the beach back to the road for the Marriott. They left 1 palm tree. Scavenger’s has to be out by Aug 1. Behind Ms B's, just a few feet from her they are building condo’s. These are also very expensive. We heard that the developer (from NJ), wants to make it a private beach. Ms B's is now in court fighting that. At Baie Rouge, there is a huge house being built right on the beach down to the left. The parking lot as we know it no longer exists. There are large boulders blocking it off. You now have to park out on the road. We heard there were car break-ins there too.

Traffic was a problem this year, mostly if you traveled around at rush hour in the morning and evening. Best thing to do is go to the beach early and leave late--------avoiding the whole mess!! We left Cupecoy at 4 o’clock one day and it took us an hour and half to get from the airport back to Pelican!! We can stay home in NJ for that kind of jam up!! There were also some construction back ups on the French side, along with the usual Marigot nightmare.

Well, this is kind of long. Sorry about that. We had a wonderful time, 15 days in all, and looking forward to coming back next year. I will post some pictures as soon as I go through them.

Paul (AKA Beachbum) & MaryAnn (Beachgirl7) <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Cool.gif" alt="" />