TRIP REPORT

We just got back from wonderful 2 weeks in St. Martin. I will try to keep this short so as not to bore you with useless details. Flights: ok no problems, what can I say it's air travel. On the beach by 3 our first day there.
Weather: You know what its like there this time of year. We were barely bothered by TS Chris. One day rainy, one day overcast, went siteseeing. We made it to the beach both of those days and every other day.
FOOD: Not neccesarily in order!! MR BUSBY'S or DANIALS, whatever, Third night TTOL party, great company, service and food about the worst we had on the island. We had a good time in spite, many much better places on the island to eat though. Would not go back. BBB: Excellent Pizza, thanks Joe! Second night TTOL party at LADY C on Monday. All you can eat ribs, we got our share and had a great time. IL NETTUNO: Excellent Italian, great view and wonderful presentation, (have pictures, will post soon) thanks for the tip Wendi! Dollars did not equal Euros there, which I do think is taking advantage of the American tourist. MINI CLUB: Had excellent buffet with Brian and Maria on Wed. Had a great time, food was very good, but again, 40 Euros=50 dollars. BAYWATCH: Andy's chicken parm is to die for. Chili omlette for breakfast, only place for an American cup of coffee on Orient Beach before 8 am. Worth the walk. American $$ is king there. Andy is fun to talk to also. BRASSERIE DES LLES, or LE PUB as the sign says out front in Grand Case. I had great thin crust pizza, and JoAnn had pasta w/ bacon? More like ham. Took half home and split it the next night for dinner. 1 Euro=$1.20 TALK OF THE TOWN & SKY'S THE LIMIT. Ate there several nights, cheap, SXM's answer to fast food. I think we liked Sky's the Limit better. Nice ribs. 1$=1E both places. HARBORVIEW in Phillipsburg, had breakfast one morning. Tiny little place facing the beach, reasonable, 1$=1E there also. I did save the best for last. We ate at SPIGAS in Grand Case 2 nights. Absolutly awesome, food, service, coffee, atmosphere, oh, did I say food? In our opinion, the very best on the island. Fresh Red Snapper, Garlic Gulf Shrimp, lobster raviolli, homemade pasta with sausage and pepper sauce and possibly the finest lobster bisque in the world!! Service and atmosphere, just perfect. We never were able to do dessert!! Dollars = Euros here, and well worth the money. Not overpriced, $100.00 or so each night, included a couple of drinks.OUTSTANDING!!!

TTOL PARTY on Sunday, it was great to put some faces with names. Wendi, Joe & Jean, Brian & Maria, Mike & Sherrie and all the others that were there. They all had a few laughs at my expense! I really didnt think I would ever meet anyone, but I was glad I did. We all had a great time.

TIKO TIKO Probably the best day, weatherwise, we had on the island. Again met some nice people, George, Joe, Marc & Pam, and an interesting couple from Holland (Sorry couldnt understand there names!!) Food was great, wine, snorkled, found some more seaglass for JoAnn. And of course the customery Mud Bath. Good luck to Isabel, it was only her 9th day working there.

BEACHES We did several beaches. Two trips to Pinel Island, ($6.00 from Cul de Sac) nice beach for kids, calm bay, beachbar, party atmosphere. Walk over the other side, you are totally alone. We spent several hours over there collecting seaglass in the surf. Never saw anyone else. HAPPY BAY Water was rough the day we went and the beach was eroded. You could hardly get in the water. Again, romantic, secluded beach there. Hike over from Friars Bay where the beach was nice and the waters much calmer. BAY ROUGE Nice, did some snorkling there, not crowded, different sand there than some of the other beaches. BAY OF PRUNES Water was rough, windy, didnt stay long, too many other people!! ORIENT BAY My favorite beach in all SXM. Soft, powdery sand. Watched the sunrise every morning (early 5:45) First several days were windy and rough, but if you went to the Club O end, it was much calmer. Wind laid back a little the second week. We didnt miss one day on Orient. Plenty to do for everyone.

SIGHTSEEING Yikes!! What can I say, we went all over. Drove the lowlands, over to Anse Marcel, Loterie farm (did you know that no one knew that was there until the hurrcane in 1995 uncovered it?) We traversed the island several times. Found some dirt roads I didn't know were there. Let me tell you about the cars you rent. UNITY CAR RENTAL exactly what you want when you go there. I wouldn't use anyone else. We rented a 2000 Toyota Corrolla, but its not the same Corrolla you get here. I am a car guy, so I picked up on some suptle differences. 4 cyl. CARBURATED not that any one else would notice.(or care) No air bags, no transmission lockout, no catalytic converter. No universal VIN number under the windshield. Not a big deal, I just thought that was interesting. We put 700 KM on it, never had any trouble, and pumped $72.00 worth of gas in it. (Cadisco gas stations) they must be the cheapest, because they always seemed to have waiting lines.

Sorry I rambled a little. So much to do and so little time. My first ever full 2 week vacation so I was pretty excited. As you would think it went by in a flash. Now its back to the real world and start counting down for next year. Thanks all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed. Richie