I'll be reporting each day of our stay, hope you enjoy!

Sunday July 23rd

Philadelphia Airport Marriott

As we’ve done on previous trips to St. Martin, we got a ride to the airport and stayed at the Marriott the evening before our flight. We like doing this as it gives a “kick-start” to our vacation and affords us the luxury of not having to drive early to the airport the next morning. The Marriott is a very nice hotel with fantastic beds and bedding. The bed invites you to “sleep on me” when you get your first glimpse of it. We spent some time at the bar chatting with the bartenders, two friendly gals in their mid 20s, whom we tipped nicely. We enjoyed a crispy-crusted pizza, a couple beers and a glass of red wine each. The Phillies game was on the High Definition televisions that hung to the sides of the bar. We don’t normally watch baseball but it was the only show in town. We actually began to get into the game as the Phillies were hitting the ball very well against the Braves for 8 innings. Too bad the game is 9 because the Braves rallied with 5 runs to win the game.

Monday July 24th

Flight Down

We flew down on an 8:05 am flight out of Philadelphia to Charlotte and then Charlotte to St. Martin on USAir. Our flight was detained to the side of the runway and left Philadelphia an hour late due to heavy haze in Charlotte that evidently was affecting incoming air traffic. We arrive in Charlotte late but still with plenty of time to grab something to eat before our connecting flight to St. Martin took off. I asked for the seats by an emergency exit, as both of us are tall with long legs. I always try to get those seats for the comfort factor. Some people do not like to sit there because of the responsibility inherent, but I think I heard somewhere that in case of emergency it is “women, children and tall, long legged people off first”! We arrived in SXM about 15 minutes early and were in our car within 20 minutes of disembarking the plane. We rented from Unity, who was waiting for us as we exited the airport.

Minimalist Packing

On our first trip to SXM in 2004 we checked in our luggage and had a suitcase and a carry on bag each. We decided to cut back on our second trip in ’05 and only brought a carry on bag each and a smaller bag each, stuffed under the seat in front of us. On this trip we decided we were going to trim back the luggage even further. Our last trip was a stay at Club Orient and we didn’t wear 60% of the clothes we brought. This time around we packed one carry on bag, count it….”one”…. I brought a small, under the seat, bag for cameras and miscellaneous items. It happens to be thermal lined and will double as a beach bag to hold beer, wine, cheese and bread. My wife also has a smaller under seat bag and I brought my MacBook. I’ll let you know how it goes, but not to worry….we’re at Club Orient again!

Drive to Orient

Traffic seemed heavy through Phillipsburg all the way into the Orient Bay area. At one point, as we drove up a steep hill just before you are able to see the Orient Bay vista, a large dump trunk loaded with huge, motorcycle sized chunks of concrete was struggling to make the grade. Cars immediately behind kept their distance. It added another 5 minutes to our drive as he was going extremely slow.

Studio at Club Orient

We are staying in a Studio that sits immediately behind the Ocean Chalets. It is not as roomy as the Beach Chalet we had in April, but we are very satisfied with it and for the price will stay in a Studio again. My one frustration was that the internet connection did not work in the room. I thought it was a laptop problem and tried in vain for about 30 minutes to solve the issue. It turned out to be a router problem that was fixed on our second day. Thus I am able to now get our first report out.

We arrived in time for the wine and cheese party at Papagayo’s and met a couple whom we spent most of the time chatting with. Then we were off to meet up with friends from last year who were staying at Alamanda. We ate dinner together at the restaurant at Esmaralda. There was only one other couple in the restaurant for the entire evening. Our dinner, surf and turf with a filet and lobster, was very good and was finished with a warm chocolate cake with ice cream.

We retired rather early following dinner and awoke around 3am to a rain storm that was brief but rather noisy on the roof of our studio. We are looking forward to our first full day on the beach and breakfast at Baywatch tomorrow morning.

Until then….

Lancer