Day 9 Sat (July 7)

Well, our last full day had arrived and neither of us could believe how quickly it all went. There were still so many beaches, and only one more day remained. One thing I learned while on the island is that unless you want the sun at your back on the beach, it's best to go to the east-facing beaches early and the west-facing later in the day. The beaches we had encountered were sloped enough that if you wanted to lay facing away from the water, your head would be below your feet! We decided to go back to Orient and spend the day relaxing there. There will be (hopefully) many other trips to try different beaches, and we really liked Orient and felt we hadn't given it enough time. The toughest decision was not going to Anguilla. Of the remaining beaches on SXM, Cupecoy was the one we were most interested in visiting, however while driving by earlier we were very turned off by all of the construction going on around the area. Plum Bay and Long Bay were also on our "list", but in the end a day at Orient was more appealing.

We got to the beach early and on the recommendation of some of the earlier posts I had read, we rented chairs at the tex-mex bar for $5. Shortly thereafter I realized that the bar right next to it had the same deal and the food looked a lot better (I forgot the name - the food was french). No big deal though… we stayed. The weather wasn't too great that AM. Some clouds and the water was rough, but we had faith. Sure enough it was much nicer by about 1. The chairs were comfortable and since both of us had plenty of sun all week, it was actually very nice laying in the shade of the umbrellas. Not much to report on that day. It was just a wonderful day on Orient beach. One thing of note was that ladies were walking the beach and selling some very nice necklaces. I bought my wife one and she absolutely loves it.

We returned to the room by about 4 and had a little time to relax before meeting up with the people we had met at the resort for our final happy hour at the Sunset Café. It was a beautiful day and it was very sad saying goodbye to everyone we had met, including the staff. We planned to meet Barry and Valentine at Le Pub after dinner for a drink. They had reservations at Spiga. I understand it to be an excellent restaurant, but one thing I had decided before this trip was that I was going to avoid Italian food. Being Italian-American, and traveling to Italy pretty often, I felt there was no need to eat Italian food on the Island no matter how good, and to devote our culinary excursions to French and Creole, with plenty of seafood. This we had accomplished, although there still remains MANY restaurants on SXM that I would love to try.

For our last dinner of the vacation we decided to go to Spicy. It wasn't one of the restaurants I had planned to try, but it looked very appealing when we walked by (menu and interior), so we decided to give it a go for our final meal. This was probably the most pleasant surprise of our trip. What a wonderful restaurant! The décor was modern and very tasteful. We were greeted by Sophie, who along with her husband and chef Olivier, are the owners. As we ordered, Sophie suggested that we were ordering too much as the portions were large, so we actually eliminated one of our appetizers. I'm sure we could have finished the food (with my appetite), but I appreciated her honesty, especially since it was a slow evening in the restaurant. The portions were in fact very generous. For starters my wife had the carrot and ginger soup and I had the frogs legs in green garlic sauce. Both were fantastic! Next was ravioli with mushrooms in a cream sauce for my wife, and monkfish with shrimp rice with fennel for me. The ravioli were absolutely wonderful and the monkfish consisted of 5 large chunks of fish in a peppercorn sauce. We topped the dinner off with 2 scoops of ice cream. This with 2 generous classes of pinot noir and a double espresso came to $79 at 1 E = $1. An absolute bargain for the quality of food (and portions). Also, Sophie was a gracious hostess and gave impeccable service and suggestions in a very warm and friendly character. After dinner, Olivier came out of the kitchen we all chatted for a bit. They provided a wonderful experience and we couldn't have been happier with our last evening on St. Martin. We wish them all of the best with their business, as well as everything else!

We then proceeded to Le Pub with our friends for a nightcap. I forgot to mention that we had stopped by twice earlier in the week, and enjoyed ourselves at the bar. I would like to try the restaurant on our next trip, as I have heard good reviews from TTOL, and people on the island.

Day 10 Sun (July 8)

Well what can you say, waking up knowing you had to leave a wonderful island on which you enjoyed yourself immensely for the past week or so? I'm sure we ALL know that feeling all too well! Checkout was at 11 so we enjoyed our last breakfast at the Sunset Café, and returned to the room to pack. Our flight was at 3:30 so we returned to the Sunset Café for a coffee and a few more goodbyes. We then drove out and met Marius at the airport to return the car. I like the SXM terminal. We bought some sandwiches and empanadas from the little deli there to eat on the plane. Fortunately the return flights were uneventful, and no luggage was lost. San Juan was a bit of a hassle. We had to stand in a long line to go through immigration, and then we had to claim our luggage, and get back in a long line to go through customs. Since we never made it to Anguilla, I never saw the Pyrat Cask 23 rum, but I did see a bottle of the reserve rum at the SXM airport so I bought it for $26. I carried it on the plane with me and put it into my suitcase in San Juan before we went through customs and rechecked our luggage. Being a novice rum drinker, I didn't know that I could have purchased the same rum right here at home for the same price, so that was a disappointment. We rushed to make our flight out of San Juan, but the flight ended up being delayed as they waited for a flight out of St. Thomas which was late. All in all, we arrived in Philly about an hour late.

As you can see, we spent most of our time on the French side of the island, and with my wife being pregnant, this seemed to work out very well. We enjoyed incredible beaches, and heavenly food just about everywhere, even in the most unlikely places. By trying to take advantage of the places offering 1 E to $1 (when practical), we were able to keep within a decent budget. I can only imagine when (and if) the dollar ever gains strength again, how nice it will be to enjoy all of the French side without getting smacked with a 33% service charge! Driving on the Island was a breeze, especially if you have any experience with driving in Europe, however at night some of the areas were dark and curvy, with locals flying around because they are very familiar with the roads. This did not lend itself for pleasant driving back home at night. Next time, we would like to stay on the Dutch side, and get to enjoy more of the many wonderful places there.

I would like to thank everyone who contributed directly or indirectly, through this helpful website, to our wonderful honeymoon, and also to those of you who've offered your opinions/experiences about other info, such as timeshares, etc. Through TTOL we were able to attack the island like seasoned veterans, and avoid some of the lessons many of you have learned the hard way. I guess that's why I tried to give as detailed a report as I could, even though it took a while. To enter my experiences into this website so that others may benefit from it. After all, I guess that's what TTOL is all about, isn't it?