click on hyperlink for '08 SXM Pix
“What a long Strange trip it’s been” (Jerry Garcia)
The title above pretty much describes our April 2008 trip to ST Maarten.
Hang on folks I am going to quickly run down the pre-trip happenings;
1week before we travel. Rob has what he thinks is another staph infection on his foot. Last one of these was an emergency surgery and a week in the hospital followed by a month of IV drugs and a hole that took another 60 days to completely close up….wooo hoo I am thinking vacation over before we even get out the door for the airport.
I saw my doctor then a surgeon, the surgeon turned me over to his resident to do what was to be a minor bit of surgery. Got home and it looked worse than what it originally did. I made a follow up appointment for next day and a second surgeon looked at it….dug around and found the issue to be a cyst that they didn’t totally remove. He did, and didn’t use any pain killer….OUCH!!! Figured I would have to pack a power washer to get all the sand out of the crater that was left but he assured me I could swim, walk the beach and even SCUBA dive. Rob is all set, major catastrophe averted.
The day before we left I picked my wife up from work and on our way home her boss called saying that he needed to meet with her…..gulp. Sure enough, “conglomo” corp, the largest employer in our home town was laying off all contractors the very next day.
Nothing we could do about that so we decided to be a bit more judicious with our money but to go and have a good time. It has been many, many years since Mary has been a lady of leisure…LOL.
This trip was to be very special as it is our 25thanniversary and I had been working for over a year on this one. I booked our room with the timeshare 13 months ahead with a small request (remember this one for further in the story) of not being placed in a specific building and asked them to keep us off the first floor. I was thinking about avoiding mosquitoes.
We flew KC to Dallas for an overnight with American Air. In Dallas we met up with one of our friends and had a fantastic dinner. The next morning we flew American from DFW to Miami and a flight from MIA to SXM (by the way we were checked thru from KC to SXM…this meant no checked bags in Dallas as they kept them in a secured storage area, no problem we were prepared).
We got off the DFW flight and I couldn’t imagine in my wildest dream that the next gate over would be our flight to SXM, but it was. Our luck is still running good.
We got to SXM and got to walk down the stairs and on to the tarmac ( I love the smell of the tropics mixed with a touch of jet fuel…makes me know I am back in the islands).
Got thru immigration and picked up our bags for our cab ride to Marigot and then the ferry to Anguilla.
Spent three days in Anguilla….see my AXA trip report for that portion.
On to the trip
Check in day; Saturday afternoon April 19.
Day 1 on SXM
We got to the timeshare at just before 4 PM which is check in time. The front desk was fully “manned” and ready for the change day rush. Service went quickly and we were soon at the counter checking in…all was going well till……..the clerk handed me a room key and told me I would be in building 3 floor 1. Excuse me! Can you repeat that, I must have mis-understood. Nope I heard her correctly.
That is specifically what I asked not to happen. I shared this with the clerk and got back a curt, we are full this will be your room for the week but you can put your name on a list and if anything comes open we will try to move you.
Oops, luck just ran out…but I still had no idea just how far it had run out.
We left the desk area lets just say a bit less than happy and headed off to our room to get changed for dinner.
At this point I am going to skip part of my story that I may choose to alter later as we were more than unhappy with the room as it should never have even been part of the resort’s inventory that week. I am now working with the parent company to get this issue rectified and don’t wish to drag a fine organization’s name thru the mud because of an error.
We then met the folks from AAA rental car in front of our resort. In 5 min I had a brand new mid-sized Nissan with a whopping 3K miles on it and we were then off for dinner.
Dinner was at the brand new Peg Leg Pub. Folks they have stepped up, in my opinion, significantly in the atmosphere. This is open air dining and the facility is beautiful. We were promptly greeted by our old friend Sean. I don’t think he so much remembers me but I do know he remembers Mary. Hugs around and he escorted us to what became thru the week our table.
We proceeded to share with Sean some of our frustration with our timeshare and he in turn proceeded to make sure, no matter how hard I tried, that the rum I was drinking never hit the bottom of the glass. Glad our friends were along as I certainly needed a designated driver tonight. Food and company were fantastic and we left in a significantly better mood, I think, ok I was told! We decided on the way home that it was time to see Frankie G form Tennessee at the Red Piano Bar. We stopped in and had a blast, we sang along and even danced a bit but finally after a few hours the bar got too smoke filled for my wife so we had to go. What a fun first night on the island we had.
Sunday April 20th
Day 2
Fist thing on today’s agenda, the grocery store. The new grand Marche in Cole bay is awesome, we won’t be going to the one at the round about in Philipsburg again now that we have found this one.
We had discussed at dinner the evening before that our friends were going to go to Philipsburg to shop. There was a single ship in town so even though I tried to persuade them to wait another day as half of down town would be closed on Sunday. They had something in mind that they needed to do and it made sense so off to
Front Streetwe went.
Let me ask you, what an in his right mind and on his 25thanniversary trip would not stop by a jewelry store or two to buy his darling wife a bauble or two???
I knew just where we were headed, without a question it would be to DK Gems Intl. We strolled into the store and were working with one of the sales associates when Deepti came out and recognized us. She started talking with Mary and next thing I knew they were looking at diamonds…..gulp!! Mary is honestly very good with and about money. She as I stated above had just been laid off.
Deepti was showing Mary beautiful 3 diamond rings. We have been looking at this very style at home for a while now and Deepti was giving her Sam’s club prices for incredible diamonds…we had done our homework and knew they were great deals but as much as Mary wanted a ring she knew the time wasn’t right. I whispered in her ear, Honey, this is a big anniversary if you want something we will make it happen. Have Deepti show you earrings instead of the rings. We will come back and build the ring from the earring stones next year. What luck…ha….Deepti found something that fit the budget I was willing to spend and certainly tickled Mary’s fancy.
We did a bit more shopping which led the morning into early afternoon and the shops started to close as there was an afternoon parade. Finally it was time for us to head out.
We then decided today was pretty much shot for a beach day so we did a circle island tour, one of the individuals in the couple with us had never been to the island so I did my best no map guided TTOL based tour. Is funny how much I have learned from the Travel Talk board. Never got lost but we did miss one turn that extended our island tour thru the Oyster pond area, nothing lost there as the scenery was great and company was fun too.
We had a quiet evening, watched the sun set and ate dinner in our room.
Monday April 21st
Day 3
Today we planned to go to Orient beach. We headed that way and found a place to park both our car and our backsides at La String. We love it here, good prices decent chairs and oh yeah a free drink each too. We had a great day just soaking up the rays… We do have one rule….it is a mid western conservative thing that we explain to any of our friends that go with us. No nudity, total or partial at least while we are together…you wanna do that, it’s fine but sit in another area away from us. No we are not prudes but I don’t need to see those body parts of close friends that I will be seeing regularly at home.
Just after mid day we were all reading and the couple to the right of me was deep in conversation with another couple then someone in that general direction applied suntan lotion….wow, what a great fragrance it had….ok, new goal here, find out where that smell is coming from without being overtly obvious while I am looking around, as we will be needing lotion very soon anyway.
I leaned over to the gentleman next to me and asked if he knew where the fantastic smell came from. He said it was his wife’s lotion. I asked where they got it and found out that he makes it and sells it out of a shop in Grand Case. Wow, we gotta get some of that. We had quite a long conversation which ended with we will see you in the morning at your shop.
Our friends wanted to head down to Club”O” for a while and we told them enjoy and see ya later. They came back a bit later but then wanted to go see Luis for a custom suit for the lady. After the suit fitting we packed up and told our new friends see you tomorrow.
Dinner tonight was at Toppers, for those that haven’t been to the island in a long time Toppers is where bananas used to be. Good food, plenty on the plate and very decent prices. Our waiter was from Amsterdam and told us some very interesting stories. Had a Ti punch for cocktail and truly liked it. Is like a mojito but a bit more stout.
Tuesday April 22nd
Day 4
Today was around the island and back day. We probably put more miles on the car today than we would like to think about. This was our friends last day on the island and we wanted to make sure that they hit everywhere they wanted to go today. Not that driving is a big deal, just if I am in a car I am not on a beach…. This morning we started with a stop at Zee Best for my daily fix of espresso and chocolate croissants then off to see our new friends, the owners of TiJon, in Grand Case. What a beautiful store they have, it is full of fragrances, candles, lotions, jewelry and logo merchandise. We spent about an hour in John and Cindy’s store admiring merchandise and making a few purchases. Next it was off the way we came, back to Marigot and FT ST Louis. We enjoyed the view and took lots of pix of the port and town below. Next up we were off to Baie Rouge for a few hours of sun. Beautiful day at the beach but our friends still had a bit of running to do so we were next off to the resort (Simpson bay area) to pick up some jewelry and then down to Philipsburg. They wanted to stop by Rima’s for some gifts and then back to Orient to pick up her suit from Luis. After they went to visit Luis, my wife decided that she wanted new bottoms to match a black top she has. Our turn with Luis. It was quick and easy, Mary picked out the design and said make it black as well as the point that she wanted it to tie on both sides, we left him some cash and told him we would be back in 2 days to pick it up.
Our dinner plans tonight were a farewell dinner with Sean at Peg Leg. We all have such a great time there, prices are more than fair and quality of meal is fantastic. Tonight there was a women’s social club that the owner asked Sean to work so he was pretty busy but was able to break away for some pix before we said our goodbyes. We made it back one more time but only for drinks….
Wednesday April 23rd
Day 5
Our 25th Anniversary.
The day started early, our friends were leaving on an American Eagle flight at Oh-dark 30…..for most folks we had to have them to the airport before 6am. No problem, dropped them off and then went back to our room for breakfast and could actually watch their plane take off. This morning brought us to one of our favorite beaches from the past. Cupecoy. Danny was there, we were first customers of the day so we got to pick our chairs……..way far away from the construction area. As always the view of the water and cliffs were beautiful but this is the first time back in two years so we were not used to the construction workers. It is no wonder that after over two years of work that there are still no occupants in the villas to the west of the beach the workers act very similar to the cruisers at Club “O” up and down the beach area gawking at the women below the storm wall. We were still well within our comfort zone until lunch time, this is when many of the workers decided that they 1 wanted ribs from Danny and two wanted to walk the cliff tops to view the rest of the women that were out of their sight line. We decided this was enough and headed back to our resort for the afternoon. At least at Club”O” there are a mix of women and men walking. This was a bit ominous, all the construction guys openly gawking. We will go back to Cupecoy one day but not until construction is completed at Shore Pointe is completed.
We had an afternoon of relaxation and prepared for dinner at Halsey’s. I have had these reservations for close to a month. The restaurant did not let us down. They were prepared for us with a corner table and welcomed us. The owner and his wife are from the Kansas City area and we had met his brother a year or so ago at a ttol party. We were seated and a lovely evening at dinner began. Our meals were fantastic, blackened snapper and Grouper in a lobster and crab cream sauce with salad, cocktails and home made ice cream for dessert. What a great evening…..except……Rob found out that he has ever changing allergies. I don’t get to eat a lot of fresh seafood so it has been years since I have had lobster or crab. After I had finished my grouper….which was fantastic. I noticed that my sinuses were stopping up, I commented to Mary and she said it looked as if my eyes were swelling too, crap!!! I am allergic to either the crab or lobster….maybe even both!! Check please! Home we went, two Benadryl later I was out like a light for the evening. Sorry honey, not much of a celebration ending.
Would we go back to Halsey’s ….in a second. I chose something I loved but had an unexpected reaction. No problem will try something else next time. I would give Halsey’s great marks on both their atmosphere and food prep as well as taste.
Thursday April 24th
Day 6
I awoke this morning feeling great. My Benadryl induced sleep was the best I have had in weeks and looking back will be for a couple of weeks to come as well.
Today’s itinerary is Philipsburg in the morning for a few gifts, more rum and to stop by DK Gems and see if Mary can get an extra set of backs for her earrings. We accomplished all we planned while on
Front Streetand headed back to the room to drop off all the booty before going to Orient and Green Key for the day.
We didn’t get to Orient till mid day, too many things to do this trip not enough relaxing…. Our drive today was to get to Green Key for some pix. Originally we were going to have our portraits done there but since Mary is now a lady of leisure, something had to give and we chose to leave the portraits out this time.
We went to the water sports place close to Pedro’s and they told us they would take us via jetskii to Green Key we just needed to let them know when we wanted to come back. We told them an hour would probably be enough as we were just wanting to hike the island a bit. We were mistaken. We could have spent two hours walking the island and then even more time soaking up sun on the little spit of sand that faces Orient. What a fun place to spend part of a day. The terrain was very ruff, this is not sandals or water shoes worthy, bring your tennies or stay on the beach. On the back side of the island is an old sailboat, that is truly the reason I wanted to go to the island in the first place.
I was taking a D-SLR camera and a couple of lenses so I put them in a small camera bag and then double wrapped them in a couple of plastic shopping bags, glad I did. As we pulled up to the island on a jetskii for 3, the driver said hold on I will jump off and balance the vehicle so Mary and I could get off and not get too wet. Ha!!! We were in water a bit deeper than the operator thought and when he jumped off it tipped the jetskii pitching both Mary and I directly into the drink….about 4’ deep. Mary landed on her feet but I didn’t fare as well and was concentrating on not getting the camera bag wet. She said she looked back and all she saw was my arm in the air with the bag over my head. Bag stayed dry so I just laughed and then talked to the driver telling him we would see him in an hour. We left most of our clothes on a rock to dry while we hiked the island…..it is after all the Orient area.
I got several pictures of the beached sailboat and moved to the old light house. At this point we were the only people on the island and kind of liked it that way but some kayakers joined us as well as a gentleman that was hunting for conch shells, and there were more than a few of those. Shot pix of the lighthouse and then realized that it was time to make it back to the sandbar to be picked up for our return trip. Our clothes were still there and by this time pretty dry. We sat for a while enjoying the sun and then the jetskii made it back to pick us up. Our trip to the island was worth the $20 we spent and was a fantastic time…..hey no crime committed there as there were only 5 of us on island and with no pockets would have been hard to hide a gun….LOL. We will be going back out to Green Key to spend most of a day next trip. We ended the day with a conversation with our new friends (the owners of TiJon) and then back to our room for a meeting over dinner.
We met with three other TTOL at Mark’s place for dinner. WE have driven by it I don’t know how many times and not realized it was there….what a great find. Great food and at a very good price. We had ribs, fish and a bottle of Bordeaux that was pretty decent for $35. We were shocked at how inexpensive it was and will be visiting again. The company was fantastic and we ended up making plans for our last day, which was to spend the day at Club “O”. This in the past has not been something that Mary has wanted to do.
We ended the evening at Peg Leg for drinks and a goodbye. We again had a blast visiting and enjoyed sitting at the bar getting to know more of the staff.
Friday April 25th
Day 7 and last day on the island
Early start to get to Club “O” and find untagged chairs. We found some chairs and pulled them to the front row. We were later surrounded by some folks that acted like they were about 15 y/o. Very loud and crude in their behavior and one had a fishing pole with a wad of dollar bills attached, he was busy fishing for walkers…..not our idea of a quiet morning so we moved our chairs to join a group of folks we knew. We were then introduced to many TTOL folks. The day was pretty uneventful. Was overcast and rained for part of the day so many of the beach regulars headed off to shop.
We decided to leave about 3pm to go back to the room and pack.
Packed and then tried to go to dinner at The Stone….it was mysteriously closed so we just went back to the room and cleaned out the fridge.
Saturday April 26th
Travel day
The day did not start well at all. We got to the airport at 5:30Am and the queue line was full. Flight had been cancelled. Mechanical issues in San Juan the night before.
Truly no big deal on most occasions but….I have to be in Las Vegas tomorrow for business. I need to get home today.
American did book us on a flight with US Air thru Philly. After a lot of negotiations we ended up on the flight. If we never have to fly international thru Philly again it will be a blessing. What a nightmare. Security staff yelling at passengers in line, welcome back to the good ole US of A. Long and short is we got home 8 hours late but made it home.
One piece of luggage caught up with us 2 days later and I was gratefully relieved. This bag had our dive equipment and a significantly expensive bit of rum. All got home safe and sound.
What a great trip, a bit too much driving but traffic was not at all bad. We saw more police on both sides of the island this year than in all previous trips combined. I think the island politicians may be getting the idea but it will take some time for the increased forces to turn the corner. The only place we felt a bit insecure the entire week was at Cupecoy….just the creepy factor with all the construction guys walking the cliffs and leering. I took a couple of thousand pictures and have posted a few to the site.
We are ready to return to the island next year.