Well...I am finally doing my trip report! Better late than never!!![Linked Image]<br>Paul (my DH) and I arrived on SXM about 1:30 on the 2nd of October. Our trip Orlando to Miami to SXM was without any problems and after going through immigrations in no time flat, and with a smile from the immigration officer, we were met with the rep from Summerset Car Rental. We have rented from them for 10 year or more and have always been happy with them. We stayed at a private condo on Beacon Hill and after unloading the car and upacking we headed over to Food Center in Cole Bay to do some stocking up. Beer for me and Diet Coke for Paul. We really did spend an very quiet month on SXM. We spent many a day at Mullet, wandered around Pburg and Marigot, did a little shopping and just relaxed in general. The island is looking good. The locals are doing a good job in the cleaning up of the island though I do have to say that the Dutch side was cleaner than the French side. Honest! <br>We had some fantastic meals and a few not so good and I will try to remember everything. I am definitely NOT like Carole...I swear she must dictate into a tape recorder every day![Linked Image][Linked Image] <br>Our first meal the night we arrived was at Rancho and was a very big disappointment. We have eaten there previously and were always happy but this time the food was definitely not up to par! Next we went to visit Warren at Tutta Pasta who is a very good friend of ours (we stay next door to him when on the SXM) and had a great meal. He is really a very nice man and his son Leon is adorable![Linked Image]<br>Now I've got to try to remember where else we dined....<br>Had a great Chicken Curry Salad for lunch one day at Bobby's Seafood Gallery. I've always enjoyed that and it is nice to go into a restaurant and to be welcomed back. We dropped into Mario's one evening to make reservations for Paul's birthday and we ended up dining there that night. We did make the reservations for his birthday and I jokenly said that Paul would like a rack of lamb for his meal. When we showed up for his birthday Didier came over and whispered in Paul's ear that they had a rack of lamb for him. Boy was Paul in his glory with that. Upon leaving that evening we made reservations for the following Saturday. So all told we ate at Mario's 3 times and 3 times we had fantastic food and service. That is without doubt our favorite restaurant on the island. One big, big disappointment was Bistro Cariabes. This was our first time there and we went after reading the glowing reports on this board. The food was very poor. I had the toughest Snapper I have ever tried to eat. And the service was non-existent. All in all it was a bad experience. Other places we ate...Mark's Place, a wonderful whole snapper in foil with onions, peppers and garlic, plenty of garlic. It was out of this world. In fact I had it twice there! We had two great meals at Da Livio's...one evening and then lunch the day we left. It was nice to see Everett again and he was telling us how Daniel was over at Mr. Busby's. We never did get over there to see him. Had great veal chops at Da Livio's. Had two great lunches at Le Tastevin. We have always had great food there. More snapper there and it was wonderful! Tried the Creole House (I think that is the name of it) just before getting to Match on the other side of the street. It is a lovely restaurant with an antique shoppe in the front. Great food and service. Another place was Le Casa Creole in Sandy Ground. Good food, poor service. Had a couple of lunches at Main de la Pate on the Marina Royale and we enjoyed them. They have the best Profiteroles!!! We had a couple of other good lunches at Shiv Sagar the Indian restaurant in Pburg. They have great Curry and I just love the Naan. I can remember when they first opened across the street. They took over the place where Sam's used to be. Now if any of you are REAL old timers that visited Pburg then you know about Sam's![Linked Image] Auberge Gourmand was great as usually. In case anyone does not know...Christine does not own it any more. She sold it and has gone back to France. The same waiter (I can't for the life of me remember his name) is still there. We had a very good dinner at Le Chatelaine at the Marina Royale. Paul loves their 'no name dessert'! Turtle Pier still has the best hamburgs and we had a good lunch there. Now I THINK that's all for the restaurants. And I lost a pound while there believe it or not. Of course I ate mostly fish!<br>We really hated to come home, as usual. We have been going to SXM for about 15 years now and are kicking ourselves in the you-know-what for not buying a home there when we had the opportunity to and prices were cheap. We will be going back 16 April to 16 May.<br>As for the Casinos...we stopped a couple of times and contributed our $$$$ but since we are not really casino buffs we did not spend that much time in them. <br>Match is still undergoing extensive alterations. It is really not stocked very well now. We like Import/Export (or is the other way around) better. We did find that Food Center on Bush Rd is more expensive than the one in Cole Bay. We also visited Cost-u-Less which is like Costo and Sam's. Unfortunately you have to buy in bulk there for most things.<br>All in all it was a great trip and we are looking forward to April.<br><br>Annie <br><br><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Carol_Hill on 11/28/00 05:05 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

Annie

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