Yesterday was a quietly lovely day. The kind of day vacations are supposed to be all about.
We woke up early and had our coffee in - it's been too hot to really enjoy mornings out on the porch the past few days, which is too bad since that's always pleasant. And it's been too hot for me to have the doors and windows open at all this week, and that's very unusual since we, well I that is, generally far prefer the cooling trade winds to the artificial pent up air conditioning but you do what you need to do.
Between the Sargasso seaweed and what people are telling me is the Sahara sands in the air - you can almost see it and feel it, and it's what I was earlier on in my trip referring to as haze - this has turned into a very different trip weather wise. I do feel great sympathy for the island as it desperately needs rain and they just aren't getting it. We've had one very heavy downpour n the middle of the night the first week we were here and that's it. The entire island desperately needs rain.........And I won't even go into the state of the golf course.
Okay then, yesterday morning I went to our timeshare orientation to see if there were any new offerings that might be of interest, but sadly nothing new. From our balcony, we could see the seaweed pooling on the water just off Mullet Beach and the waves were literally crashing on the beach so we chose not to bother with a beach day and stayed put at the pool for much of the day, sharing one of Natasha's yummy (and huge) burger plates and meeting and chatting with some great new acquaintances while we were there. I received a raffle prize at orientation of a BOGO for the Americas Cup Racing Boats and gave it to a couple who sounded really enthused about trying it. That was a very nice gift as a giveaway to us and an $80.00 savings if they actually decide to do the races. DH has done them several times over the years but we weren't interested this trip so I hope they enjoy them.
We got a late start on dinner and again, I couldn't make a dinner decision so we headed out to Maho and ended up at Bajatzu. We ordered off their three course Fixed Price Menu which was $42.00 pp with lots of choices to select from. I had a Cesar salad and DH had the escargot and for our entrees I had grilled chicken breast and he chose the NY Strip, but of which were delicious and beautifully served and half of which came home with us and will probably serve as reheats another night. Dessert was their home made apple tart. They were delicious, but huge and rich, served warm with vanilla ice cream and a whipped cream topping. John managed to finish him but sadly I couldn't, not that I didn't want to.....I don't know what it is about this particular restaurant - it's very upscale and glitzy with impeccable service and excellent food, but it's just not the Caribbean feeling I'm looking for, but then, most of Maho isn't and we keep returning. Once again we bumped into a waiter there named Anthony whom we met our first trip to the island in 1973, when he had just started working at Mullet Bay Resort and 42 years later, he's still going strong and looking great.
Dinner done, we headed over to the casino for a bit - I'm not much of a casino person but I finally discovered the penny slots and I love them. I find I can play a lot longer with my twenty dollar donation before saying goodbye to it but this time for a change, we actually walked out winners. This gal, for once, decided to take the money and run.
Another good SXM day done and now it's time to turn the coffee on and wake my DH from his slumber. And on another note, while I've been writing I've watched two ships head into town so far - a Disney Ship and a Royal Caribbean so it looks to me like it might be a busy day in town today.
.
