<br><br><br>Ok, guess I’ll start Part II with the bet that Amanda and I had before our trip: If I went parasailing (scared of heights),she would eat frog’s legs. (She was terrified of them!) The Thursday evening before our departure, we had made reservations for L’Auberge Gourmande. We had eaten here last year also, and the meal and service was fabulous again! And especially good was the frog’s legs on the menu! :-) We told the waiter of our deal. As we waited for our orders to arrive (and she got off easy, as they were just an appetizer and not a meal!!), Amanda could be seen to be getting more and more nervous.And it probably didn’t help that I sat there making RRRibbit frog sounds between sips of champagne! :-) As each waiter or waitress came around the corner near our table with food orders, she looked like she was going to bolt from the table. They soon arrived, and the waiter placed them on the table in front of her—in a wonderful creamy, garlic mustard sauce. He began to walk away from the table, then turned to her and said “Just a warning” and mind you, as he’s talking, his voice kept getting louder and louder as if he was telling a ghost story….and he continued, “the last time we served these, they were not quite done, and as the customer reached for one, they JUMPED off the plate!” and he scurried away laughing. Perfect. Now she’s REALLY ready to run! She picked one up with her fork, and proceeds to make it dance a can-can, singing and laughing along. We were hysterical. Now comes the tough part—eating one!! I’ve had them before, but they didn’t look like these! The little hind quarters still attached, and very muscular looking thighs—the ones I had were just long legs. Anyway--she pulled one apart and finally got the thing into her mouth—voila!! And she LIKED them!! I do have to admit though, it was tough getting past how they looked. But she did it—grudgingly, but she did it!! :-) You go girl!! Now for my half of the bargain :-(<br><br>On to Orient the next morning for our parasailing gig….Was raining for a bit that morning, so we sat in Baywatch having a couple of cocktails waiting for the showers to pass—and me getting some nerve up-ha! Finally came down to the big moment. Jet skis took us out to the boat with 4 other people. Amanda and I got into the double, attached harness. We looked like inmates shackled together, and I felt as if I was headed toward Death Row. Then we proceed to sit and wait..and wait…and wait…..Two guys, one young and one older—maybe 6o’s or so? Are trying to get the sail to catch the wind and hit the air. To no avail! And as they’re doing this, the older man fell—not once, not twice, but three times—ONTO HIS HEAD, WITH HIS FEET KICKING UP INTO THE AIR!! Kept losing his footing—so I was told. I was convinced he was drunk, and I was going to die or at the very least have him lose the connection to our sail, and I’d be parasailing all the way home to New York!! The younger guy is yelling at him, and getting all bent out of shape—as if it was the other man’s fault the wind wasn’t right! By this point I’m not even able to speak I was so nervous—frantic—PANICKED!! And the yelling sure didn’t help! So they offer to buy us all a drink. Fine! I say! Take us back to the beach, buy us a drink, and when you get this damn sail up, come back and get us! I figured this would be my way out! But nooooooo…..here comes a guy—(gorgeous, French, and what Amanda called a French fry….French Toast….this is what she called all the gorgeous young French men, saying it with a heavy French accent—very funny! )But here he comes on a jet ski, doing 40 mph, with a tray of rum punches held high in the air with one hand for us all on the boat!! Pulled right up to the boat, never spilled a drop- served our drinks, and took off again. Damn! There goes my chance to escape. After almost 45 minutes or so, the sail is up. Oh noooooo! We hitch ourselves up to the back of the boat—Amanda still telling me if I didn’t want to do this, we could get down. I told her if I didn’t do it now, it was never going to happen. So, up, up, and away we go! I had my eyes closed and screaming all the way up—Amanda’s first sail too, and we screamed together!! She kept telling me, Shelby, open your eyes! When I finally did—OH MY!! I am DEATHLY afraid of heights to begin with, but this was truly unbelievable! The mountains on one side of us, the beach on the other—quite gorgeous! All you could hear (besides us screaming) was the wind whooshing in your ears and see the little itty bitty boat below us! I was so overwhelmed with the beauty and scared of the flight that I was laughing and crying at the same time! Tears just flowed from me. We floated about for a bit, then he dropped us near the trampoline, and I thought we’d crash into it. Then he lifted us up again, dropped us and bounced us off the trampoline, and back up and then into the water again. He yelled out and asked us if we wanted to go up again, Amanda asked for free? Of course he replied. So we both gave the thumbs up, and away we went again!! All I can say and could say all afternoon, is it was AWESOME!! And thank you Amanda for convincing me to do this!! I still can’t believe I did it!! Yeeha!!!! :-) And as a result of the screaming, I lost my voice for a couple of days!! Well worth it…..<br><br>As for other nightlife, as others have stated before, BLISS is the place to party!! Our first night there, Stacy went to the bar to order drinks. Turns out she knew the bartender there from back home, and we drank for free every time we went and saw him! Place is great—gets quite crowded after 11 or 12pm—and we danced our hearts out! (About the only “exercise” I had in our visit with non-stop eating!) On this night, at about 3 or 4 in the morning, someone dedicated a song to my two friends (the sisters) we’re not sure who? But it started raining—now 3 or 4 in the morning—and there we were dancing in the pouring rain—how much fun!?! The second week we were on island, this place was quite crowded with spring breakers—but it still didn’t deter us!! We “bumped” into Sheila again here one night (after we had met her at the TTOL party earlier in the week). What a fun person—always smiling and laughing—and knows how to party too!! Hi Sheila!! Was nice to see you again! We saw her sister at Cheri’s another night too!<br><br>We checked out Bamboo Bernie’s a couple of times too. Saw a good blues/funk bank one night. And we had met the bartender here too—who would always whip up a batch of (free) rum shots for us every time we entered. Neat place. They had free sushi plates on the bar one night to munch on.<br><br>Q club we did a few times also—your basic club scene. We usually drank elsewhere before, and then went to Q—drinks can be expensive, and things really don’t get started until at least midnight and later. But again we knew another bartender here and we drank for free quite often here too! Helps to know people! Can’t beat that! Dance, dance, dance the nights away!<br><br>We checked out the Sopranos one night too. I was so surprised to read about the trouble that Gsk and the girls had there! We totally enjoyed our evening! Same singer, and he was quite entertaining that night. His 15 year old daughter was there with him, and they did the most beautiful duet together—just wonderful! If anything, WE were the ones who were a bit loud and/or making a scene! We chatted with him for a while before we left, and had a great time!<br><br>Hung out on Orient one night—maybe a Sunday? Missed the band at Boo Boo Jam’s, (caught the last song), but went from there down the beach to Kon Tiki—where the place was cranking! Back to Boo Boo’s later in the evening—mostly if not all locals there dancing to DJ—great time!! Dancing, drinking, partying….pretty much the scene almost every night. And my husband can’t understand why I need a vacation from my vacation!?!? (Honey, I need to go back…)<br><br>We also checked out the MaDouDou factory—neat place—right across the street from our hotel—handy! Bought lots of bottles there for personal consumption and for gifts. I think Miss Amanda sampled just about every rum there!! Little rumpot…<br><br>We did shopping for the necessary souvenirs,etc, at the Marigot market..once on a Wednesday, once on a Saturday. Seemed to be more vendors with fish, fresh veggies, etc on Saturday.<br><br>Our last day, we got to the airport early—about 10:30 am to check in our bags. Went to Cupecoy Beach to take some photos—never made it there prior to this, and at least wanted to see it. Went to SSBB for a—guess what? A cocktail!! Then returned the car at 11:30, got a ride BACK to SSBB—had lunch, more cocktails, then got a taxi back to the airport for our 2:20 flight home. Upon our arrival, Amanda’s mother was to have picked us up at JFK. But we were surprised by a driver with a stretch limo—complements of Amanda’s boss again!! SWEET!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU JOHN!<br><br>We met so many interesting people on this trip—from the locals, to people near where we live, to people all over the WORLD! The first week we were there was just a day after the Heineken Regatta ended, and we met some who had sailed in it from New Zealand, Australia, Holland—you name it! Quite fun! And we’ve traded e-mail addresses and phone numbers with a few people we met, and plan to keep in touch. So much fun, so little time! And laughing? We did so much of it that I think people who saw us thought we were crazy! Even with our two weeks this year, there was still more that we wanted to do. Guess we’ll HAVE to return next year, right? Our flight home, both of us were just about sobbing—we really did NOT want to go. But as they say, all good things must come to an end. But I think of this as just the BEGINNING! We shall return….<br><br>Thanks for listening and reading everyone! It is because of this board that we arrive on the island so well informed! Thanks to all. Now I know why you all call SXM home. We truly felt at home this year!! <br>[Linked Image][Linked Image][Linked Image][Linked Image][Linked Image]