Our late-April trip to the Friendly Island started on the gloomy side. After a choppy flight, the American Eagle ATR-72 landed under overcast skies. The clouds followed us to Grand Case Beach Club and remained for the next 24 hours.<br><br>Without going into other unfortunate events that contributed to the gloomy mood at GCBC (that’s been well covered on another thread), as soon as we settled into our new home at Hotel Mt. Vernon, the skies cleared and the weather was perfect from that point on. Symbolic, eh?<br><br>In past years, Mt. Vernon had a bad reputation for surly service, particularly during its time as the Blue Bay. During our stay, this could not have been further from the truth. Every staff member we encountered was pleasant and helpful. Calls for maintenance were answered literally within minutes. Granted, the hotel was quite empty for the first several days of our 8-night stay, so perhaps they were just glad to have someone to talk to and something to do. But if management can keep up this level of service, a good marketing push and a hurricane-free season could see this property doing quite well again soon.<br><br>The only real negative that some folks might find with Hotel Mt. Vernon is its position on the side of a hill. While the view over Orient Bay is magnificent, you are always climbing up, either from the beach/pool to the room, or from the room to the lobby or from the parking area up to the hotel. By the end of the trip, we had renamed it Hotel Machu Picchu.<br><br>On the other hand, all that climbing provided good exercise to burn off that night’s hearty meal. We mingled with the locals more this trip than in the past, having dinners at the lolos one night, at Carnival Village another, and one afternoon a wonderful Caribbean feast at the home of a true St. Martin family that we have come to know. The night we went to Carnival, we partied with St. Maarteners till 2 a.m., enjoying Soca and Calypso music performed by X-plosion Band, Onyan and Byron Lee & the Dragonnaires. If we could have held out just a couple more hours, we would have joined in the Jouvet Jump-Up, but call us wimps if you must.<br><br>We made it to the TTOL party at Peg Leg on the 22nd, and met or reacquainted our selves with several friendly folks. But we wimped out, if you will, on the SSBB party on the 28th, even though the Whalemas and we had initially set it up. It was just too much to try to do in one day knowing it would be a late night at Carnival that night. I’m sure someone handled drinking our share of Caribs for us!<br><br>The building boom on the French side continues, but in at least one case the results are very positive. On the waterfront in Marigot, the new West Indies Mall provides an upscale, air-conditioned shopping experience. The highlight of the mall has to be the public bathroom. It costs $1 to use, but it is truly the cleanest, most stylish and most beautiful public bathroom I have ever seen – worth every cent!<br><br>In contrast to our last SXM visit in November, beaches were wide and water levels were low. Orient Beach was the deepest we had ever seen it, at least since Hurricane Lenny. Although we did not visit Cupecoy this time around, from the airplane window, even that beach appeared to have plenty of sand. Overall, the island looks better than ever. Vegetation is green and bountiful, litter is down and people are as friendly as ever. Although some hotels like Club Orient and Grand Case Beach Club were fully booked (or even overbooked!) we heard that the island’s overall business is down 40 percent since September 11. It is showing signs of bouncing back, however, so keep your fingers crossed for no hurricanes in 2002.<br><br>As hard as leaving the island always is, the trip through Juliana was extremely easy this time. I was a little concerned, but because between running late, hitting heavy traffic and having to stop for gas, we got to the airport only an hour before our flight. But it was a morning flight on a small American Eagle plane, so we actually had more than enough time, even with the security guy who inspects the luggage making me entirely unpack my suitcase for a thorough search.<br><br>Home again in Chicago, it’s a beautiful spring and I can hardly wait for the hot weather that will make me think of SXM!<br>