Friday, October 20 (Pat)

Our last day in St. Maarten. We wake up to pounding rain and lightning in the early morning and get up around 8am. It is dark grey outside again with morning rain. We do our breakfast routine killing time to see if it’s going to break up. By late morning it has stopped raining and the clouds are breaking up somewhat. We do email next door and by a little after 1pm are off in the car. We head for Grand Case. There is a big loop thru the town one-way. Along the waterfront are houses with narrow alleys for beach access and not much parking. After getting back to the main road it was decided not to stay in Grand Case so off to Orient Bay. The temperature was comfortable but not much sun. We got some chairs and watched the cruise ship people in front of us. Ron read while I people watched then took a walk to the north end of the beach. We had our cheese and bread, grapes, and chicken pockets. Ron’s neck was bothering him and he was mad at me so we just hung out until about 5:30pm. I suggested we have dinner on our last night somewhere in Marigot.

The traffic was bad getting into town and we finally made it to the waterfront area and found a parking space. They were having some kind of noisy activity in the center area so we walked up the street and checked out one of the restaurants on the sidewalk further from the loud drumming. Ron had Mahi Mahi creole style and I had a shrimp kebob creole style. When I asked for water they brought a whole large bottle of water! I was thirsty anyway. Ron also had chocolate mousse for dessert and I had a bite of it – very good. The bill came to $48 US. The waitress walked with me around the corner to the ATM – the buddy system! She was from Spain and came here twelve years ago to have a slower pace of life and really likes it. She also served us some home-made chocolate rum – similar to Kahlua and very good. Got change to leave a tip and headed back to the suite. Bob was waiting at the stairs. He is visiting while we get stuff together and start to pack. Check out is 10am tomorrow, the plane leaves at 4:15pm.