Thursday, October 19 (Ron)

I got up about 6:45am and got yesterday’s journal entry typed into the computer. It started raining again last night and it’s still raining. The sky is grey to dark grey in all directions. We have a leisurely morning waiting to see what the weather is going to do. While waiting for the rain to stop we go next door to the Sapphire Resort to get online. I check emails while Pat does stuff on the laptop. After an hour or so she finishes up and I use the laptop to upload some pictures to my blog. It slowly loads, finally says it’s done, and I lose my connection. I get back online and start loading the picture again. Same thing happens. Dang, this is starting to piss me off. One more time. It seems to finish then no connection. Time’s a wasting. I’ve got better things to do than fight with this thing. I shut the computer down and go back to the room. It’s a little after noon and it’s still sprinkling but the sky is clearing a little, so things are improving. We sit around and read for a while, Pat in her sweats and me wrapped up in a blanket. It’s cool enough today that we don’t really need the air conditioning going full blast, but since the thermostat for the a/c is in the adjacent room and we have no way to get in there and turn it down, we open the door to the deck and let in some warmer air. That helps a little. It’s still pretty grey, but the rain has stopped and we decide to go to Pic Paradis, the highest point on the island at just under 1500 ft. The road to Pic Paradis is just on the other side of Marigot, on the French side of the island. We stopped at a French bakery just as we got into Marigot. It’s called Lu Sucriere and it had a fantastic variety of pastries. They were beautifully decorated and look ready for the final course of a hundred dollar gourmet meal. There were also some non-dessert baked goods – Paninis, ham and cheese croissants, various rolls, pizza, etc. Everything looked wonderful. We ended up getting a chicken panini to split for supper later. Pat had a baked ham and cheese sandwich for lunch and I had a small pizza. For dessert Pat had a chocolate tort and I had a triple chocolate mousse. Words cannot begin to describe them. The sandwich and pizza were very good. The desserts were unbelievably good! We ate outside on the patio and when we finished we went back inside to tell them how much we enjoyed the meal and to find out how late they were open so that we could stop by on the way home. The lady was very nice and said they are open until a quarter till eight. No problem. It starts getting dark around 6pm so that should give us plenty of time. After lunch we walked around Marigot for a while. Marigot is the capitol city of the French side, but is still a small city. The entire French side of the island has a population of only thirty-seven thousand. The Dutch side is slightly smaller in size, but the population is slightly more. Driving around is much easier that Phillipsburg, Sint Maarten’s capitol. The driving is still crazy, but there is far less congestion. However, we walked, enjoying the small shops and restaurants. We got back in the car and drove to the north side of town, turned on the road to Pic Paradis and started up. Even the good roads on this island are not that good, and this was not one of the better ones. It’s rough and narrow. The further we went, the narrower it got. The road got very steep and very narrow, the tall grass along the edge of the road sometimes brushing our little car on both sides. We managed to make it to the top without meeting another car. At the top, the road doesn’t end, it just has a gate across it and becomes somebody’s driveway. There’s a small sign that says “Viewpoint” and points to the right. We took the trail and walked about one hundred yards to a spot where we looked out to the north and the town of Grand Case. There were several islands in the background. Nice view even though it was still a little cloudy and visibility wasn’t the best. The trail continued so we followed it, hoping for a better view. Now the trail is not so well used. It’s hard to follow at times, with the grass on either side reaching six to seven feet and laying across the trail. We hiked on, perhaps another two hundred yards thru the tall grass, to another clearing looking out over what we think is Phillipsburg or Oyster Pond. We hike even further on but don’t come to a good viewpoint, so we head back. At the trailhead there’s another trail going off in a different direction. I start down this trail and after about fifty feet I spot a nickel lying on the ground. I pick it up and put it in my pocket. That will be my lucky nickel. A few feet and there’s a penny on the ground. I leave it there for someone else. On a few more feet is a small stump about three feet high. It has a small, shallow, hole at the top with a quarter laying in it. What a weird coincidence. Another two feet and another penny, then several more spaced eight to ten inches apart. They must have been put there intentionally but I have no idea why. We return to the car and start slowly down the hill. We met several cars going up the hill and somehow manage to get past. There is a small chocolate shop in Marigot that we passed by and I quickly pull over and park the car. There’s a nice lady behind the counter who didn’t seem to speak English, but we point to the pieces we want and she puts them in a bag for us. It came to around thirteen dollars for fourteen little pieces of heaven. Have chocolate, will travel. The sun is setting so we park the car along the ocean front and sit on some bleachers that were set up in the market area where we were on Wednesday. The sun sets into the ocean and the lights of the city come on. Very nice. We had vowed to stop back at that bakery we were in earlier today, so we walked over to it and got some stuff for supper and of course some more dessert. Back to our room. Bob, a very sweet resort cat, is waiting for us. His name isn’t really Bob, but that’s what I named him because part of his tail is cut off. We invite him in and he joins us while we enjoy our supper, but it’s getting late, so he has to go out and we have to go to bed.