June Activities

SunTree Delegates Visit Club Orient
Over the years Club Orient on the island of Saint Martin in the French West Indies has seen assorted visitors from SunTree Travel Club. This year, this newsletter is including a short set of comments to share with fellow SunTree members.

My quarters at Club Orient were very nice with a kitchen with full size refrigerator, four-burner (electric) stove with a real oven. In my unit the bathroom was what is normally called a 3/4 bathroom (shower but no tub).

All of the quarters are close to the beach. My quarters were located very close to the Club Orient restaurant/bar (Papagayo's). On my first day, I wore my Teva sandals to walk around the whole area and found that the powdery sand had no rocks or other problems to bare feet, so that was the last time that I wore the sandals. In fact, that was the last time that I wore anything but a hat during the entire visit to the Club other than on the couple of occasions when we left the club to visit markets or restaurants elsewhere on the island.

Other than for variety and “tourist reasons”, there was no reason to eat outside of the club because Papagayo's had excellent meals. One one (only) occasion, I ate something other than a fish meal and had a lunch of a cheese burger. It was also excellent as, I am sure were the steaks, but I tended to stick with the conch, crab, lobster, salmon lasagna and excellent soups.

There is beach volleyball and clay tennis courts for those who were interested in activities more stressing than reading a book. There were catamarans, sailboats, parachute rides and Para-skiing available as well as windsurfing lessons.

 I would certainly agree on having Club Orient as a regular venue for the SunTree calendar.

Alamogordo To Start off June
A swim party was held in Alamogordo on the weekend following the return of the pilgrims to St. Martin. It was one of the regular, fun events that we have come to know in Alamogordo. All had fine conversation and lots of good food. Since I had to leave early to attend another event, I cannot report on much more of this event, but the time that I was able to spend there was quite enjoyable.

Summer Solstice at Faywood Hot Springs
Although most of us expected that the visit to Faywood Hot Springs for the weekend following the Summer Solstice would be lightly attended because of the high temperatures that most of us have been experiencing, there was a good turnout there. The daytime high temperatures were way down in the very lowest of the three-digit portion of Dr. Fahrenheit's scale and the evening temperatures were quite pleasant. When we first arrived, the air was quite hazy and had a distinct smell of smoke from the numerous forest fires burning in the Gila and the Apache National Forests in New Mexico and Arizona, but winds augmented with a little (very little) rain helped to clean the air on Friday evening. It was a very pleasant get together for all who could make it.

July Club Doings

Once again the SunTree gang has been invited to El Paso for another club event there.

It will be a potluck event (bring enough food for 20 people so that if everybody brings that amount we will not starve - sorry, I know that I did not have to say that since that seems to be the normal policy for our members) and a swimming party.

There is a large swimming pool with a waterfall into it from the large hot tub. It is a great place for our events and very gracious hosts as well. Be prepared for a nice event.

Contact SunTree for information and directions if you want to participate in this event.

July 29 Swim Event in Alamogordo Cancelled Due to Flash Flood Problems