Ahhhhhh-ruba

DAYS 1, 2 & 3:

DAY 1
My husband is the King of Vacation planning.  Now, I'm not complaining about that because he likes a good vacation and I get to be his date.  We've gone on some great trips: Hawaii, South Beach, Yosemite and on a cruise...just to mention a few.  We like to go to all of these new places and explore the area and do new things.  We feel that we're too young to just go to the same place year after year and just sit.  There's still too much of the world to explore!

But this trip to Aruba was definitely going to be more of a “sit and relax” vacation.

We left super early on a Tuesday morning, had a slight layover in Newark and then landed in Aruba about 4 hours later.  It must have been "no scan" Tuesday because after showing our passports, we just walked out of the airport - our luggage was never scanned or checked. 

A short cab ride to the Bucuti-Tara Resort and we were checking in with some complimentary champagne.   Our room is amazing and is literally less than a football field length to the beach.  We were famished and the restaurant across the street (Pizza Bob) sounded like the best option...although not very Arubian!  My husband did sample the local beer.  As expected, there was a beautiful sunset that night but we weren't up much later than that since it had been a long day.

 

DAY 2 - was just a day of relaxing on the beach.  We got up without an alarm (that's the way every day should be!), went to the breakfast buffet, came back to the room to put on our swimwear and then staked our claim on a couple of beach chairs.  After about an hour or so I was restless so I took a 20 minute walk up the beach.  I saw a wedding taking place, a pretty good sandcastle that had been built and saw an older woman "lose her top" when a wave crashed in to her.  She didn't even realize it at first until her husband told her.  They both just laughed about it!  I did get restless again around 3:30 so I changed into my running clothes and went to the fitness center.  Did 4 miles on the treadmill; wow it was humid in there.

We walked to the Alhambra Center and found a Subway...and that was lunch.  We noticed a casino across the way and did a quick walk-thru.  I was small and smoky.  BLEH :(   Then we found a market were it was essential that we purchase more sunblock.  These lily white North American bodies aren't use to being so close to the equator!

After dropping our stuff off at the room it was back to the Sand Bar for evening cocktails.

DAY 3 – just another lazy day on the beach.  Again is was the usual routine of getting up, having breakfast and then heading to our favorite beach chairs.  This time at the breakfast buffet, I fixed a plate to have later for lunch.

After lounging for awhile I got up and took a walk this time heading west.  It was rockier but I go some great pictures of pelicans and found a piece of coral in the shape of a cross.

By the time I got back, my husband was in our room eating lunch which sounded like a splendid idea.  So glad I fixed that plate of food from the buffet.  He was still eating leftover pizza!

He ventured down to check out the jet ski status and we decided that later in the day we’d go rent one.  The clouds started coming in and things started to get a little dark but my husband was sure that it would just pass over us.  WRONG!  We get about half way there and the rain lets loose.  We started running back to our beach chairs to gather up our stuff and went back into the room.  It rained off and on the rest of the day. So I went to check out the gift shop and get a feel for some of the things I might want to get to take home.

Tonight was our romantic dinner in one of the huts.  It was amazing!  The food was fantastic – although the champagne (which I’m not really a fan of anyway) was very dry – but the service was great as well.  And as though he’d planned it this way, tonight was the most beautiful and perfect sunset of the trip so far.  We were so full from dinner that we had to take the desserts back to the room and save them for tomorrow.

Yep…just another amazing day in Aruba.