Scenery and Random Aruba Stuff

This is not Aruba, it's another island we passed over in the Carribbean.

As we landed in Aruba.

Take off in Aruba.

Our beach.

Our beach again...it was a little cloudy when I took this so the water doesn't appear as beautiful as it really was.

There are wild iguanas all over the place. There were a few that lived in the bushes at our resort. We watched one day as a bird and an iguana teamed up on a girl holding a piece of pizza. The animals won. The bird dive bombed her, she dropped the pizza, and the iguana carried it away. Hilarious!


All the license plates say "One Happy Island". I can see why!

More from Aruba...

We went to eat at a very nice restaurant on the beach. The tables are in the sand, some even in the water. We watched the sunset. Very romantic!




My dessert was excellent!
Mike did not like his too much. Dutch apple pie...I think it was too authentic, not Americanized enough.

Aruba Jeep Tour

One of the best things we did on vacation was this jeep tour. We went around to several different scenic spots on the island, riding in a Land Rover. Much of the tour was off-road, very bumpy and a little scary. But we laughed the whole time. It was so much fun.





One of our stops was at this rock formation, CasiBari. Neat view, great pictures.





Most of the offroading was spent getting to the Natural Pool, a spot on the shore where rocks create just that, a natural pool. It was a neat place to see and to snorkel.

Mike is standing up near the waterfall.
Mike is giving the thumbs up sign.
If you look closely, you can see the Natural Pool near the middle of the picture.


We stopped at a donkey sanctuary. Could have done without that...

This is the Natural Bridge, a rock formation that looks like a bridge over the water. It's pretty cool. They actually had a bigger one that collapsed in 2005.


And this is the gold mine ruins.


You can see the stack of rocks here, the whole shore there is lined with stacks of rocks. It's not a native tradition. Apparently tourists started the trend, "stack a rock, make a wish" so now everyone does it.

Snorkeling in Aruba

We drove to a beach called Baby Beach. It's a huge beach where the water is really calm and shallow. It's separated from open water by a big reef, so there's great snorkeling there too. We got some neat underwater pictures, so I'll post those later.


Baby Beach is not the most pretty beach on the island, note the refinery in the background.

Mike thought it would be a good idea to feed the seagulls. Crazy guy! I thought we were going to be attacked, or in the very least, pooped on.


We went on a snorkeling trip on a sailboat too. We stopped at a shallow reef and a shipwreck. More details to come with the underwater pictures. I've never sailed before, so that was a neat experience. On a side note, there was open bar during the entire snorkel trip too. Again, not something we could do in the US...get you drunk and drop you into open water. Things are different in the Caribbean.

Aruba Party Bus

One night we went on this bus tour. The bus is a crazy painted old school bus with no windows blaring loud music. We stopped at a lighthouse, went to a local house for dinner, and hopped around to 3 local bars. We had a good time. Too good.



There was a great view from the lighthouse.




That's the bus in the background.


This is us with "Mama" our "tour guide" on the trip. She was like the town wild party lady. She did her best to show everyone a good time.

Aruba, Jamaica, oooo, I wanna take ya....

Well, Mike and I got back from a week long vacation in Aruba last night. It was AWESOME! Beautiful beaches. We got to do a lot and see a lot. We had such a good time. The kids stayed home with Grandma Roni and Grandpa Art. They also had a good time, because I'm sure you're wondering. I'm going to post some pictures, but it's going to take a few postings.

I know my face doesn't look it, but I'm having fun, really, I am! The sun was so bright!

This was the beach at our hotel, Eagle beach, rated one of the best beaches in the world. The pictures don't do it justice. White sand, mild surf, warm clear blue water. It looks just like the pictures you see in magazines.


We went on an evening boating excursion, I suppose you could call it a party boat...Here we are with some friends we met on the boat. At the end of the night, they anchor the boat and let you go on the waterslide and rope swing into the ocean. Yeah, that would never fly in the US. But it sure was fun!


Every night there was a beautiful sunset!