Last October we started saving for our first 2 week vacation ever. We set our sights on Aruba in September... kids are in school- so not there- and Aruba's out of the hurricane belt. Cheap airfare, cheaper room rates. Perfect! Bought the plane tix in Feb and in March rented 2 weeks at a timeshare (Aruba Beach Club, aka ABC http://www.arubabeachclub.net/) right on the beach next door to where we stayed our last visit. Manchebo beach, the most beautiful beach I've ever been to (and I've been to a lot!). By June we had secured a Wrangler for our stay.
We left Sat Sept 13. USAir, no problems and no charge for baggage. First in line thru immigrations at the airport, too. Whoohoo! On the drive to the timeshare, everything was familiar. It was a great feeling. Dropped the bags off did a little bit of unpacking, then off to the grocery store to stock up on beer, coffee, Dutch cheeses, fruit, salad fixings and more beer. We'd already scored big at Duty Free on our stop over in Charlotte. ;-)
Mike woke us up super early (6am) on Sun 14th. Made coffee... but uh oh.... coffee pot broken! Gah! Called housekeeping, left message, then front desk, no housekeeping in. Went over to Dushi Bagels, this little bagel and coffee shop just behind the ABC, got 2 large coffees, and my goodness it was sooo aweful!! I imagine it was sewage, not coffee. Back at the room cooked up some breakfast, then finally around 9am we gave up the wait and hit the beach, cooler full of Balashi & kiwi.
Speaking of Balashi, http://www.balashi.com let me just say we LOVE THIS STUFF. It's brewed on the island, right next to the world's biggest desalination plant. So in essense, you're drinking the Caribbean when you drink Balashi! LOL! In fact, in the native language, Papiamento, Balashi means 'our water'. Cool huh? (and Papiamento translates to 'talk much', hehe). This pic of me holding a bottle was taken on the north side of the island, but where was I... Right okay first day at the beach. I wrote out a zillion post cards and we went swimming abo
ut 100 times. The water was much warmer than it was on our last visit, which was over 06/07 New Years. It was absolutely spectacular. Even Carbo enjoyed himself.We had Palapa 27 all but one beach day. We were very fond of that particular spot.
That day we left the beach around noonish in search of football. We first tried the Alhambra casino, which sits behind the ABC. It's a craptastic casino, there's like zero ventilation. But they only had the Giants game. We ended up at the Hyatt in the 'high rise area'. We much prefer the 'low rise area' where we stay, the beaches are far superior, there are waaaaaay less people, and you can get a palapa at any time with no hassle (or fee). Of course the grounds at the Hyatt were gorgeous and extravagant, as was the darn bar bill!!! We met a couple from Chicago celebrating their 1st wedding anniversary and had a good time hanging with them watching the Giants. We didn't find New England or the Bears and we didn't stay for more than the first game. That day Zambrano pitched the Cub's first no hitter in 36 years, yay! Left there and headed to Jamaica Me Crazy in search of a friend we made last time, but they were closed, so we hit the open ma
rket that happens on Sat and Sun. Mike got me this gorgeous, wonderful, awesome white dress, that was such a perfect fit I cried when I put it on (I had lost 23lbs since Feb, so I was extra stoked). We found a painting also from a local artist that we really liked, but decided to hold off until the next weekend to make sure we wanted it (and we did, and we got it, LOL). Joe (the guy selling the artwork) said that the artist lives in San Nicholas. I had just read "An Island Away" which is a novel that takes place on Aruba, mostly in San Nicholas, so off we went that night to check it out. There's a bar there that's a sort of legendary tourist spot, Charlies Bar. Well that was closed too. D*&n Sundays! LOL Prostitution is legal on Aruba, but really it's only 'tolerated' in San Nicholas, so you can imagine us driving around after dark getting lost in this town, haha. Got a cool shot of Charlies Bar and the moon though. Mike was a bit nervous driving around San Nicholas at night, but I had some nerve in me after reading the book. I did not feel threatened. Of course even so, I'm glad our Jeep didn't break down or anything, hahaa!On the way back, driving around kinda lost but at least knowing we were heading in the right direction (aka: ocean is on our left, LOL), we ended up at a bar that was so local, the employees spoke only a couple of English words. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is just crazy for the island, as most natives speak three languages, and a good many speak 4, 5, and 6 languages! The place was called Vadero (or Veradero?), and it was a marina bar. We met a woman named Deta who was really cool, we had great conversation with her, she translated for us, and the food was excellent. We split a conch entree, in this wonderful sauce. We tipped too much, since they gave us Florins as change for our American dollars, and we were not yet used to the exchange rate. haha,
oh well. At least we made the mistake in thier favor, they were good people.We stopped at Pinchos bar/restaurant on the way back. It's on a pier off of a beach. Nice nice place, but we just stopped for a couple drinks. The owner approached us, since we asked for 1800- which they didn't have- turns out she's looking to increase her tequila selection and so she asked us all about our tequila tastes. Seems that she's leaning more toward Patron. Oh well what can you do.
Monday Sept 15, it was a wonderful day. We spent the whole day, like 9am till 4pm, on the beach. We had lunch at Tortuga's, the pool bar at ABC. We got pan fried grouper atop cesear salad, with home made dressing. People, I exaggerate not one bit when I say this was the best ceasar salad I have ever had, and the most impressive dressing EVER.
And WHO KNEW grouper was so freakin' awesome??! 
Here are some more pics from that wonderful day.....Like here's our typical breakfast spot, on our balcony (we had a gas stove top to cook on)
Here's me sporting the gorgeous new wrap Mike got for me at the open market. Let me tell you, I was sorta bummed that I did not lose all the weight I wanted to for this trip, but I was very content with my body and that really makes everything better. Thank the Goddess for Weight Watchers!!! Yay!!!! 
So at 4pm that day we left the beach to clean up and then walk the 1.3 (or so, hah!) miles up the beach to the Amsterdam Manor Beach bar, as every Monday there's a Bulletin Board happy hour party there. See, I am a member of aruba-bb.com, where all involved are smitten to the extreme with the island, and that's almost all we talk about. It's been an extremely valuable resource in our planning. One example is the advice for the Jeep rental place. The price wa excellent, ya know? So I asked about the whole ordeal. True to word, Ricky at More For Less rentals was top notch. More on that later.
Here's a sweet sunset pic from that happy hour. Oh and by the way it was a fantastic walk up the beach and back. Here's one of my favorite pics of Mike ever, taken on that walk back.In fact on the way back, we passed by a small but festive and somewhat formal wedding happening at the Bucuti resort and shouted out to the bride and groom. Smiles galore.
We met a very cool couple at that party, Tom and forgive me but I can't think of her name. They're from Ohio. I swear we could have kibitzed the night away with them. No pics of them, opps our bad. Once back we headed to a place for dinner that we obsessed about ever since we left last time, and you're gonna think we're crazy but here goes. Pizza Bob's. Yeah I said it. It's in walking distance, and the pizza is right up there with what I have had all over Italy, and NY and NJ. Oddly the owner is from Chicago, so even though he makes much more of a NY style pizza, he insists on cutting a circular pie into squares. Like, that is the most a$$backwards thing in the world LOL. But don't get me started, retarted. Here's some Pizza Bob's love pics: 
Oh, another thing we did that day was make reservations at Spa del Sol at Manchebo for a couples massage and body mud wraps for the next day. Total heavenly wonderfulness it was. 
A cool bit of trivia about that spa, well sorta, is that yes it's an open air spa on the beach, but all the area in front of it all the way to the water is totally cleared. That's because it is a sea turtle nesting ground. So yeah, you can catch hatch lings fighting for their lives after hatching making their way to the sea. As an added bennie you have total peace while you're enjoying your treatment. Before our massages, we hung out in the hot tub. I know you're probably thinking 'hot tub??' ...the temp was set at something like 95, and the way it is situated, as you sit, all you see is a bit of sand and then the Caribbean. Just spectacular. Then we hit their steam room, which had eucalyptus kicking. And it was high quality, pure stuff. I could have stayed in that room for hours, ya know? So that spa visit was on Tuesday, after a morning at the beach. It was wonderful. Unfortunately, we cleaned up to head out to Blossoms for Sushi, I located in the highrise area. What a crap hotel. And mein Gott! That was the WORST sushi meal EVER on earth, and it was grossly overpriced. Again another odd one out, because it's hard to find food that horrible in Aruba, LOL!
On the way back we stopped at Ling and Sons grocery store, great place. Picked up a ton more beer, and some marinated grouper filets to cook up at the time share the next day or so. We got more SPF too, as we both had a bit of a burn here and there.
SOOO the next day, Wed, we started the day with a good 45min swim in the sea. We then headed to our favorite place on the island, and again you're gonna think we're nuts. The Ostrich farm!! Yay!!!!! Ostrich are cool beans. But they also have the COOLEST SHOP on the island. The owners are from South Africa, and every single thing in there is hand made art from Zimbabwe. We spent tons there last trip, and kept up the tradition this trip. The bar restaurant there is just perfect. And that's an understatement. Here's a pic from the bar area: It's inviting, and has a great breeze and view of the ocean from up high.
And here, Ladies and Gentlemen, is where our trip took the unexpected turn for the supremely awesome and blessed. First of all, we got there early in order to eat lunch (yay, eating ostrich), and then take the tour. Wanted so bad to sit on an ostrich again, it's an experience you cannot describe, as they hug you with their wings. They are supremely strong creatures and very, very soft. We ate Ostrich sashimi (yes you read that right, here's a pic)
We sat down next to- get this- the same guy, Glenn, who was our tour guide on our last trip! Great guy. He's a... or was a.. biochemical engineer, traveled the world for business, worked 80 hour work weeks, and a few years back said 'you know what, this sucks." He made a plan, sold most everything he owned, and moved his happy butt to Aruba. And has not regretted it for a second. So to top this off, the bartender, Giselle, was a very engageing and warm woman. So, what, four and a half hours later we're still at the bar, we've not taken the tour, we've drank a case of Balashi between us plus several espressos, LOL, and left the place with contact info from Giselle. Turns out her husband is the chief dispatch officer for the Aruba police, and because of their schedules they only have Fridays off together. They start at about 10am on Friday and bar hop around the island to all the local places (of course), and she had invited us to join them! Claiming that we were totally her kind of people. YAY!!!!! Giselle grew up in Aruba. Her mother is a Curacao Indian (for those who don't know, the Dutch islands are known as the ABC islands, consisting of Aruba, Bonair and Curacao). Her father is from Holland, and was a cop, who moved to Curacao to work, where he met her mother, and they moved to Aruba. Giselle's husband, Ludo, grew up in Holland, moved to Aruba where he met Giselle. Had we not met Giselle and hit it off so well, our vacation would have been a completely, totally different experience. But more on that later ;-)Leaving the Savanna Lodge (the Ostrich farm's bar), we ventured off for some off roading, which is easy to find since half the island is Arikok National park that cannot be explored without 4WD. It was excellent. And check it out I totally struck gold with blue sea glass (not easy to find). We experienced many many bliss attacks this trip, and here's a good pic of one of them.
Then back to the room to clean up, as we had plans to meet more aruba-bb people at another beach/pier bar. Bernard showed us his room, very nice (hah, he got a fancy room due to so many previous trips there and all the money he has spent at the onsite casino). Then we went to the casino where Mike made a desposit at the blackjack table. I was sooo ready to call it a night, I felt sick from exhaustion. Nice casino though, excellent ventilation and nice staff. Finally back at the room, me feeling like crap, I popped some vitamins, and Mike went for some Pizza Bob's carryout. It was amazing how much better I felt after a couple slices! LOLThe next morning, it had rained overnight, and it didn't look promising for the day. So, I went to the gym (yeah, can you believe it??) and then we got cleaned up and headed out, figuring we'd spend the day in downtown Oranjestad, and see where the day took us. Of course as w
e were walking to our Jeep from the room the sun came out, hahaha, but we were content with our plans. We stumbled upon this cool coffee shop. Turns out it's connected to where they roast the beans. GOOD coffee. We even splurged on a sweet, which is rare.From there we went downtown and parked by the, not sure how to call them, they're like an open market on the main street by the water, so if you're on a cruise ship that's the first thing you see. Thank the heavens there were no cruise ships in town that day. Don't get me started on the abject disgusting depravity of the cruise ship mentality. Yeah so anyway, we did a bit of shopping, Mike found the perfect necklace for Marcy, who was staying at our place the whole time caring for our furbrats :). We stopped at the Paddock, this totally Dutch bar.
It is right on the water, and every single employee is a Holland transplant. Ladies and Gentlemen, I LOVE THE DUTCH. They are really awesome people. Even despite their taste in silly 80's fab techno music hahaaa ;-) Yeah so even if you still didn't catch on that the place was a Dutch bar, there's a gigantic wooden shoe on the wall outside that should clue you in hahaa
And you have GOT to love thier sense of humor, take for instance the clock on the wall:
Priceless. (and as an aside, every single local we spoke with, and we spoke with a very many of them, desperately don't want McCain and totally hate Bush. But who doesn't?)
Anyway where was I. OH MY GOODNESS this restaurant had the best Caribbean fish soup I tried on this trip.
I absolutely MUST know how to make this soup. It is insanely good. Oh and what's that bread thing next to it you ask? Unbelievably fresh french bread with toasted fresh Gouda cheese melted atop with pesto. HEAVEN. HEV. AN.
So after that we wandered around some more and decided to pop back into Iguana Joe's again to see if our 'old friend' Alberto was working. He served us last year and he's a totally great guy. Makes awesome drinks. Well, Voila!!
And here is where I had my only froo froo drinks (I think) the whole trip. Because I mean, they are powerful and delish w/o gobs of sugar. And served in half a caraf!! LOL
See the green stuff? Cactus Culada. It's no longer on the menu but was my favorite thing last time. So he made us some, what a sweetie. Would have ordered a whole one but hahah well, we were feeling pretty good already. ;-)
From there we watched the sunset at a random peaceful spot just off the road, and headed to Jamaica Me Krazy to see if our old friend was around. He was! Yay! :) Oh my word I remember demonstrating to him my total dork reaction to meeting Stephen and Damian Marley, LOL. Danny's a total sweetheart. He's a DJ and his dad is the Jamaican consolate to Aruba. Danny gets to meet all the famous musicians who come to the island, there are pics all over the restaurant. We got some beans and rice (cause it's so good and we didnt have room for their insanely good jerk chicken) and we discovered probably the best hot sauce on the planet:
But alas, it was not for sale, and Danny even checked to see if they had any unopened bottles, they didn't.So we headed back to the hotel eventually and went swimming in the sea at night, which really freaked Mike out. I had asked the 'security' guy if there were ever any shark attacks, he said in all the 17 years he's been there he's never heard of one. Then we laid out, listening to the waves, watching the stars, and totally fell asleep. GOSH it was relaxing.
....but not the bestest idea as the next day was a planned day of drinking and touring all the local spots with Giselle and Ludo! LOL They came by at 10am. Ludo offered to drive and so we handed him the Jeep keys. Ludo is a very highly respected police officer (we soon observed) and so if anything were to happen, we were in the best hands. I'm about to go picture posting crazy, LOL. First of all, meet Ludo and Giselle. Giselle is GORGEOUS, inside and out. She's a warm, funny, generous person, full of the joy of life. In all the time we spent with them, her and I spoke much of how to handle life. Many times I was reminded of the Four Agreements. She's been thru a LOT... she was a triathelete, and model. Then she had a horrible accident and was told she'd never walk again. She's too stubborn accept that, and long story short, she walks just fine! In heels even! :) She, like Ludo, speaks 6 languages, and she is a joy to listen to as she talks, in any language. Her smile is contagious and brightens up any room. Ludo is a funny, funny guy, with a competative pool playing side haha. He's not quite as easy going as Giselle but he's warm and caring and perfectly lovable none the less. Anywayz, here they are:
This pic was taken at Cheto's, our first stop, and their favorite place to grab a beer after work. Of course they knew everyone. :)
Once we left Cheto's we headed to a local small grocery store, stocking up on Balashi (for us) and Heineken for them. Ludo looks down nose at Balashi hahaa. I guess it'd be like us drinking Miller at home. Anywayz, it's great to only pay like $1.25 per bottle at these places rather than the $5 tourist places have no problem charging! :) And the people are so sweet, even if they don't speak your language. And noone gives you any attitude if you only speak English (you know, like the cursed French side of St. Maarten. Heck even Ludo and Giselle were like "St. Maarten is wonderful, except for the people on the French side!")(See??? told you all so. ;-)
We passed by a cemetary I had to get a few shots of.
From what I recall, and yes 13 hours of drinking things did get vague, the next stop was Young Fellow. Really chill place. Again, everyone was friendly as all get out. Relaxed, and smiling and welcoming. GOD I love this Island.
From there, after checking out some neighborhoods and finding out the inside scoop on all sorts of aspects of life, we headed to... drum roll please.... San Nicholas! LOL hahaaa! Giselle and Ludo found this Dominican restaurant that opened up maybe a week or maybe 2 before we went there that day. We left Ludo and Giselle order for us, telling them only that, the whole time, we wanted to eat local, and that we just won't eat veal. We had goat soup that was SOOO good, and a sort of pork stew with rice.
The ladies who run it were so nice, and there was a juke box and Mike and I did our part in representing White America that Can't Dance But Will At Least Give It A Shot. hahahaa!!!
From there we headed to Charlies Bar, which hahah was open this time. This place is FULL of stuff. Chastski from all over (I'm sure I didn't spell that right...LOL). We got to meet the 5th generation Charlie. Unfortunately the last Charlie died I think they said 3 years ago or so. Here's some picks.... the first one you can see Charlie the 5th held up in the background, teehee. The 2nd one- look closely, haha. They were hanging up on the ceiling. The third one we just think is a cool shot looking out the door while sitting at the bar. It's a cute little divi divi tree.
Here's a pick of the main bar in the novel I read, Minchis (which apparently has more truth than the average novel, lol). I can't tell you how thrilled I was to see it, hahaa, a hooker bar. I almost wanted to go in... and maybe if it wasn't a Friday after work when all is crazy, I'd convince us all to go in. Only because that was a GREAT novel, ya know? :)
From there we headed to a roadside bar that seemed to be very popular with the guys who work at Valero, the oil refinery in San Nicholas. We were slinging them back with the workers at Friday Happy hour, I mean how many people do THAT on vacation? LOL We loved it. I didn't catch the name of the bar though, but here's a few festive pics.
Next stop turned out to be our absolute favorite town on the island- Savaneta. We went to a place called Zeerovers, which literally translated in Dutch means sea robbers, or pirates! Around 5 or 6 every night, the fisherman come in for the day with their bounty. We were there that Fri when they came in, and oh my heavens guess what the main catch was that day?!! WAHOO!!! My absolute favorite fish in the world, and soo hard to get here. You can get it in Ocean City, in like, August. That's it. And it's pricey!! But we got 5 or 6 HUGE filets, fresh off the boat, for 15 florins. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???WHOOHOOO!! That is like what, like $8 or something? We were eating wahoo for breakfast in the timeshare my friends. TOTAL. BLISS. Zeerovers was one of our favoritest places on the island also. All you could order there was beer, and play pool, and catch beautiful sunsets LOL. Apparently there's a guy there sometimes when the fisherman come in that will fry up a filet for you if you want, but other then that there's only souce (sp?), which is a typical Caribbean food, it's pork ceveche and that stuff is NNNNNNASTY. I tried it, cause ya know, 'when in Rome', but oh god. Never again! LOL Here's some pics. Ok here's a lot of pics, LOL Check out how relaxed and friendly all the people look. It's so awesome. Oh, and Ludo has a pic of me holding up a wahoo with one of the fisherman. My mom would have been thrilled.
Oh and I forgot to mention, in our travels this day, we stopped by Giselle's favorite hideaway spot. Here are some pics, we loved it, perfectly peaceful. :)
So, we ended the night back at our hotel room on the balcony, Mike and Ludo made a Pizza Bob's run (Nothing like good pizza late at night after a drinking marathon, hahaha, no matter where in the world you are)
We woke up the next morning still drunk, of course! hahaa.... But guess what was the coolest thing about this day, Sat Sept 20...? WE DID NOT HAVE TO GO HOME!!!!! Wooooooooooo!!!! My friends, please, if you have not ever taken a 2 week vacation, please do yourself a favor. Doesn't mean you have to leave the country. Heck we felt like our vacation was just beginning on the first first Thursday we were there. A 2 week vacation is like the perfect medicine. Anywayz, Saturday we spent all day at Palapa 27. Of course, for breakfast, we panned fried some of that freshly caught wahoo courtesy of Posiden
There was an iguana hanging out while we ate our breakfast on our balcony.
Here's a cool view from our balcony. We only got in that pool once, and it was late at night with noone else around. That water is like bathwater. Only better. LOL
We were true to eating at least one piece of fruit a day...... for most days, hahaha. The kiwi was goooooooood....
Here's a good shot of the Tortuga, they have fantastic breakfast, LOL. And what's cool is while on the beach, you don't hear any of the noise of the restuarant while you're vegging under your palapas. :)
Also, that was the only day we used any of our snorkel stuff. We dragged all sorts of snorkel gear and really just didn't use it. We even had brand new snorkel vests, that are still brand new. HEH.So the local kids skim board a lot, and they were a alot of fun to watch. Some were really damn good. I had to take a few pics, and check this one out, I think it's super artsy fartsy.
Here's a typical view as we vegged under our palapa
We stayed at the beach that day till past sunset. It was so blissfully relaxing. Check out the sunset.
That night we had a fantastic meal at Old Conucu House. Loved that place. Slow service but who the heck cares, it's so relaxing.
Here's the soup we ordered. I got this insanely good red bean & pigtail soup. Delightfully good. Mike got the goat soup, and it was just okay. Kinda like an uneventful veggie soup.
The entrees.. We got the wahoo. Cooked to perfection. Total bliss.
We now know what ruban style is haha- like a slice of pancake thing, but much thinker. Tastes great, just heavy. And then I think it was like a cornbread thing. As far as we remember anyway. A bit too heavy ya know, but a unique combination. :)The meal was very relaxing and cozy. Hey they even brought out two well appointed plates since they knew we were splitting the entree. How thoughtful! We loved it there.
We had every intention and desire to go to the Havanna club that night to see our friend Danny spin. He even gave us free tickets. But what did we do? Went back to our room to kill some time, and passed out, full of big warm fuzzy bliss.
Okay I think I'm burned on this. Been composing this since 11am hahaaa... well and making chili, laundry and watching football, hahaha.
Stay tuned. I notice there are some typos and some pics that didn't make it. Sometime this week, soon, I'll write about the 2nd week and hopefully all the pics will load. :)
Oh, and here's a view of part of the restaurant (Old Conucu) from our table.
