multipurposegoddess (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
multipurposegoddess) wrote2007-02-15 12:48 pm
multipurposegoddess) wrote2007-02-15 12:48 pm
One Happy Island
First: <a href="http://www.sieff-skaredoff.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=Aruba">pictures! </a> I took most of these, as H was busy breaking in his new Pentax K1000 SLR - i'll post those pictures as soon as we get them developed and digitized.
Back when DH was flying back and forth between New York and San Francisco pretty much every weekend, we earned a bunch of frequent flyer miles on JetBlue, which we then added to via Amex. We earned enough passes for both os us to go somewhere for free, roundtrip - the only catch, we had to book by last Dec. 16. So, in a rush, we picked the furthest place JetBlue goes - Aruba - and chose a date to go more or less at random. It was supposed to be after the Motorola merger was finished and H would be able to get away with little guilt, and covered my birthday, and was during Mardi Gras/Carnival season. All good stuff.
So, we left Thursday night. I packed all day, H worked all day, it took me 2 hours to get from my parents house (where I dropped off the dog for a long weekend of being spoiled) to the airport (by way of H's work, which accounted for some of the delay, but really a very small part). It's a 40 minute trip normally, but, whatever. We made it in plenty of time to get through security have a slice and a beer while waiting for our flight. Excellent.
JetBlue's ShutEye service is sweet. That Bliss lotion and lip balm is really nice, the ear plugs are surprisingly comfortable (it's possible that earplugs have come a long way since I last tried them, I have always had a great deal of trouble wearing them) and the sleep mask thing works a treat. Still, it's only a few hours sleep no matter how you slice it.
Then it's another 6 hour flight south to Aruba, and there's no DirectTV for a fair amount of it, so I found myself watching A Good Year and Deck the Halls, just in case they were better than I thought they would be. They were not.
So we landed and got through customs/immigration - my shiny new passport now has some visas stamped in it, yay! The pre-paid shuttle took us to our hotel and let us see quite a bit of the island on our way. There I had my first real disappointment - I had booked this particular hotel, The Mill Resort and Suites, rather than the absolute cheapest one on offer because it had jacuzzi tubs, and brought a bunch of LUSH stuff with me to enjoy in a tub that someone else would clean. Guess what our room didn't have? Any tub at all is correct! Just a sort of raised platform shower.
But, really, minor disappointment. We were a block from the beach and had access to towel/chaise lounge service, two pools (that we never used because salt water is way nicer than chlorine, but it's good to have a choice I suppose), a restaurant and a bar, all the good stuff you'd expect.
Bleary-eyed from approximately 20 hours of travel, but pleased as punch to be on the island, we went and wandered on the beach for a while. Beautiful. White sand, blue water, just grand. Back at the Mill, we hit Happy Hour and decided that while the drinks were good, the atmosphere was a little to lively for our jet-lagged selves. We took ourselves across the street for sushi, which was quite good but kept us inside past the sunset. Oh well, we'd have two more.
Back to our room, where I struggled to stay awake long enough to watch the Friday rerun of Grey's Anatomy. What is with Meredith's premonitions, is that just, like, a literary device or is she a bit precog?
Saturday - 2 hours on the beach. Aruba Aloe sun tan lotion SPF I don't even know how high was very effective - I didn't even get a tan, I don't think, except the one patch of my shoulder that escaped being slathered and burned a bit. I have to say, lying on the chaise in the sun, dipping into the ocean every 15 minutes or so, sipping a Pina Colada or two is an extremely pleasant way to relax. I had been concerned that Body Image Demons would keep me all covered up, but all the other bodies out on that beach were such an assortment of shapes and ages that I was really not self-conscious at all. A perq of being so very far away from home, I think.
After we had soaked up enough sun, we hit a jewelry shop that had caught our eye after dinner the night before. They had some gorgeous globes with lapis oceans and countries shown in semi-precious stones that I couldn't pass up. My dad loves maps and one of these globes had to end up in my folks' house. The saleslady convinced us to get matching watches for ourselves for Valentine's Day. H loves watches - we counted ourselves as extremely virtuous for not getting the pocket watch with visible workings that was marked down to only $1100. Hooray, virtue.
On the shuttle trip from the airport, we had spotted a Butterfly Ranch, and the map I picked up in the lobby made it look like it was nearby, so we decided to walk to it. The map, of course, had no scale, but it was a block away, how far could that be? An hour later, when we made it to the intersection that the Ranch should have been at (but was not), we decided to never try to find anything using that map again. We did get a good walk in, skirting the Wastewater Treatment Facility, and a Bird Sanctuary (though the only birds we saw were pigeons, doves, and finches). We stopped at one of the beachside bars for fruity drinks and discussed taking the bus back to our hotel, but ultimately decided to walk along the beach, as we were on the last leg of a rectangle. It was still kind of a long walk back, and we apparently walked past the Butterfly Ranch - we were on the wrong side of the hotel to see it, but it would have been closed by then anyway, so whatever. Back at our "home" beach, missed out on having sunset dinner on the beach by not having a reservation, but hung out on the beach and saw the sunset sans dinner. We also had some nasty rum-and-cokes, my backup order when the bartender said we could only get mojitos in the nightclub. I think I just don't like white rum.
Early on our walk around the Wastewater Treatment Plant, we passed the mill that our resort was named for - it had been moved from Holland at some point and turned into a restaurant. So, we thought we'd go there for dinner. it was, of course, closed, but next door a place called Aruban Destiny was open, so we went there. Seriously yum, and excellent prices, lovely atmosphere eating out under the stars. Our waiter teased us unmercifully - that happened pretty much everywhere we ate, it seems to be an Aruban thing - and the owner came out to tell us about the desalinization water reclamation system that we didn't get to see, and generally convince us to some again and stay for longer. Pretty convincing, I have to say.
Sunday was my birthday. I kept forgetting that. We had arranged a couple of excursions for Sunday - a submarine ride and a sunset sail. We taxied downtown to the submarine place, which was on a parade route. Got there early, bought a couple of souvenirs, and rode the transfer boat out to the dive site and crossed over into the sub. We peered out the portholes at the underside of the waves and saw a couple of teeny tiny blue fish that we hope portended more exotic fish further down. Unfortunately, the sub had a problem with its steering mechanism and could not actually dive, so we crossed back over to the surface boat and headed back to shore. Oh well.
We decided not to stay for the parade, but did a little shopping in the open stalls along the road, and headed back to the hotel in what was probably an unlicensed cab, so we got a little adventure there. I had fallen to the communists, (yes, this year I got to spend my birthday and Valentine's Day bleeding - thanks, universe!), so we just lazed about until it was time to go find the sailboat.
The Sunset Sail had no problems whatsoever - open bar, lots of wind, and a spectacular sunset, just as promised. We had dinner at our hotel, which included chocolate cake for the birthdayness, and turned in early.
Monday was another 20 hours of travel. I bought a bottle of rum at the duty-free shop in the airport, but couldn't figure out how we were supposed to claim it after getting through customs (or however that was supposed to work), so it didn't make it home. Got back to Oakland after midnight (that would be 4 am Aruba time) and drove home in the chilly rain. Tuesday is just a foggy blur of confusion, and I'm still having trouble remembering what day it is. Good to be home and have internet access, though!
Back when DH was flying back and forth between New York and San Francisco pretty much every weekend, we earned a bunch of frequent flyer miles on JetBlue, which we then added to via Amex. We earned enough passes for both os us to go somewhere for free, roundtrip - the only catch, we had to book by last Dec. 16. So, in a rush, we picked the furthest place JetBlue goes - Aruba - and chose a date to go more or less at random. It was supposed to be after the Motorola merger was finished and H would be able to get away with little guilt, and covered my birthday, and was during Mardi Gras/Carnival season. All good stuff.
So, we left Thursday night. I packed all day, H worked all day, it took me 2 hours to get from my parents house (where I dropped off the dog for a long weekend of being spoiled) to the airport (by way of H's work, which accounted for some of the delay, but really a very small part). It's a 40 minute trip normally, but, whatever. We made it in plenty of time to get through security have a slice and a beer while waiting for our flight. Excellent.
JetBlue's ShutEye service is sweet. That Bliss lotion and lip balm is really nice, the ear plugs are surprisingly comfortable (it's possible that earplugs have come a long way since I last tried them, I have always had a great deal of trouble wearing them) and the sleep mask thing works a treat. Still, it's only a few hours sleep no matter how you slice it.
Then it's another 6 hour flight south to Aruba, and there's no DirectTV for a fair amount of it, so I found myself watching A Good Year and Deck the Halls, just in case they were better than I thought they would be. They were not.
So we landed and got through customs/immigration - my shiny new passport now has some visas stamped in it, yay! The pre-paid shuttle took us to our hotel and let us see quite a bit of the island on our way. There I had my first real disappointment - I had booked this particular hotel, The Mill Resort and Suites, rather than the absolute cheapest one on offer because it had jacuzzi tubs, and brought a bunch of LUSH stuff with me to enjoy in a tub that someone else would clean. Guess what our room didn't have? Any tub at all is correct! Just a sort of raised platform shower.
But, really, minor disappointment. We were a block from the beach and had access to towel/chaise lounge service, two pools (that we never used because salt water is way nicer than chlorine, but it's good to have a choice I suppose), a restaurant and a bar, all the good stuff you'd expect.
Bleary-eyed from approximately 20 hours of travel, but pleased as punch to be on the island, we went and wandered on the beach for a while. Beautiful. White sand, blue water, just grand. Back at the Mill, we hit Happy Hour and decided that while the drinks were good, the atmosphere was a little to lively for our jet-lagged selves. We took ourselves across the street for sushi, which was quite good but kept us inside past the sunset. Oh well, we'd have two more.
Back to our room, where I struggled to stay awake long enough to watch the Friday rerun of Grey's Anatomy. What is with Meredith's premonitions, is that just, like, a literary device or is she a bit precog?
Saturday - 2 hours on the beach. Aruba Aloe sun tan lotion SPF I don't even know how high was very effective - I didn't even get a tan, I don't think, except the one patch of my shoulder that escaped being slathered and burned a bit. I have to say, lying on the chaise in the sun, dipping into the ocean every 15 minutes or so, sipping a Pina Colada or two is an extremely pleasant way to relax. I had been concerned that Body Image Demons would keep me all covered up, but all the other bodies out on that beach were such an assortment of shapes and ages that I was really not self-conscious at all. A perq of being so very far away from home, I think.
After we had soaked up enough sun, we hit a jewelry shop that had caught our eye after dinner the night before. They had some gorgeous globes with lapis oceans and countries shown in semi-precious stones that I couldn't pass up. My dad loves maps and one of these globes had to end up in my folks' house. The saleslady convinced us to get matching watches for ourselves for Valentine's Day. H loves watches - we counted ourselves as extremely virtuous for not getting the pocket watch with visible workings that was marked down to only $1100. Hooray, virtue.
On the shuttle trip from the airport, we had spotted a Butterfly Ranch, and the map I picked up in the lobby made it look like it was nearby, so we decided to walk to it. The map, of course, had no scale, but it was a block away, how far could that be? An hour later, when we made it to the intersection that the Ranch should have been at (but was not), we decided to never try to find anything using that map again. We did get a good walk in, skirting the Wastewater Treatment Facility, and a Bird Sanctuary (though the only birds we saw were pigeons, doves, and finches). We stopped at one of the beachside bars for fruity drinks and discussed taking the bus back to our hotel, but ultimately decided to walk along the beach, as we were on the last leg of a rectangle. It was still kind of a long walk back, and we apparently walked past the Butterfly Ranch - we were on the wrong side of the hotel to see it, but it would have been closed by then anyway, so whatever. Back at our "home" beach, missed out on having sunset dinner on the beach by not having a reservation, but hung out on the beach and saw the sunset sans dinner. We also had some nasty rum-and-cokes, my backup order when the bartender said we could only get mojitos in the nightclub. I think I just don't like white rum.
Early on our walk around the Wastewater Treatment Plant, we passed the mill that our resort was named for - it had been moved from Holland at some point and turned into a restaurant. So, we thought we'd go there for dinner. it was, of course, closed, but next door a place called Aruban Destiny was open, so we went there. Seriously yum, and excellent prices, lovely atmosphere eating out under the stars. Our waiter teased us unmercifully - that happened pretty much everywhere we ate, it seems to be an Aruban thing - and the owner came out to tell us about the desalinization water reclamation system that we didn't get to see, and generally convince us to some again and stay for longer. Pretty convincing, I have to say.
Sunday was my birthday. I kept forgetting that. We had arranged a couple of excursions for Sunday - a submarine ride and a sunset sail. We taxied downtown to the submarine place, which was on a parade route. Got there early, bought a couple of souvenirs, and rode the transfer boat out to the dive site and crossed over into the sub. We peered out the portholes at the underside of the waves and saw a couple of teeny tiny blue fish that we hope portended more exotic fish further down. Unfortunately, the sub had a problem with its steering mechanism and could not actually dive, so we crossed back over to the surface boat and headed back to shore. Oh well.
We decided not to stay for the parade, but did a little shopping in the open stalls along the road, and headed back to the hotel in what was probably an unlicensed cab, so we got a little adventure there. I had fallen to the communists, (yes, this year I got to spend my birthday and Valentine's Day bleeding - thanks, universe!), so we just lazed about until it was time to go find the sailboat.
The Sunset Sail had no problems whatsoever - open bar, lots of wind, and a spectacular sunset, just as promised. We had dinner at our hotel, which included chocolate cake for the birthdayness, and turned in early.
Monday was another 20 hours of travel. I bought a bottle of rum at the duty-free shop in the airport, but couldn't figure out how we were supposed to claim it after getting through customs (or however that was supposed to work), so it didn't make it home. Got back to Oakland after midnight (that would be 4 am Aruba time) and drove home in the chilly rain. Tuesday is just a foggy blur of confusion, and I'm still having trouble remembering what day it is. Good to be home and have internet access, though!