The Waiting Room

I returned from Aruba at 10:30 last night. Husband and I just crashed after a 12 hour day. Today, we are trying to get back to normal, that means laundry, grocery shopping and mowing the lawn. Our back yard looks like a jungle. Tomorrow, the Boy comes home from his vacation.

ARUBA ROCKS!!!! It was 80+ degrees every day. It did not rain once the entire week.

There is so much to tell, so I thought I would break it up into a couple of posts.

Day 1: Sunday, April 23, 2006

We left Lake Effect Snow Central around 8:30 in the morning. We had to change planes in Charlotte, NC. Charlotte has a lovely airport. Looks like a mall and it even has a Sarbucks, which came in handy. All in all the flight there was uneventful except for one thing. Why would a parent drag a nine month old child on an airplane for a 3 ½ hour flight? This poor baby screamed itself hoarse. Thank God, we were sitting far enough away that I could drown out the crying with my Ipod.

Aruba is on Atlantic Standard Time, but since we are on Daylight Savings Time, we were in the same time zone. That was good. no jet lag. We arrived in sunny Aruba around 3 PM. Aruba is a very small island. . Aruba is located in the heart of the southern Caribbean, 15 miles (20 kilometers) off the coast of Venezuela. It is 19.6 miles (30 kilometers) long and 6 miles (9 kilometers) across, at its widest point, with an area of approximately 70 square miles (184 square kilometers).

We had to go through customs, which took all of five minutes. Then it was off to find a cab and head to our hotel. Almost any kind of vehicle is used for a cab, pick up trucks, SUVs and sedans. Our hotel was only a 15 minute ride.

We stayed at the Tamarijn Aruba Beach Resort. When we got to the hotel and completed our check-in, we were greeted by Fred. Fred was not there to help us with our luggage or to give us some information. Fred’s sole purpose was to persuade us to attend a time share seminar! We were not even 10 minutes in the hotel when this dude stalked us and hounded us to set up a time to visit the time share that is affiliated with the hotel. His opening line was “So, you two are Americans, so you are no doubt rich.” Now, Husband and I are not rich in the financial sense. And we are not well off either. And if we were, I don’t think we would spend our money on a time share! Husband had a great time messing with Fred. He told him that we were dirt poor and won this trip on a game show called “Pig in a Poke!” Just to shut him up, Husband told him we would stop by on Monday, which we both knew was a lie!

After our encounter with Fred, we were taken by golf cart to our room. Our hotel was only two stories, but ran the length of the two mile beach that is part of the property. Our room was located near the end of the property, which means a five minute walk daily for meals, working out and the like. But we figured that this would be good incentive to stay in shape.

After settling in, we took a long walk along the beach. We went back to the main area where the restaurants were located. Our hotel was All-Inclusive, and we had the choice of three restaurants. One was a buffet. The second was a place where you could grill your own food right at the table. The last was a posh Italian restaurant. Since the latter two required reservations, we decided to eat at the buffet.

After that, we settled in the deck chairs that surrounded the pool and beach, with our first round of drinks. The sun was ready to set, so we just sat back and enjoyed the view. And of course, we left the camera back in the room, so we missed a great opportunity to capture a great sunset on film.

It was the perfect end to day one.