*sigh*

Well our vacation has come to a close...tomorrow we will be saying goodbye to Aruba.  We are sad to see it end and will miss it here.  Our flight leaves at 3 tomorrow afternoon.

Yesterday we went on the Island Safari.  Absolutely worth the money.  The tour guides were awesome, telling us about each stop and making jokes.  The scenery was beautiful and untamed.  I took lots of pictures and even got to feed some ostriches!  =o)  Today, we just hung out and enjoyed ourselves snorkeling (I actually got up close and personal with a pelican who was following me), playing on the beach (we built a sand castle) and eating a good meal (at an Argentenian Grill/Steakhouse - we were going to try an Aruban restaurant but couldn't recognize ANYTHING on the menu).  Can't complain at all.

Here are the last things I have learned about Aruba since my last post:
1- the country motto is "One Happy Island."  This could explain why there are beer bottle caps everywhere.
2- some of the cars have the driver's side on the right side of the car instead of the left. *weird*
3- the only place here that seems to offer free refills is McDonald's, which sucks because it is H-O-T here!
4- there are no 5 dollar footlongs at the Subway here.
5- the ice cream tastes like it was made with coconut milk.
6- there are lizards and iguanas literally everywhere; some are cute and tiny and some are the size of small dogs.
7- the road workers at home look like work-a-holics compared to the guys down here; it's like they're having a perpetual lunch break.

Only 3 days left...

This has been a most enjoyable vacation.  I am sad to see how quickly the time has flown, but still anxious to get back home to friends and family...and from all this damn sand!  =o)

Not much to report since my last post.  We've been snorkeling a few more times (still no octopus or squid) and spent some time on the beach.  Not too much of the latter though; those of you who remember when we went to Wrightsville Beach for Labor will understand why.  My 50 block sun-tan lotion got taken with the beach bag, and the 30 block does an okay job...we're still a little red.  We went to one of the malls last night and saw a water show that they put on every night using fountains, laser lights, and Disney music. 

We went shoppinig today.  Hard for us to find things in our price-range though.  Surprisingly enough, most of the stores here are high-end including Louis-Vitton, Gucci, Juicy Couture, Rolex, Coach, etc.  We've been sticking to the more touristy shops.  It was still nice, though, to go walking in the 95 degree sunshine, with no water and surrounded by a bunch of milling people who were just as hot as we were.  =o)  I'm only being half sarcastic.  Ya'll know how much I hate being hot...

Oh yeah, we saw a woman sun-bathing topless today.  That was nice.  And Stephen saw some fish while we were swimming; one brushed against his chest, and then he saw 3 big blue ones swim by.  Clear water is nice but can still be a little freaky seeing whats around you (note, that's the first time that's happened down here).

We booked an Island Safari for tomorrow.  We're pretty excited about it.  It's going to the Natural Bridge, a natural swimming pool with snorkeling, the ostrich farm and a place called Baby Beach.  The camera is charged and ready to go!

To close with another 5 things I've learned about Aruba:
1- this island doesn't use sales tax...quite nice actually.
2- taxis come in all shapes down here: from vans to SUVs to Chrysler 300s.
3- all sweet tea comes with lemon and there are no free refills.
4- they use the metric system here: kilometers for speed, liters for gas, meters for distance.
5- it's illegal to turn right on red and they use a lot of turn-abouts instead of actual intersections.

O-M-G

Let me give you a run-down of our day...

 

The day started out pretty cloudy with a few little showers.  It didn't start clearing up until around noon.

 

Then we went parasailing!  It was AWESOME.  I didn't even get scared and took some pictures with my underwater camer because I didn't know if parasailing involved getting wet.  Literaly like the best thing we've done here and one my personal top 10.

 

After that we decided to try snorkeling.  They have a lot of tourist boats off the coast toward the lighthouse.  We decided to buy snorkeling gear instead of renting it so that we could explore all the different areas of the island - they have a lot of wreckage within easy swimming distance.  We drove until we saw the boats and tried it.  I pretty much got it on the first try but poor Stephen was struggling with his mask - it was quite entertaining.  We saw some awesome fish, sea urchins and funky coral.  Our neighbors usually go in the mornings they say and can see octopus, squid and blowfish.  We're going to try to go with them tomorrow before they leave so we can see some of that stuff!

 

Okay, so we snorkeled (is that a word?) for about 30-45min before deciding to go back to our beach area and swim.  We get back to the car and guess what.  One of windows was busted in.  They took the disposable camera with the awesome pics of parasailing, my VS beach bag, a couple of motel beach towels, 2 pair of pool goggles, Stephen's shirt, and my shorts WITH the hotel key in the pocket.  The hotel key WITH the safe key attached.  Forget the car, we were worried sick about our money and documents! - I mean Aruba is nice and all but not at all a place that I want to be for an extended stay.  Lord have mercy.  Luckily everything turned out fine.  Nothing was missing.  We got another lock to the room door and their bringing another lock for the safe; it's 1 key per lock.  We just got back a little bit ago from exchanging cars at the airport (thank goodness we decided to get insurance!!!!).

 

Let me close again with 5 more things I have learned about Aruba since my last post:

1- punks who don't feel like working like normal folks so they decide to steal other people's things are not partial to just the U.S.

2- even the smallest cars can be pimped out.

3- just because I don't speak your native tongue doesn't mean I'm estupido.

4- next time you're asked if you want to pay an extra $15 a day for car-rental insurance, just remember "Aruba."

5- always remember, in Aruba if you take pictures someone else can take your pictures! 

Aruba!

Alright friends and family...my first official blog entry from the great country of Aruba.  =o)

Our flight went very well - I surprised myself how well I did taking off and landing.  Sure, I held Stephen's hand so tight that it was sore afterward and sweaty and I had to take nice deep breaths to keep myself from using a paper bag.  LOL The first flight from GSO to CTL was in a little 4-seater jet; that was the tough one.  The next from CTL to Aruba was fine.  We were above the clouds most of the time so I couldn't see much of anything.

We got through customs without a glich and I didn't even need my handy-dandy notebook.  *wink*  We found the hotel even though no one gave us a map (I can thank Stephen's excellent directional skills for that one!).  The hotel is very nice with super friendly staff and only a short walk from the beach.

Other than that, not too much to report.  We saw the lighthouse today, went "sightseeing" around the island and went jet-skiing later this afternoon.  It was Stephen's first time on a jet ski.  Words cannot express my fear.

To close I will tell you 5 things I have learned about Aruba since we arrived:
1- For this to be considered the Dutch West Indies, a lot of people speak Spanish.
2- NO one can drive!  Folks love to cut you off; they only stop for stop-signs and pedestrians (and that one depends!)
3- Arubans will park just about anywhere.  Sidewalks, even.
4- Aruban women love to wear thong bathing suits.  Aruban men love to wear speedos.
5- Most of the cars here are European-looking, consisting of the Hyundai Getz (hehe), Chevrolet Spark or Kia Picanto (hehe) which is what we're driving.

FINALLY!!!

It is so hard to believe that we leave tomorrow.  I've been planning this vacation since like February and thought that October 10th would NEVER get here.  We're getting so excited that it's been a little hard for us to sleep the past couple of days.  No biggie...plenty of time to catch up!

I'm pretty much done with all my packing.  All that's left is the last minute stuff that I'm washing, makeup, etc.  For this to be my first time flying I'm surprised how calm I am about that.  Right now I'm more nervous about getting through airport security.  It's that whole "unknown."  I've never even BEEN to the airport!  Such a shame.  But I've visited the TSA website several times so I think we'll be fine.

I left work early yesterday so that I could begin packing and get the car inspected.  It was funny because everyone was saying goodbye like I was never coming back!  I doubt seriously that I'll go missing down in Aruba, but they made it seem like I was leaving for another job or something.  And everyone kept saying that they'll miss me.  I swear it was weird; I'm nothing special.  Besides, it's only two weeks.

I'm taking my laptop since the hotel has free wi-fi so I plan to post regularly with pics and stuff.  I've even cleared all the pictures on my camera so that I have plenty of space.  =o)

Alright, that's it for now.  Till next time!

Geez

Sorry it's been so long since I've written.  I guess I feel like my life has been pretty boring here lately, without much to report.  However, that may be changing a little.

Nathan has his swear-in date for the Coast Guard: Oct 22.  It's at like 5:45 in the morning so he isn't concerned with any family members being present.  He leaves for boot camp in NJ on Jan 25 I believe and will graduate 6 weeks later.  He's super excited and is ready to begin his own life.  Can't say I blame him; he deserves his  independence.

Daddy is beginning the process for the stem-cell transplant again.  He had a bone scan last week to see where the lesions of myeloma are; the results aren't back yet.  I guess that determines how aggressive the chemo will need to be.  He has decided to do a trial chemo drug, so hopefully it will be as effective with as few side-effects as they say.

Stephen and I only have a week left before our trip!  =o)  We are getting super excited and it's getting harder and harder to be patient - not that we have a choice.  Hehe.  I've been kind of stressed about getting everything in order and am terrified that I will forget something or we'll miss our flight or something will get stolen.  It's sad, but I have everything that we'll need in a 3-ring binder to keep it all together.  I wanted to start packing this weekend but had too much to do around the house.  I'm going to try to put a dent in it this week but I'm worried how much I'll be able to get done with Stephen needing to sleep for work.  Not too worried about it; it'll get done.  I've bought some toiletries to pack so that I don't have to worry about scrounging the morning-of.

Saturday Meg and I went shopping to help her to walk, get some last minute things for the baby and I needed some new sneakers for work.  Of course, as usual when we go shopping, I spent more money than I wanted.  LOL.  But I got some new jeans and shirts for the fall.  I'm pretty excited about my new threads.  She still has a couple of weeks left and is having pretty constant contractions but not much more progress than that.  I've been praying that I'm here when she goes into labor.  I'm terrified that I won't be here.  I really want to be a part of this and SO do not want to hear about it after-the-fact.

On a personal baby note, Stephen and I have been waiting on this trip to TTC again.  I'm excited and nervous all at the same time.  Everyone at work seems to associate the two together and it's nerve-wracking to have that expectation on me; my own is hard enough without worrying about everyone else's.