Aruba Part 2: We enjoy our vacation (or “Yay Jeep!”)

So, we last left off with us finally getting to Aruba and checking into the Raddisson because they overbooked our hotel, the Occidental. We headed to the Occidental beach party.

At this point, we were very happy to be on the beach and in clean clothes. We were seated at a table and ordered some drinks and got some food. The food was Aruban (one of the hotel’s restaurants is a Caribbean fusion theme, so I assume this is what they serve there – we didn’t actually go to that restaurant). There was some interesting stuff. Particularly one dish (I am blanking on the name now) that is a cheese rind stuffed with chicken and cashews. It is yummy.

A little while later, another couple was seated at our table. Since I never use my own name on this blog or Flarf’s, we’ll just call them J and K. They are from NJ and are awesome. We hung out with them during the whole beach party and then went upstairs to this cool outside lounge bar (lots of beds and couches) and hung out for another few hours. During dinner, Flarf won a drawing for a free massage. If you’ll remember from part 1, we already got a certificate for a couples massage from the hotel, so we figured we wouldn’t use it and gave it to K. She seemed really excited about it, so it was cool. They had rented a jeep for the day on Saturday and invited us to go along. We had wanted to do that anyway and decided to go along.

The next day, Friday, we got up and went to breakfast and then the beach. Then we checked out of the Raddison. On the way out, we stopped to visit all the cool birds. The Raddisson has a bunch of exotic birds (macaws, etc.) and at that point, they were all out and wandering around the back lobby area outside. I stopped to take some photos and while I was following one bird with the camera, the bird guy collected 3 of them and put them on my arms. Then Flarf got to wear the birds. One tried to steal his hat. Completely random and completely cool experience. Those are always the best, aren't they?

After saying goodbye to the cool birdies, we checked out and headed back to the Occidental – we toughed it out and walked the 500 feet. We left our bags with the front desk and went for a walk down hotel row and the hopes of finding a few articles of clothing for cheap, just in case our bags too a long time. And to see what existed on the strip. (Lots of tourist stores and places to eat like Hooters, Fridays and Brueggers – how exotic).

We got back to the hotel around 2:30 to discover that our room was ready and…that we had luggage!!! Our room turned out to be great. The view was amazing – we were on the north side of the north building and towards the ocean end of it, so we got a decent amount of ocean and beach in the view. It was really nice to just sit on the balcony and enjoy the wind. And Aruba has wind. A lot of it. Do not expect your hair to look good there. Ever.

That night we had dinner at the Royal Club, the special restaurant we weren’t supposed to be able to go to (being non-fancy top floor folk) but that they gave us a pass to for our room debacle. It was okay. Some of the food was yummy. Some less so. We were the only people there for a while which I hate since we had to go at 6. The manager lady said they would take care of making our dinner reservations for us since we were being sent to the other hotel and asked us what time we wanted. We said 7 and then chanced our minds and said 8 to make sure we had plenty of time for day activities. So, of course, they made them all for 9. We got the Royal Club chanced and the Italian for the last night changed, but ended up eating sushi at 9 the next night. Whatever, no big deal and fits in with the theme of Part 1, no? We went for a walk on the beach and spent the evening at the outside lounge again and then checked out their nightclub. 10 people in there and a medley of Michael Jackson songs. We did not stay long.

On Saturday, we met up with J and K and went out with the jeep. We went snorkeling at Baby Beach. Flarf was the most successful at that. Snorkels and I do not get along, but I was happy just to be in the ocean, though my contacts and the salt water had a little disagreement. J and K got bored and went to a bar on the beach. After the snorkeling attempt, we decided to just drive. We headed up the east coast into the national park. We saw lots of cacti and lots of goats. Lots of goats. We have many pictures of goats. But, in all fairness, they WERE jumping around on cliffs, not just chewing stuff. We also saw a donkey. I do love donkeys.

We also visited a cave, which was pretty cool. And the Natural Bridge. Or what remains of it after the collapse in 2005. And we saw some gold mill ruins. And lots of cool cliffs and pretty water. And we thought we were going to die several times thanks to J and the jeep. The phrase of the day: “yay jeep!” coined by Flarf the first time we thought we were going to roll over but didn’t. It was said many many times. We drove into a military test zone that said “enter at your own risk” because J didn’t see any black flags up. We lived.

We ended the day with a drive to the California Lighthouse at the north end of the island and then watched the sun set. Much pretty. It was a good day. We got back to the hotel, said goodbye to our friends and slowly got ready for our 9PM dinner reservation. We then had mediocre sushi and did more wandering around the beach and headed to the lounge bar again. We hung out with J and K and another couple they had met I think on their plane. Then we got rained on. A lot. Whatever, my hair was already a mess from the wind and humidity, so who cares. Rather than stay in the rain we all went to the hotel’s casino and played for a bit and then J and K joined us in the nightclub where we heard stories of celebrity bad behavior on J’s plane and Flarf got the hiccups for an hour.

On Sunday, we spent most of the day at the beach and pool, with lots of walking up and down the beach. We are good at that. We ate mediocre Italian for dinner. We said our goodbyes to J and K and set out for one more walk on the beach. And thus, ends Part 2.