One Happy Island...

It was so awesome! I'm tanner than I've been in years (if we exclude sun burn on the legs that haven't seen sun light in five+ years), so rested and relaxed...

We went snorkeling three or four different times, did a dinner cruise off the coast, ate and drank at least two places a day... It was such a blast!

We stayed at the Little David's Aruba Guesthouse, a small B&B near the center of the island. Every morning included breakfast (fruit, eggs, coffee, water, milk, tea, toast, etc., etc....) and directions from our hosts to different places to go and see on the island. We had more seafood than I've ever eaten, saw more things than I thought we would. Every day brought dazzling sites and more iguanas than I thought existed in the world!

The snorkeling was amazing! Our host had told us to take a loaf of bread, but before we had even opened the bread, we were surrounded by fish! All colors, shapes and sizes! It was like being in a freakin' huge aquarium! There were even some "Dori" fish and "Nemo" fish! Unfortunately, we didn't see any sharks (Rich was thankful, at least...), and apparently moray eels don't come out except at night. We did see one sea turtle when we went on the submarine tour, which totally rocked! We went past some coral reefs of dazzling color, then went around a ship wrecked just off the coast... Words can't describe the color (neither could the DVD camcorder, unfortunately--everything looks green-ish blue), but Courtney brought along an underwater camera, so hopefully those will turn out great!

We ate Portuguese one night, Indian another, but mostly we found out-of-the-way Aruban restaurants to eat at, and we've never eaten so good! Yellow-fin tune, red snapper, mahi-mahi, grouper, calamari... You name, we probably ate it!

One thing I was disappointed to see were American fast-food joints everywhere! Wendy's, Subway, Burger King, McDonalds, KFC... That's capitalism, I suppose.

One other strange thing was that you weren't allowed to throw anything--anything--into the toilets, including toilet paper! Poop and pee only. Toilet paper and ladies products were to be disposed of in a trash can beside the toilet. That took some thinking on the throne I wasn't used to!

Plus, there was no such thing as "hot" and "cold" water. The water temp was what the water temp was! It wasn't hard to wake up in the morning, that was for sure!

Everyone was friendly, too! Didn't meet a single Aruban who wasn't ready with a smile and some very dry humor!

I wish I could go blow-by-blow as to what we did, but that would make for a very boring post, but suffice to say, we will be back again and again! You can view just a sampling of the 1000+ photos Courtney and Trace took at my MySpace here.

Now... Back to life...