Aruba Vacay Part 2

Waiting for the bus

Picking up where we left off:  Day 4 of our trip we decided to make like locals and take the bus to downtown Oranjestad to walk around.  We figured the $0.50 bus ride would be better than a $15 taxi, so we went for it.  However, buses in Aruba are not the same as the Metros here in Phoenix.  For one thing, the driver didn't speak a bit of English and we don't speak one bit of Dutch (the native language there).  And it's not so much a "bus" as it is a van that drives locals around.  At one point, the driver was taking back roads and side streets through really run-down industrial parts of town, and we started getting worried that the bus didn't go to downtown at all.  We thought they might be taking us to a ghetto little town called St. Nicholas where, as Madi informed us, the "chocolate people" live.  Sounds delightful until you realize the people don't make chocolate and Madi was apparently a little racist.  So Matt and I start quietly panicking and make a plan to get off at the next stop no matter what.  When the bus stopped, we went to jump out and the driver must have seen our confusion.  She stopped us and managed to communicate, "No. Stay. Shopping next."  Phew!  Sure enough, the next stop was the downtown shopping area we wanted to be at.  Thank goodness she took pity on us so we weren't wandering around lost all day.

Shopping downtown was ok - nothing too exciting.  It was more of a major mall than unique shops like I had been hoping.  After a while, we decided to try a restaurant on the pier called Pincho's that we had read about, so we walked about a 1/2 mile up the shore.  We were sad to find out that they were only open for dinner, and it was still only about 1:00pm.  We were starving, so we walked up the beach further until we came upon a weird little place called Nikki Beach.  I thought we were at a hotel, given the pool on the patio and the large building, but apparently it was more of a club.  The whole experience there was weird.  Everyone there was European (mostly Dutch) and kept confusing Matt and I for Dutch-speakers as well given our fair skin and blonde hair.  They moved at a slow pace and were slightly rude, explaining to us "that's the European way."  Makes me re-think my aspirations to visit Europe someday soon :)

After a whole day of too much strangeness, we decided to treat ourselves to our fancy dinner for the trip.  We had read GREAT reviews about the Screaming Eagle restaurant that was just a short walk on the beach from our hotel.  So we made a reservation and headed over.  The cool twist to the restaurant is that you can choose to sit at a regular table, or you can sit in their bed area where you have your own private lounging bed with a privacy canopy around it.  Up for the experience, we chose to sit in the bed area.  It was really fun being served our food on a breakfast in bed tray.  And the food was insanely good!  Fresh mahi, awesome soup and salad.  Since it was our anniversary, they also brought us a decadent dessert with a fun sparkler fireworky thing in it.  The whole experience there was great and we went home full and happy.

Eating in bed at the Screaming Eagle

Sparkler in our dessert

Snorkel site

Sailing

Day 5 was our Sail and Snorkel day.  We went out on our excursion ship and coasted around the island a bit.  It was a gorgeous day and we had a great time sitting on the bow of the ship and feeling the breeze as we sailed.  They took us to a few different snorkel sites, the best of which was a sunken ship from the war.  It was really neat and kind of eerie to see the ship sitting on the shallow ocean floor with barnacles all over it.  There were a lot of fish around there that we had a good time spotting.  Matt is the best at finding the unique sea creatures (like eel, octopus).  I can only find the colorful ones :)  As our boat made its way to our third and final snorkel site, we had an unintended adventure as the boat came in to the cove where we planned to drop anchor.  Matt commented that we were coming in pretty fast, and he hoped they were planning to stop before we hit some rocks up ahead.  Since this was a sailboat and not a motor-powered one, there would be no way to pull back fast.  Sure enough, we slid into the cove and felt a jolt as the bottom side of the ship scraped along the rocks.  The crew was visibly upset as they jumped in to asses the damage.  Not bad enough to keep us from getting back safely, but you could tell someone would be getting their butt handed to them back at the marina!

Hanging out at Moomba Bar

After our sailing time, we walked up to the high rise area of Palm Beach.  There was a lot of activity there, apparently the sand tennis tournament was taking place that week (like volleyball and badminton.  But not.)  We grabbed lunch at a place called Moomba Bar that my cousin Bridget had suggested, and from there we could watch all of the beach activities taking place.  The beaches in that area made us very glad that we had chosen to stay in the low rise area, as they were very crowded and not nearly as relaxing as our Bucuti.  That night, we just headed back to our hotel and had burgers on our beach.  I could get used to that lifestyle.

Day 6 was nothing more than laying out at the beach, taking a break to dip in our pool or the ocean, then heading back to the beach for more sun.  We only broke that routine to grab a quick lunch at Matthew's, and then a quick dinner at Chalet Suisse.  The food there was not as nice as the name of the restaurant implied, but not much of our food stacked up after the Screaming Eagle meal.  Funny side story: any time we were in the ocean, these crazy ass pelicans would dive into the water at full speed to catch fish.  It startled me every time, but one time in particular a bird dove out of nowhere one foot away from my head and scared me so badly I screamed.  Matt and the other beach-goers had a good laugh at my expense there :)

Matt hanging out in the ocean

My friend Paco who lived at our hotel.  Fun fact about Paco: he screamed "Water" every morning, but his jumbled voice made it sound like he was screaming "Murder"  Fun times.

On day 7, we were ready for a little more action, so we headed up the beach to rent some jet skis.  Matt drove while I held on and enjoyed the ride.  We cruised around for about half an hour, exploring different parts of the island coast.  Jet skis are so much fun - we may bite the bullet and just buy some someday.  After that and some obligatory beach time, we decided to head to the Palm Beach shops to see what kind of nightlife they had.  We ate dinner at a cute place called Taste of Belgium (that had great Belgian waffles!)  They also had some live entertainment there that Matt and I shared a good chuckle over.  The woman singing had a thick Aruban accent, but was singing very modern pop songs like Lady Gaga and Black Eyed Peas.  Then we walked around the outdoor mall area.  Since it was close to Christmas time, a group of native Arubans were putting on a Christmas music show for free in mall amphitheater.  We stopped by to listen to that for a while and it was fun, funky and upbeat.  We bought our souvenir for the trip at one of the shops, settling on a tree ornament with an iguana on it.  I loved seeing all of the lizards all around town on this trip, so I thought it would be a fun way to remember our time here.  Back at the hotel, we snuck a bottle of champagne onto the beach and just listened to the waves as we drank to our last night in Aruba.

Belgian waffles

The next morning, we packed up our things and headed down to the beach for one last dip in the water and soak in the sun.  On our way back in, we got a fun surprise when we finally encountered a friendly iguana who wasn't afraid of us!  In fact, one of the other guests had sat down in the lawn to get a picture of the little guy, and he climbed right up onto his leg to say hi!  I told Matt to wait where he was while I ran to our room and grabbed a banana.  The iguana liked the look of the treat, so he walked right over to us and proceeded to eat the whole freakin banana!  It was adorable and awesome, and I thought it was a fun way to say goodbye to this awesome island. 

Our little buddy munching a banana

Matt hand-feeding a wild iguana

We headed home that afternoon and got back to AZ tired and glad to be back in our own bed.  And also happy to be reunited with our sweet pup, who had fun being spoiled by my sister for the week.  We had such a great time on this trip and made some great memories.  I would love to go back to Aruba someday to relax on those beautiful beaches again.  But now we are looking forward to our 3rd anniversary trip later this month to Playa del Carmen, Mexico!

 

 

Until next time, Aruba

Aruba Vacay

Matt and I celebrated our 2-year wedding anniversary back in October (of last year. Yikes.  Obviously, I am great at keeping this thing current.) One year later, I'm getting around to writing about our celebratory trip. After much deliberation, Aruba won out as the vacation spot for the year and we were not disappointed! Here's a rundown of our trip:

Day 1 consisted of Lots o' Travel.  The only downside to Aruba is that it is really frickin far when you live on the west coast. Not surprisingly, that destination is more popular for east coasters and Europeans, but we weren't going to let a little distance stop us from enjoying the gorgeous Aruban beaches. Friday night after work, we packed up our bags with mostly swimsuits and sunscreen and Kim drove us to the airport for our red eye flight. We had been crossing our fingers for a first class upgrade to make plane sleeping a little more bearable, but no such luck. We tried in vain to sleep upright - leaning against opposite sides of the same giant pillow I brought from home - but ended up only catching short naps. At our layover in Philly, we grabbed some coffee and donuts and decided to just stay awake for the second leg of the trip. After 9 and a half total hours in the air, we finally touched down in Aruba and breathed in the warm ocean air.

A quick trip through customs, then we were on our bus to the hotel. Aruba has 2 distinct sections on the tourist side of the island: the high rise hotels on Palm Beach and the low rise area on Eagle Beach. The high rise was more about the restaurants, bars and nightlife activity, and the low rise was all about the beach. While we like both, we decided that this was a relaxing vacation and booked our room at the Bucuti and Tara Beach Resort in the low rise area. We were greeted with champagne and told that our room wasn't quite ready, so they gave us some drink vouchers and directed us to the outdoor hotel bar. After a quick lunch and some drinks, we were led to our room where we unpacked and changed into our beachwear.

Our Beach

Happy Hour Drinks

The rest of the afternoon was spent on the prettiest beach I've ever been to. Matt commented that he felt like we were in a Corona commercial; The sand was powdery and white, the turquoise water was a perfect temperature and perfectly clear, and the waves were low and gentle. The temperature there was always in the mid-80's with a light breeze rolling through. You could lay under one of the many palm umbrellas and have drinks brought to you all day if you wanted - just dipping into the ocean or the pool whenever you needed a refresher. It was beautiful.

Beach

 

Hotel Grounds

Hotel Pool

At dinner time, we walked across the street to a little restaurant called Pizza Bob's for a quick meal. We split a pizza and listened to a... unique performer.  After that we were exhausted and hit the hay for a 12.5 hour nap. 

Relaxing on the Beach

The next day, we had breakfast out on the hotel's restaurant patio.  We ended up eating here every morning because it was just such a nice way to start the day; looking at and listening to the water, eating good food, and even getting cold hand towels brought around so we could cool off.  Then we headed back to the room to get our swimsuits on.  Surprisingly, 5 minutes later when we looked out the window, the gorgeous clear weather had turned into a freak random downpour.  These rainstorms came and went during our trip - always unexpected and usually only lasting 5 or 10 minutes before everything went back to beautiful.  Caribbean weather is weird.

Mmm.. tirimisu

We spent a lot of time at the beach, and a lot of time at the hotel bar for happy hour.  As we walked up and down the beach, Matt commented that the sand felt like we were walking on Peeps (those marshmallow Easter candies).  The sand was just so fine and gave under our feet so nicely.  We weren't sure we would ever want to come home.  That night, we went to a little Italian restaurant at the hotel next door called Giorgio's.  We were underwhelmed with the food itself, but the tirimisu dessert was delightful.

Day 3 was an adventure day - we woke up early to go on an excursion called Madi's Magical Tour.  This native Aruban woman named Madi came and picked us up in her big, red Jeep and took us along with one other guest on a tour around the island.  She told us the history of Aruba as we drove along and answered all of the questions that we had.  Our first stop was Andicuri Beach and the natural bridges.  It was cool to see the rock bridges that had been formed by years of wind and water.  The largest natural bridge had actually been destroyed in a hurricane a few years back, but the 3 remaining bridges were lovely.  We were able to walk out onto them and look out over the ocean while Madi took our pictures.  Next it was off to the Natural Pools to snorkel around.  The fish were bold and took bread right from our hands.  The best thing here was that the pools are high above the actual ocean, so it was sort of like being in an amazing infinity-edge pool!  Before taking us home, we made one last stop at a private beach with intense waves.  She told us that if we were confident in our swimming skills, we could take a dip.  Matt and I were feeling pretty good so we let the waves knock us around for a while before heading in.  The tour was great and definitely one of the highlights of our trip.

Natural Bridge

Beach on our Tour

Rock Formations

When we got back to the hotel, we had lunch at a restaurant down the street called Matthew's.  It's been kind of our vacation tradition to eat at anywhere with Matt's name in it, and it never steers us wrong.  There was an iguana walking around the restaurant that I tried to lure over with treats.  He seemed interested, but got scared when I came too close and ran away.  After lunch, we went back to our hotel for some beach, pool, a quick and easy dinner and then off to bed.

My Shy Iguana Friend

To be continued, since this is getting a little long with all of the pictures :)

Adventures in Craigslisting

Wow.  We have not posted anything in a looooong time.  Whoops!  Chalk it up to a lot of crazy life stuff going on, but we will try to be better.

We bought a new house.  It is fabulous and we are loving living here - some days it feels like I'm living in a fancy hotel and I should be going home soon.  Pictures and details to come on all of that.  But in the meantime, we are trying to sell some stuff that we realized we don't need in the move.  Matt posted a bunch of stuff onto Craigslist, and we have also had a lot of luck getting rid of things via his company's for-sale section on their intranet.  But his co-workers we sell to are not nearly as interesting as the folks on Craigslist that we get to deal with.  A couple of samplings:

Selling an iPod Touch (a conversation on the phone) (which hold their value amazingly well, turns out!)

CL Guy: So, what do you want for the iPod?
Matt: Uh, I think I listed it for $170.
CL Guy: ...
Matt: Soooo... I guess $170 is what I want for it.
CL Guy: I have $15 and an iPod nano
Matt: Um, no thanks
CL Guy: Well my birthday is coming up soon so we'll see if I get some more money
Matt: Ok...let me know I guess?

Haha - poor kid.  Matt said he only sounded like he was maybe 15 or 16 years old.



Selling an old Area Rug (a conversation via text message)

CL Guy: What is the lowest ull take for the rug?
Matt (to me): I'm not even going to dignify that with a response.  That's not how this works.
CL Guy (a few hours later): Still have the rug?
Matt: Someone has offered $40 to get it Friday.  If you want it for $50, you can have it before then
CL Guy: I'll give you 40 tomorrow
Matt: If you can do $45 I'll tell the other person no and you can have it tomorrow
CL Guy: Really... I'm offering asking price a day beforehand and your gunna price gouge me?
Matt: Asking price is 50 and I agreed with the other party
CL Guy: Where r u located
Matt: Chandler - Ray & Rural
CL Guy: Ok well I'm at 40 bucks and I'll come get it tomorrow lmk
CL Guy (a few hours later): Are u gunna sell it to me?
Matt: I'm going to sell it to the other person I promised it to for 40 tomorrow, sorry
CL Guy: Fine I'll do 45...
Matt: Ok, do you want to pick it up tonight?
CL Guy: Ummm yeah but it won't be till late like 10 11 ish or I can get it tomorrow

... I'm speechless on this one. My guess is that his tactics have worked on other people before, which is why he was such a jerk to us.  When he sent the first message asking how low we would be willing to go on the price, I told Matt he should be a smart ass and say $120.  Then when the guy said "That's ridiculous!  You have it listed for $50!" we could shoot back and say "Oh, so you saw the listing and decided to ask stupid questions anyways?"  Hehe.  I love that his idea of "price gouging" is $5. And who on earth would let a rude stranger come to their house at 11:00pm to pick something up?!!  People who want to be murdered, that's who.  We went with the $40 offer :)


One funny misunderstanding to round it out - this one with a woman from Matt's work.  He listed the iPod Touch on his work network for $160, ten dollars lower than he had it listed on Craigslist since it's really convenient to meet up to exchange money/goods with people in his building.


Work Lady: Hi!  Would you take $150 for the iPod?
Matt (forgetting he posted for $160 and thinking he's meeting her halfway): How about $160
Work Lady: Ok...that's fine.

Since this is all over email, the lady couldn't read Matt's tone and probably thought he was the biggest jerk.  Saying "How about you pay me what I asked for it?!" (insert rude tone here).

Once he realized his mistake, he felt TERRIBLE!  He wrote the lady back and explained his confusion, and then offered to meet her halfway between her $150 offer and his $160 asking price.  $5, no big deal, but the lady wrote back saying she was SO thankful and so glad he wrote her back saying that.  She had been having an awful day and the $5 give was all she needed to make her smile.  Ha!


So in summary:  selling your stuff online is a pain in the neck, but at least we have gotten some good laughs out of the matter.

Playing Around in Photo Shop

Yesterday as a birthday treat/fun time, Jody, Alex, Matt and I headed out on a photo-taking excursion. No special reason, we (Jody and I) just think it's fun to have periodic pictures of ourselves. The last fancy ones we have are from our weddings, so it felt like a good time to snap some new ones.

We headed over to Freestone Park in Gilbert since the internet suggested that was a great place to take photos. I wasn't overly impressed with the place - a nice park, but nothing special. There was a carousel, but it was the super creepy kind like you see in horror movies so we stayed away from that :) Matt thought that an old barn-like structure there would make a good backdrop so we took some there and then some in front of a small waterfall. Then we headed over to downtown Gilbert to get some fun railroad shots. After that, we took a quick stroll around downtown finding various fun spots to pose.

Today, Matt and I picked a few of our favorite pictures to edit in Photo Shop. Matt is really great with the tool, but I had never really used it before. My first experience with it was fantastic! You can really do anything to the pictures - from enhancing colors to fixing flyaways and red eyes to making the whole thing look like a cartoon. I killed a few hours this morning playing with our shots. Below are some of my favorites:

Posterized

Lightened & Brightened

De-Saturated

Background Blur

Wind in the Hair

Grain + Color Enhance

Subtle - Fixed Flyaways, Whitened Teeth & Eyes

Fresco Filter

I think we'll have to make this an annual thing! Easy, fast and free. If anyone else is interested in joining in, just let me know!

P.S. Special thanks to my mom for the lovely birthday gift outfit I'm wearing!

A Little Less Ghetto...

Yesterday, I took the final step towards making my mouth a little less ghetto. Thanks to a combination of bad genetics and poor brushing growing up, almost every single one of my teeth has a filling in it. (It's not my mom's fault though - I was a tricky kid. When we were supposed to be brushing our teeth at night, I would just stand in the bathroom and run the water for a few minutes to give the illusion that I had brushed them. Why? I have no idea. Kids are weird.) Either way, by the time I was a teenager I had a mouth full of silver metal.

Just recently, I switched to a new dentist that was closer to my work and I really love the work he does. He told me that over time, silver fillings will expand and contract (like metal tends to do) and create problems with the teeth. This could be in the form of cracking a tooth or contracting to allow cavities to form under the current filling. His advice to me was to replace all of my silver fillings over time with white ones that are stronger and last longer. I decided to be bold and do it all in 2 visits rather than extend the agony over a few years of visits.

4 and a half hours, 12 fillings and $1500 later, my mouth feels like a whole new woman :)

Warning: Disgusting close-ups of my mouth below... scroll down at your own risk...

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Before:

After:

I still kept my gold tooth though... I don't want to lose all of my street cred :)

So Much Snow

 A couple weeks ago Pamela and I went up to her family’s cabin in Forest Lakes.  We were hoping to head up there and be joined by some friends for a fun weekend in the wilderness.  We were also excited to see that the weather forecast for the weekend called for snow.  It snowed the weekend we went to the cabin last year and it was a lot of fun.  It’s seems extra special because we never get to see snow living in Phoenix.  

Lots of snow already on our drive up

Pamela and I had off work Friday and drove up with Jordan.  Our other friends couldn’t swing a Friday trip but we still decided it would be fun to hang out at the cabin for 2 days.  Soon after leaving Payson we were excited to start seeing all the snow that had already fallen in the area.  There were so many nice views of snow covered pine trees along the drive.  I was so excited to see the snow I just kept snapping pictures.  

It's everywhere!

As we climbed in elevation we noticed the temperature kept dropping and there was more and more snow all around.  Arriving at Forest Lakes we were in for a little bit of a rude awakening.  Although the freeway was freshly plowed and fairly dry from all the traffic, the neighborhood street up to the cabin had plenty of snow left.  Not to worry though, we just proceeded slowly and lucky for us the cabin is only a short distance in from the main highway.

Then came our second realization about large amounts of snowfall.  The hundred foot driveway that sets the cabin back nicely from the road was covered in 6-8 inches of snow with a huge mound right at the front from where the plows cleared the road.  This was a little unexpected but that’s why we came to the cabin, for some adventure.  I opened the shed looking for something to clear the snow and found a broken snow shovel and a rake.  It was less than ideal, but between the scoop part of the snow shovel and the rake, Pamela and I were able to start clearing a path.  After maybe 45 minutes we had cleared enough driveway to fit our car and 2 more for our friends behind it.  Now it was time to unpack and finally start relaxing and enjoy the cabin.  

Good enough, now time to start having fun.

Snow angel!  Good work Pamela

Once we started a fire and figured out the heaters it was smooth sailing.  We had a pleasant evening filled with hot cocoa, smores, and a Christmas movie.  The next morning it was time for snow reality check number three.  We greatly underestimated how much snow would be falling this weekend.  We woke up to find the amount of snow outside had doubled.  Another 6-8 inches of fresh powder had fallen overnight and was still coming down.  Luckily we had good cell reception at the cabin and could warn our friends.  We caught Kim as she was visiting the store before heading up herself.  

Seriously?  Guess we have to clear the driveway again

Day 1 - Looking out the back porch

Day 2 - Looking out back, notice the railing is nowhere to be seen

Sorry Jordan you can't go out that way, it's blocked by snow!

After deliberating for a while and checking the weather forecast on our phones we decided our 2 day retreat to the cabin was turning into an escape plan.  We would clean up the cabin and wait for the snowplow to come by to give us the clearest path back to the freeway.  We brushed the snow from the car and re-dug the driveway back to the main road so we were all ready.  Then at about 1:00 Pamela heard the plow drive by and it was time to make our move.  He hadn’t improved the road as much as we hoped but as the snow started to intensify we knew this would be our best shot at getting home before getting stuck at the cabin.  

When the wind picked up it looked like we were inside a snow globe

As we slowly made our way back to the freeway, skidding and sliding, we both lamented not having the all-wheel drive Forester anymore.  It was a little scary but once we made it back to the freeway we were alright.  The 260 was much more cleanly plowed and the decent flow of traffic kept much of the snow and ice from accumulating in the lanes.  I snapped a few more pictures of the snow coated trees along the road.  All that snow was inconvenient but also very beautiful.

Goodbye snow!

Bonus video of Jordan playing in the snow:

Is It Possible to Love a Serial Killer?

Since the new season of "Mad Men" doesn't start until 2012, Matt and I were feeling the need for a little more (TV) drama in our lives. Enter: Dexter. The concept sounded a little morbid for my taste, but we had heard such great recommendations about this show that we decided to give it a try for a few episodes. Aaaaaaaaaand now we're hooked :) We marathoned Season 1 in a matter of days, and last night started in on Season 2.

It is such a great show! I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes drama/suspense shows or movies. Since it's on Showtime, it does get a little graphic (but what do you expect when you watch a show about a blood spatter analyst who moonlights as a serial killer?) There are some parts that I have to turn away for, but it is not gratuitous for the most part. The story lines are interesting, but the main thing that keeps me watching is the character development. As you learn Dexter's story, you love him more and more. You find yourself rooting for him to make his kills and keep his secret hidden. He's like a Batman vigilante without the costume. But you also see him learning to build relationships with people and experience emotion. He is just such a likable guy.

I'm excited to see what plays out for my new favorite killer over the next few seasons. I read spoilers online as soon as the plot gets too thick, or else I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. It's like flipping to the end of a suspense novel to make sure everyone you like survives and you get closure. But then I drive Matt crazy because I know how things end and he doesn't :) And from what I can tell, it is going to be a good, long run for Dexter. And we'll be rooting for him the whole way!