TBT and ARUBA MEGAPOST #4: 1/1-1/3

It is Thursday, which is usually a regular TBT post, but in order to finish up my Aruba wrap-up, I only have one TBT this week...tropical island style.

Now on to my last Aruba Post. (Here is post #1, post #2, and post #3 in case you need to catch up.)

Happy New Year in Aruba! 

The last few days of our trip were much more low key.  Those days were the reasons why I was able to finish FOUR books on our vacation.  There was lots of reading at the pool time, lots of reading on the beach time, and lots of general relaxing time.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 1st, 2015

We had asked our ATV guide on Tuesday for tips for how to find the hiking place we couldn't find on Monday, so we were able to successfully find it on Thursday morning.  It wasn't so much of a hike as it was 652 steps up a big hill they call the Haystack.  Tourist brochures call it Hooiberg.  The view was decent- but there were lots of tall cacti that blocked the ocean views.

 

Very many steep steps

The view

We spent the rest of the day lounging.  Some folks went to watch the Gopher game on the beach.  The rest of us found them later (which is miraculous seeing as we couldn't communicate with each other with cell phones).  We went to dinner at a delicious pizza place on the tourist strip.

Another fun day

FRIDAY, JANUARY 2nd, 2015

The guys golfed again in the morning, so the ladies went downtown Oranjestad to go shopping and have lunch.

I got Starbucks!
Lunch at the Pink Iguana

We did more lounging and then had another dinner by the ocean.  This one wasn't up to par with all the other meals we had (and the service was TERRIBLE), but we still enjoyed sitting out by the water on our last night in Aruba.

Marina Pirata
Great atmosphere, terrible service, not so good food

SATURDAY, JANUARY 3rd, 2015

I woke up early again and read by the pool. Then we spent one more short morning at the beach before we had to leave for the airport.  It was a great way to end a fantastic trip.

The picture of us under a cabana happened because all of a sudden there was
a downpour of rain.  It was obviously Aruba lamenting the fact that we were leaving.
It dissipated quickly, thankfully, and we got back to our beach lounging.

We had a long travel day back home, which included us almost missing our connecting flight in Atlanta and having to sprint across the very large airport.  Our luggage DID end up missing the flight and wasn't returned to us until 11:30pm on Sunday night.

But what a small price to pay for a wonderful week.

And the joy of waking up to these happy faces on Sunday morning was amazing.

Reunited and it feels so good.

A million thanks to my parents who made this trip possible- and to my dad who planned so many fantastic adventures and meals for all of us.  It was so incredible.

And again, thanks to G-ma, G-pa and Auntie Cat who took such good care of the girls so we could truly relax and enjoy ourselves while we were away.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some pictures of our adventures!  Back to regular scheduled posting tomorrow with the first FTPDF post of 2015.