[Arubalisa]

For those who have been to Aruba before and now how it can happen, it seemed to be partly cloudy to the north towards Eagle and Palm Beaches, but mostly cloudy over the Tamarijn so leaving was not as bad. Now we are home.

Our last adventure of the trip began with Bully picking us up to take us to the Tamarijn at 12:15 p.m. We arrived at the airport and were fortunate enough to once again be re-introduced to Eloy from Kini Kini. [Note to Cindy, fwiw, I am sure everyone on Aruba is related, but Bully and Eloy are cousins. ]

We proceeded without stopping for shopping or food and arrived at our gate by 1 p.m.

Passed the time in the usual way, eating, reading, last minute rest room stop and then we had a gate change. No big deal. The Delta plane from Atlanta finally arrived albeit late.

A second gate change later, the flight finally arrived. By this time the skies over the airport had opened up and it rained harder than I have EVER seen it rain in 17 visits to the island. And it rained and rained, probably a total of about an hour.

Another thing you do not know unless you have been before and it has rained as happened to us when we arrived during a shower once before, NOTHING happens on the ground in Aruba at the airport when it is raining!

The will not refuel the plane, nor will they load or unload luggage. So we waited, and then we waited some more.

At 3:00 p.m., our departure time, Delta personnel finally made the announcement that our flight would be late in departing due to the late arrival of our plane and the rain. We would departing at 4:20 instead of 3:20 p.m. as scheduled.

The rain finally lightened up a bit and they began unloading the luggage for the Atlanta passengers. I was thankful that atleast we could SEE what was going on, knew the reason for the delay and were able to be seated. The poor folks who had just arrived, more than likely hot, tired, hungry and eager to head to their hotel did not have seats and more than likely had no clue as to why they were waiting over 50 minutes and had yet to see one piece of luggage come out onto the belt.

We finally boarded our flight which needless to say was FULL. Once aboard we sat, and and sat as we could hear our luggage being loaded. At about 5 p.m. we left our home away from home among finally brightening skies and light drizzle.

Arrival back in ATL after an uneventful flight at 8:40 p.m. made for a very long day. We knew that we would be delayed in leaving ATL since we had to make a claim for one piece of our luggage which was damaged on the flight to Aruba. No sense reporting it in AUA since the employees there are only contracted and have virtually no power over such things.

After waiting 25 minutes in a very long line filled with tons of folks with lost luggage at Delta's Baggage Claim Center, dh was told the crack in our hard plastic luggage was "minor" and they would not repair it. Dh was given a phone number to further persue the "issue".

Arrived home in the house at 10 p.m. to 5 VERY happy kitties! That and our own beds were the only good reason to finally be home. Sleeping in a double bed for 12 nights when you are used to a king is a minor inconvenience when you are in paradise, but something to be grateful for upon returning home.

FINALLY got into bed and the one of two kitties who sleeps in dh and my bedroom was so starved for attention she cried all night! After sleeping as late as possible it has been now back to reality. Laundry is spread out in piles waiting to be washed, email is still be sorted and phone calls to friends and family have been made.

I have also taken a little bit of time this a.m. to go through some of the pictures from the trip and look forward to sharing them with you all.

Dh phoned the number Delta gave him last night and it was customer support in India. Need I say he got no where? Afterward he phoned local customer service here in Atlanta and they immediately apologized, considering we had similar damage to our luggage in December and they replaced. Without question, or asking us to send them the bag for repair or replacement, they quickly agreed to send us a check to replace the damaged bag. Once again, we have no complaints about the outcome.

I am attaching some photos of yesterday's weather at the airport.

BTW, REALLY cool license plates!