[CasaHappy]

What a wonderful time again. We had to meet up in Atlanta due to my work being out of State. DH flew Nashville - Atlanta and I flew Las Vegas to Atlanta and then met up for our flight to Aruba together, all on Delta. We tried to upgrade but our ticket "class" was too low so we settled into our coach seats with no one between us and arrived in Aruba on Friday night at 8:00PM

Customs & baggage was a breeze our flight was the only plane in at the time. We met up with Bully's Brother-In-Law for our nice comfy ride for our one night stay at The Mill.
Bully pulled along side us driving down the road and then met us at The Mill. Sweet Bully handed us 2 ice cold Balashi's
Bully is a kind, honest business Man with a nice family.

Quick check in at The Mill which was included 2 free drinks at the bar. Dropped our bags hit the bar for my true love..... a Brown Lady. We were both very tired, so off to bed we went.

Bully picked us up the next morning to move us to Casa Del Mar for the week. We were in our unit by 2 PM

We met new Casa Del Mar friends right off. They are 4 couples who stay 3 weeks in a row and have family and friends join them at different times. Ralf, Sandy, Kenny, Bonnie, Larry, Doddie, Chuck & Erin............you made our week special and we look forward to the years to come! If I got anyone's name wrong it's Kenny's fault !

Casa Del Mar, Matthew's & the Beach all looked great!
We were surprised by daily entertainment during the 4PM Happy Hour. Some days it was a bit too loud to enjoy talking with each other so we sat out by the pool, but Matthew's has really brought some happiness and excitement to Casa Del Mar. Wed night Karaoke was a huge hit, with around 200 people there. Music Man and his Wife and friends had supper and then joined us and he even sang Pretty Woman for the crowd. He did a GREAT job, wonderful voice even with 200 Happy people singing behind him!!

We did eat the $5 & $8 breakfasts at Matthews and enjoyed them. The grouper sandwich around one of the 3 happy hours was also good. Anky & Humphrey took good care of us as well as the rest of the Staff.

It was of course election week and a very interesting time on the island. We have local friends there and it was an exciting and emotional time for them. Cars with election party color flags flying and above roof tops of homes. Flatbed trailers on corners for grandstand meetings and rally's. Some mentioned being "stuck" in town during parades etc...We were smart and stayed out of the way election day. Go Green!!

Up early each morning to visit the beach while the island wakes up, what a beautiful way to start each day. A little swim/snorkel right there, shower off the salt and then sit at Matthew's bar reading a book waiting for Humphrey to open the bar and make me 2 Brown ladies to start my day.... ($17 for both) yes I like 2 for 1 Happy hour prices much better but I am on vacation and want to enjoy!

Alahumbra was the best casino for air conditioning and also free drinks! Yes, we do tip just about every time they come around and I also bring $2 bills with me to the island that seems to go over well for tipping. At one point I had a drink in hand and 3-4 "new drinks" lined up along my machine....none were wasted.
Machines were nice to us, let us play long times for small amounts of money, or winning small amounts. DH won $640 on a quarter machine the 3rd spin on Friday around 10 AM.
Smoke was not that bad but your clothes of course did smell some.

Went to Charlie's & Baby Beach one day..... we have been before but I never ate at Charlie’s so we had lunch. We were the only people there and the staff was stand offish and on the rude side, even after mentioning several names of people we know that go there.. But the squid was good and DH had a steak sandwich with 2 beers and my 2 cokes $60.
Baby Beach was calm near the shore but a bit rough further out, I am a good swimmer but seemed to have a hard time fighting the water to get out of the current.
Lots of poor homeless dogs but they don't bother you.

We were gifted a $125 certificate for dinner at The Hyatt at Ruinas Del Mar............not to be missed!!! Service exceptional, candlelight by the window, staff attentive yet allow privacy, view of the 2 black swans. The food was awesome from the soups. Pumpkin with very tiny dumplings and DH did not order soup but was brought the seafood soup anyway for free she said , just a small taste but the bowl was the same size as mine, the salads Cesar for him and a light refreshing one for me avocado with a citrus dressing yummy, DH had a filet minion and I had the Mixed Grill ( Lamb chop, Veal, Chicken & Pork) both were awesome. A Chocolate dessert was shared. DH had 2 beers, I had water. We applied the $125 gift certificate and paid the balance to include an extra tip $70. It was well worth it.
Lunch at Bingo's- $30 for 2 sanwhichs and cokes
Lunch at the Chinese place on the corner by Wendy's with the big light up decoration out front. $52 and ALOT of food, 3 appitizers, 2 main dish and 4 cokes.
We ate a few other places, nice places for dinner and while not horrible not worth mentioning and having negative replies.

We rented our basic white Yaris with a stick shift from Toyota at Casa Del Mar. The regular price was cheap enough $180 for a Sat - Sat but we pay the insurance so it was a total of $300. Better safe then sorry since we wander the whole island, dirt roads included.

The snokeling was great, lots of fish and friends spotted turtles. I viewed my first coral snake and that was close enough! HA!
I managed to slather on 50% SPF and never burned during the day time outings.

The ribs at the flea market were great as always.

Now we must wait 11 more months....boo hoo...

Gin & Pete