Kathy's trip report

[kthy66]

Well its been 4 wonderful days on the island. I will be submitting trip reports as I the weeks go by. Here is my first installment.

Flew out of Boston on US Airways 1685 Nov 22. Great flight and arrived early.
Flying first class I was the first off the plane, thru immigration grabbed my bag and away I go! Yippeeee!!
We opted to bank our time share week at the Occidental and I reserved a 3 bedroom condo at Oceania Residences for 6 of us. It ended up costing us $7200 for one month. (great deal @ $600 per couple/per week!)
The rest of my party arrived the week before and had stocked up the condo. YEH! All I had to do was arrive on the 22nd and get into my bathing suit!
The condo is absolutely beautiful. A true “home away from home”.
The pool is wonderful and private with Eagle Beach right across the street. The weather has been cloudier than usual but Im ok with it since it is still better than any day in Boston!
The first full day I spent the morning at the pool. The cloudiness made me careless and I wasn't disciplined enough with my sunscreen. I burned my shoulders quite bad; I think it was all that time spent in the pool leaning on the edge with just the shoulders exposes. We have had the pool to ourselves the whole time!(I counted only 6 of the residences lit up at night in the whole place)
Went to Salt and Pepper that night. The appetizers of Garlic Calamari and Nachos were quite terrible. I had the Bacon Cheeseburger ( I had been craving a burger in Aruba since last year) and it was pretty good but not as good as I have had at other places on the island. Went to the backside to gaze at the stars for a bit. Luckily it had cleared enough that we had a beautiful sky that night.
Last night my hubby and brother in law went for a night dive with red sail sports. The seas were so bad the dive boat couldn't return to the Hyatt dock and had to dock downtown. The guests were left there and told to wait for the bus. Hubby decided after 10 minutes that was ridiculous and hailed a cab for $9 back to the Oceania. After that we went for a late dinner at Smokin Joes. I had the original recipe with the home fries. The ribs were great! and the home fries were totally not what I expected but they were really good!
Today is very overcast. Hubby is diving again and the rest of the crew went into town. Nice time for me to catch up on some reading and catnapping!
Tonight we have reservations at Texas De Brazil.. One of my favorites.
We have also reserved a ready made Thanksgiving dinner from the Hyatt for Thursday. It costs $144 for the meal with includes all the fixings plus a 10 lb ham and a 10 lb turkey. I'll let ya know if its worth it! I really didnt want traditional and had suggested a nice dinner at Madam Janettes.. I got outvoted! LOL Everyone else wanted traditional. Oh well.
I think thats it for now... We are not drinkers and it probably sounds a bit boring but my vacation is usually low key until I start my diving. (My first week I had planned on being as lazy as humanly possible anyway)
Here is a picture I took looking past the foot of our bed yesterday.

[arubamark]

Kathy nice report! Make sure to tell me about the dives. When I return in April I plan on doing a few. My next dive is planned for New yeras day, a traditional thing here in central Jersey with some of the local dive shops. It will make me enjoy the dive more know when I return to Aruba in April my dives will be much different the donning the dry suit, weight system, wreck reels, lift bags, twin 80's and a pony bottle. Enjoy the rest of your trip!

ps - Don't forget to put sunblock on!

[~Amy~®]

What a great view to wake up to every morning! Enjoy!!!

[cindyo]

Nice report...enjoy all your food at thanksgiving..sounds like enuf for 20 people...keep us posted. Enjoy your dives too !~ cindyo

[Jarubian]

Great report Kathy, this is what we like to hear. Enjoy.

[DANNYO]

Kathy,
Nice report,sounds like your group is going to have a lot of fun.I dove with Red Sail in Oct.and had a great bunch of dives.Please give us divers a report on your dives.Enjoy your vacation.

[danadog56]

Kathy great report !!!!
Keep them coming...oh, and have a great Thanksgiving !!

[kthy66]

Originally Posted by arubamark

Kathy nice report! Make sure to tell me about the dives. When I return in April I plan on doing a few. My next dive is planned for New yeras day, a traditional thing here in central Jersey with some of the local dive shops. It will make me enjoy the dive more know when I return to Aruba in April my dives will be much different the donning the dry suit, weight system, wreck reels, lift bags, twin 80's and a pony bottle. Enjoy the rest of your trip!

ps - Don't forget to put sunblock on!

Thanks Mark! Hubby and brother in law are very happy to not be diving with all that "stuff" we require up in Boston too!!
Almost feels like diving naked when we are in the Caribbean!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone~!

[Andrea J.]

thanks for the reports...........
you do know we all live vicariously thru your report.

have a ball

andrea

[kthy66]

Well its been a couple days so I figured I would continue with my trip report.
Its been a full week and I there is just so much I love about this island. It was really overcast the first 5 days I was here but I didnt care. It was still lovely and warm to sit by the pool or at the Beach. We have had the pool pretty much to ourselves. I guess not too many of the condo's were rented out. I do miss having more people around but its kinda cool having a whole resort just to ourselves. Plus if we want more company there are usually more people across the street at the beach.

Woke up Thursday morning to this big yellow blazing ball in the sky! Woo HooO!! Sunshine! Its been sunny ever since and I finally got to see my favorite thing,,,, Aruba sunsets!

Tuesday night at Texas De Brazil was excellent as always. Overpriced but the food is phenomenal! The bill for 6 of us was enough to choke a horse!

Our thanksgiving dinner we ordered from the Hyatt pre-made and it was excellent. The meal came with re-heating instructions for every dish and there was enough to feed six of us. We did make a little extra stuffing and potato to make sure we didnt run out.

Friday night me and hubby went to Passions and we were both very impressed! Hubby said it was the best meal he has had on the island yet! Thats saying alot considering all the places we have eaten over the years on the island!
We took a quick peak around Amsterdam Manor and I am very impressed. We hope in the future maybe to spend a week there. It appears to be a very nice place and I have heard some great reviews on it.

This week I hope to get some diving done and get over to "Old Man and The Sea"

More updates later.