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3 weeks from yesterday, and we'll be on our way to our Happy Island. I've started the intro to our Trip Report, and figured I'd do a weekly update/countdown until we get there, and then depending on how I'm feeling, may do daily updates, or just journal it, and write it all up when we get home.
So without further ado, here's what I have so far:
Aruba 2022 Friends and Family Trip
The Players:
· P&G 8/24-9/4
· M&N 8/24-8/28
· P&D 8/25-9/4 – Your humble author and Husband
· B&J 9/1-9/9
INTRO:
This is a trip we’ve been taking for 10 years now. We haven’t made every trip, and each year the cast of characters changes some. The entire group has cancelled the past 2 years due to COVID, and now that we are inside 3 weeks, I feel pretty confident that we’ll be able to make the trip! Everyone is welcome, and we have several ground rules for the trip:
- No one HAS to do anything. Dinner plans, activities, hanging on the beach, going to the pool etc. If people are doing something and you want to join in, GREAT. If people are doing something and you DO NOT want to join us, that’s OK too. No coercion or peer pressure helps to avoid conflicts
- We typically travel carry on only, so we have a pact that there is NO JUDGEMENT for repeating of dinner outfits. (It’s always the shoes that do me in)
- We generally don’t do much but hang on the beach, except for joining Joanne and Albert on the Blue Melody for snorkeling (going two times this year) and the most amazing grilled cheese you’ll ever have in your life. EVER. Our biggest decisions most days is deciding where we’ll be going for dinner that night.
PLANS MADE SO FAR:
We have a list of potential dinner spots that is longer than our actual stay on island, so clearly, we will have to prioritize. We have a few reservations made so far, and will probably make a couple more, and then will wing the rest.
- Dinner at Chicken and Lobster on 8/25
- Dinner at Salt & Pepper on 8/28
- Dinner at Oak on 9/1
- Snorkeling with Blue Melody on 8/26 and 9/2
***UPDATE 8/4/22***
We are three weeks away from departure, and two weeks ago, while walking to my car, I rolled my ankle, fell down, skinned both knees like I was a toddler, and apparently fractured a bone in my ankle. I thought it was a bad sprain and treated with ice, elevation, compression, and walked on it for a week before I finally had it checked. Yep, broken! The good news, it’s a non-displaced, very minor fracture, and I’m in a walking boot. The ortho PA I saw after xrays confirmed the fracture feels very confident that I’ll be good to go by the time our trip rolls around, and should not need to be in the boot by then, but she also suggested wearing it on the plane, just for comfort, etc. I go back 4 days before we leave for my 2nd follow up. Fingers crossed I continue to have the green light.
We’ve also just found out that old friends we have not seen in person in nearly 20 years, will be arriving 2 days before we leave. Plans are afoot to meet for dinner on Saturday, Sept 3rd.
TRIP PREP DETAILS
We do try to this trip with carry on only, so we have to be very judicious with what we pack. I’ve started gathering up the bits and pieces we need. (Travel size toiletries and sunscreen to get us started, waterproof phone pouches, beach floaties, mask and snorkel, YETI cups and water bottles, reusable straws and a straw brush so they don’t get gross, etc)
Clothes will be handled the weekend before we go. My parents are overlapping our trip by just a few days, and they have not traveled internationally in about 6 years and are a bit apprehensive. I plan to do our ED cards at their house, so my mom can watch me do ours, so she knows the drill. She’s totally capable and fairly computer savvy but gets a bit nervous. She also (adorably) asked if I would come help her go through her clothes, so she brings just enough, and doesn’t “embarrass me in front of my friends” (Her quote, not mine).
We still have loads of dinners to plan (we only have 3 reservations so far). We’ll be on island for 10 nights. 2 of those will be coming off Blue Melody around 7pm, so dinner will have a miss those two nights. We’ll typically order pizza or get chicken wings or something else ‘snacky’. That still leaves us with 5 dinners still to plan. We’ll probably get together with our travel cohorts in the next week or two and hammer out the rest of the places we want to try to get to for dinner.
I know I have to eat at Moomba Beach Bar at least once for lunch, and once for breakfast, so that’s definitely on my list. Whether anyone else joins us, is a wait and see.
That's what I have for now, 3 weeks out. More to follow in next week's update.
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