Jacki's Family Trip 8/6 - 8/19/2022

[Pegmeister]

What a wonderful feeling to be waking up in Aruba! That first full day is always special. Enjoy!!!

[Laura in NH]

Sounds like a great start even with the flight glitch and long lines. Good for you for going out and doing stuff your first night. I'm usually too tired from the long travel to do most things on my 1st night wish list.

[Jacki]

Hmmm guess my post yesterday never posted? Of course I did not take my own advice and type in a word document first. Oh well.

Quick recap of day 2 - Beach bright and early (or dark and early in all honesty). Kids went to the gym then came down to the beach, Brianna & I went to Price Smart, came back to unpack bags and put the cold stuff away then back out with our empty bags to SuperFood. Back to the pool for bingo and happy hours and the rest is a bit of a blur. I did manage to cook some chicken with vegetables and crashed pretty early.

[Laura in NH]

Nice to get the chores done and out of the way.

[Jacki]

Another boring lazy day in paradise.

Monday - Got to the beach before 6, Rich & kids came down when they could. We spent all day there, went to the room around noon to make lunches and brought them down to the beach - PB & J, Chicken salad, cold cuts, and Super Food's mango chicken salad, Brianna had premade some chicken & quinoa meals so all I had to do was take her container out of the fridge. Spent the afternoon going from ocean to chair, reading, snoozing, came back to the rooms a few at a time to shower. Boys went to rent a basketball, but whoever signed it out a few days ago never returned it

I cooked Salmon for Brianna & me and two types of burgers for the boys with some really good fresh broccoli - all from Price Smart. Delicious.

We were full of plans for the evening - Gelato & Glitz - but, realized we are old and got way too much sun so Rich & I just hung out in the room. Kids got gelato and came back up to watch Stranger Things. They've been waiting to be together here to watch it.

Every morning there is a cute little baby lizard on the wall and when he sees me he runs into the light fixture and peeks out every so often. It is the cutest thing!

I really love some of the La Cabana renovations and really dislike others. The bed headboard is adorable, BUT, it's really big, can only fit a light on one side of it and I can't move it to access the electric outlet which is where I would plug my phone in. And the dishwasher I think is even smaller! But I guess most people don't cook the way I do for the amount of people I typically do. The bathroom mirror and light are awesome, but, there is no small light to leave on at night anymore. And the light switch right there when you walk into the room controls the one bedside reading light. You have to walk across the room to turn on the overhead light. AND the worst one - the shades provide NO shade! The hallway lights are SO bright coming through the glass block. It is very hard to sleep. OK I'm done complaining....maybe.

[WaltVB]

Boring lazy days are the best!

[Laura in NH]

Bummer about the reno pitfalls, but it does sound like you all are enjoying yourselves

[Tuckahoe]

Lazing around with family is the best time spent together! No schedules, no worries, no distractions. Enjoy every moment!

[Andrea J.]

How is poolside bingo?

[Jacki]

We only played twice, Andrea! It's been a really different experience this year!

Tuesday - We got up, made breakfast in the room, hung out for a while, Michael logged on to class and the rest of us went driving around the island a bit. Our car stalled 4 times at roundabouts so we headed back to Royal.

They were getting a van in so we waited for them to turn it around and visit the car wash then we took it. Stopped at Super Food for more bread and wraps, wound up with more than we could carry of course.

Came back to LCB to relax, review Michael's final essay for his last class and showered, got ready for our 6pm reservation at Texas de Brazil. Amazing service and even better sangria, I mean food...

We walked around the high rise area, stopped in the Hyatt casino where Jason won $200 and we walked around their property and up the beach path then out to the street to shop a few stores and kiosks. Eventually made it back to the room to play PO-KE-NO and crash hard from our LONG day of family-ing.

GREAT TIMES!