Aruba was wonderful, it is amazing. It is a desert no doubt. Cactus
everywhere not landscaped and a neat tree, the Divi Tree which gets
like an umbrella, thick on top and nothing in the way of branches
near the bottom. There were Iguanas everywhere and neat chamelions
that changed to spots and aqua colors. Someone had to go down every
morning before 7:30 to put towels to reserve our beach chairs, there
were 8 of us most of the week. I fried on my shoulders, forehead, and
upper arms. Because of the constant wind, sometimes so hard that it
was annoying, it made it not feel hot or like you were burning. I had
bubbles in my sunburn which means some sun poisoning even using 25 spf
the whole time and after tanning for over 2 weeks prior to going. I am
peeling and what is underneath hurts, the burn went so deep. But my
legs look great!! Hope I can keep some of it to build on this summer.
There was a lot of walking from the hotel to pool area and more to the
beach. Hotel grounds were allo Royal Palms, and gorgeous plantings,
taken care of immacculately. Ocean water we'd guess about 80 and pool
the same. We went over to a reefed beach to snorkel and saw amazing
colored fish all around you when you released bread underwater. There
were hundreds of them, blue white stripped, yellows, truly fun to do.
I would do that again in a heartbeat.

The wedding was beautiful, Laura was just gorgeous and Paul handsome
and beaming. Will be downloading pics today or tomorrow We got some
really good ones. The vows were beautiful, but made no mention of
Christ, so when it was over Richie got up and gave a beautiful
Christian blessing over them. We know it was from God, his words were
smooth, delivery strong and true and no searching for words. He said
they were just there and it was say them or bust. We had champaigne
on the beach during sunset and then the bus picked us up for the
reception. Catamaran was about 20 - 24' wide and probably 30' long.
The food done by the Hyatt hotel was wonderful, and the liquor flowed,
along with good music, Cuban Cigars, and dancing. It was a 3 hour
cruise, thankfully with a better ending than Gilligans 3 hour cruise!!
We lost a day at the begining due to US Air and an engine that
wouldn't start for over an hour, on our flite out of Baltimore. As a
result we missed our connecting flite to Aruba and had to stay in
Charlotte overnight which made for 2 days of stress and flying and
airport walking, shuttles etc. US AIR paid the hotel and some food,
but we still lost $$ on the deal, plus arrived more tired than we
should have. We were told several times that our connecting flites
were being held and ran thru the airport, Richie says about a mile, to
the new gate, only to find the plane there but the doors shut and they
would not let us on. There were at least 5 of us trying to make that
flite.No explanations, just told to go to the services desk and they
would reschedule us.( we were later told that they sold the seats)
Never an 'I'm sorry', nor any offer of anything to make up for it.
The service line we waited in was 3 hours long. US Air had screwed up
with so many people, definitely several airplanes full of people, not
just ours. I wondered how much they had to spend in hotel & meal
vouchers just that day. And the line was still 3 or 4 hours long
after we had reached the front. No wonder they are in trouble.
Everyone staying at the Raddison with us was from a messed up US AIR
flite we found out at dinner when talking to people.
Downtown Orangestadt was full of restaurants, tourist traps and
diamond dealers. We had ribs at Iguana Joes that were good, they had
a lot of sage in the sauce, interesting flavor.I had escargo at a
place that the locals frequent, Que Pasa, and some of the biggest
shrimp I've ever seen. And a bananna dessert that was to die for.
Scala had grouper stuffed with shrimp in a cream sauce with fresh
veggies on top, yummy. The one place I wasn't impressed with was
Bennihana, the food was ok, but the atmosphere was a little dingy.We
hadn't planned to eat there but had made no reservations and found out
it was an Aruban holiday and all the restaurants were jammed.
The superbowl party at the Marriott was great, and the win so
satisfying for Richie and his Giants!! Paul lost very graciously and
even said his Pats didn't play like they were hungry for the title.
When Paul said the 'liver olympics', he wasn't kidding. The drinks
were mostly juice and booze combos and a happy hour at the pool bar
with buy 1 get one free from 3 to 5 every day. Crazy drinks with
crazier titles, Slippery Monkey where they fill the straw up with rum
just before handing it to you, was like a mudslide after that, with
banana liquor added.Blue Aruba, I'm not sure what was in it, the
fruity drinks all were similiar to each other, and went down very
easily. And you just told them your room # and they charged it to
that. Food there at the pool br the same. No one eats dinner til
about 8, and sometimes 10, European style, so you needed something to
eat about 5 or so to keep from getting looped. No drunks, but a lot of
happy people, and I'm sure the swimming to and from the bar helped
too.
We saw a hummingbird once at the flowers near the pools and a bird
the colors of a baltimore oriole, sparrows, a little balck and white
bird, and doves.
It was a wonderful trip, wish you all could have been there with us.
Ehugs, Olde Hippee