Saturday morning Matt and I headed to the airport to meet to other couples (Kevin and Sara and Emily and Eric) to head to Aruba. We had heard on the news before we left that there was suppose to be a snow storm coming and it was suppose to start around 9 AM. Our flight was at 12. We successfully got onto the plane and was informed that we would be a little late because they had to deice the plane. We got on our way and about half way through the flight there was a crazy lady that was sitting behind us who after she found out she would miss her connection told anyone who would listen how she was kidnapped because when she left she told them she wanted to rebook for the next day if she was going to miss her connection which they reassured her wouldn't happen. We were lucky enough to neither miss our connection nor get stranded in Detroit because of the weather. We successfully arrived in Aruba around 9 pm.
1st day in Aruba
On the way to the hotel the night before the cab driver had told us that there was a parade happening the next day. So Matt and I decided to take a bike adventure with Eric and Kevin to town to see th Carnavale parade which is similar to Mardi Gras. The hotel told us to get there around 2. We did but get there a little before 2 and didn't see a parade heading toward us. We asked the locals and they told us that it would be to our side of town around 3-3:30. The parade finally arrived around 3:30. Once we got to see the parade we understood why it took 3 hours to get to our part of town. People would just jump in the middle of the parade to get their picture taken with the people in costume which was very annoying. We got to see a little bit of the parade before we went and it was definitely a once in a lifetime event.
2nd day in Aruba
We spent the entire day lounging in the sun. We did have one rain storm that lasted about 2 mins. and then it was back to sunshine. The weather there was beautiful. It was around 80-90 degrees every day and it was a bit breezy all the time which made it feel not that hot. The ocean was also wonderful. The water wasn't freezing cold like it is here in the states. It was cool and felt cold when you were burning up from the sun.
That night we went to a restaurant called The Palm Grill. We got to grill our on food at this restaurant. We managed to not burn ourselves or anyone else.
3rd day in Aruba
Was spent very much like the second day. We lounged in the sun all day long.
That night we went to a restaurant called the Red Parrot. It was an ala carte restaurant. It had very good service and everyone really enjoyed their appetizers and meals.
4th day in Aruba
Matt and I spent the morning lounging in the sun. Then Matt and the others went to a wind surfing clinic that the hotel held during the day. It was the first day there wasn't a red flag out which meant that all the water activities could take place. They all got a chance to try and get up on the wind surfing board.
After lunch Matt and I took the bus to the Butterfly garden. It was a beautiful garden with a lot of different species of butterflys. We learned how to have our own butterfly garden at home if we wanted to do that.
After we got back everyone went to play pool volleyball. It was very entertaining. Eric, Emily, Sara, and Kevin were all on a team against Matt and a random family.
That night we went to the Italian restaurant called Papparrazi. The food was alright but the deserts were good.
We all really enjoyed our trip to Aruba. It was very relaxing and unfortunately I came back with a cold. I could feel it coming on the entire time that I was in Aruba but it didn't rear its ugly head until we were at the airport on our way back to Ann Arbor.
