Beach bums

Friday, January 8th was a pretty typical day on this vacation.  Kari and I were up before everyone else.  We went for a nice 2 mile walk on the boardwalk and around the resorts.  Nothing like 80 degrees and gentle off shore breeze on you morning walk to promote relaxation and rest.  We crushed the buffet and then headed for the beach.  Another tough day under a palapa.  Sun and surf was only interrupted a by a rain shower at the end of the day.  Not a lot for photos today.  Grace and I floated  in the ocean for awhile.  The gin games got a little intense.  Kari and I continued to work on our books.  Kari probably reads about 2x faster than I do.

Beer and Limes on the beach

The struggle is real when you are not heavy enough to activate the pressure plate to turn on the feet washer

After our day at the beach, we had one last dinner planned at Quinta del Carmen. 

The kids before dinner

Selfie nation.  Grace is lunging wildly at the camera like an angry Alec Baldwin.

Welcome.  Please wash your hands and stay away from each other.

Quinta Del Carmen

From the front

Quinta Del Carmen was at one time a hospital and recuperating center for people injured working for the eagle refinery.  Historically Venezuelan crude oil was brought by freighter to Aruba to be refined.  Injuries were common on the freighters and the injured need a place to receive their care.

The land around it was eventually turned into a 7 hole golf course.  Finally the building was purchased and became a private home before becoming the restaurant you see now.

The girls are getting ready for dinner

Max and Ashley 

Lime Mia Tia

French 🍸 

Tuna Duo

Red Snapper with Brie 

Grouper, shrimp, smoked salmon, goat cheese in a white wine herb sauce.  It was good but the smoked salmon was a little over powering for me.

Chocolate Mousse with orange vanilla sauce.  This is my jam.  I could eat about 10 lbs of this dessert.

Another cab ride back to the hotel and bed.  Tomorrow we will hangout in the morning and then catch a jet plane home to MN.

Our stay at the Hyatt was great.  The staff was  friendly and professional.  I felt like every single one of them were interested in keeping us safe.  I am sure every single person in Aruba is under a tremendous amount of stress given that appropriately 86% of their economy depends on tourism.  

Rarely do I spend this much time relaxing on a vacation and reflecting  on a year of challenges both large and small.  Looking forward to an uncertain future which will have predictable and some unpredictable challenges as well.  I feel pretty confident that we can handle what comes next based on faith, family and friendships.  2021 here we come.

Goats and an occasional GIR

Thursday, January 7th, 2021 started off slowly like most days in Aruba.  Up moving around,  a little breakfast and then on to activities.

On this day I was lucky enough to play golf in Aruba with one of my best friends Mr. Dennin.  He arranged it.  All I had to do was bring my golf shoes and enough golf balls to finish the round.  We played at Tierra del Sol, an 18 hole golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones II.  We arrived about an hour early to get a cart, rental clubs and to hit some balls on the range.

We ended up playing just Dennin, myself and the wind.  The front 9 out by the California lighthouse is beautiful.  There is also nothing like starting the round on a 600 yard par 5.

On the first tee box.

Love this picture from the first fairway

Tierra del Sol

Mr Dennin enjoying Tierra del Sol

Goats crossing the fairway from the hillside

Par 3: 215 with the wind at your back. Par. Par. Par

The front nine was fun and a played pretty well the first 6 holes the last three hole coming back into the wind were monsters.  At the turn we picked up some Chill and headed  out again.  The back 9 played a little tougher for me.  The last 5 holes were well designed and quite enjoyable.  SD and I had a great time.

Another long 200+ par 3 on the back 9. I think this is 15.  

At the end it was all smiles.  Great day of golf with one of my best friends.  Dennin, me and the wind.  I broke 100 as well so for this hack, not a bad day.

Afterwards we stopped at the 19th hole for a little sustenance.

Super Bock beer from Portugal on tap 

A Dutch sampler platter and 2 huge fish tacos.  So good after our round.

After that we returned to the hotel for a little family time.

Which way do I go??

The crew spent the day relaxing on the beach. Ashley Max, Grace and Cam tried a little tubing

3 of the people in this picture enjoy tubing in the Caribbean. 1 person doesn’t enjoy tubing in the Caribbean. Can you guess who is who?

After cleaning up it was dinner at Matthew’s on the beach.  It was a nice little place but we didn’t get a table outside so that was a little bit of a bummer.  After dinner it was back to the hotel for the night.  Only one more full day on the happy island

Sunken Treasure

Wednesday January 6th, 2021 started like most days here on this happy island with a walk along the boardwalk and the 🏖.  The morning was lightly planned with activities .  Most of which involved sitting on the beach reading and relaxing.  Several members  under the age of 40 thought getting a couple of little inflatable tubes to float in the water would be fun - so that happened.  

The real action of the day started around 1 PM when we went on a snorkeling 🤿 tour with 2 stops and a little snack/lunch along the way.  We were lucky enough to do this with our friends Scott and Deb who also picked this week to visit Aruba with there family. We had a nice EP crew for this adventure.

Our first snorkel site was over the SS Antilla, a German freighter that was scuttled by her captain to prevent the Dutch navy that patrolled Aruba from taking it on May 20,1940.  The boiler room was flooded with cold water.  This led to a huge explosion 💥 that sunk the ship. Wikipedia say that a Dutch naval vessel used her 35 mm gun to send her to the bottom.   The bottom of the ship sits around 40-60 ft of water the top edges are as shallow as 12 feet.  You can scuba the site but we snorkeled from above.

Along the length of the SS Antilla 

Diving down looking at the bow.  Amazing and haunting.  Need to work on my free diving breath holding in 2021.

Looking back at the deck of the SS Antilla

Some bigger fish out by the wreck in deep waters.  Several scuba divers exploring the wreck as well.

I have more pictures but they are all basically the same and I won’t bore you.  From the Antilles it was up the coast to a reef.  We anchored in about 12 ft of water.  The visibility was amazing.  Prepare for some snorkeling 🤿 photos whether you want them or not.

Pretty fish 

More pretty fish

Black and Yellow Angel Fish

Powder Brown Tang... I think

Blue Tang

I was the last one back on the boat from a 🤿.  This is one of my life goals is to alway being the last one back on the boat or the bus from an adventure.

After that it was snacks and drinks for those who wanted them.  There was also a rope swing off the boat which I killed and made me feel a little less old in relation to the belly flop demonstration from the day before.  Unfortunately, no video exists of me rope swinging because of this, everyone in our party is grounded.

Enjoying the ride

The EP crew

The coast of Aruba.

After snorkel we enjoyed 🍻 on the beach discussing the short comings of Man United and Liverpool while watching the semifinal of the Carbaro Cup⚽️  All of us working on maintaining our social distance.  A quick dinner and bed.  Tomorrow we will see what the 🏌️‍♀️ is like in Aruba.

It was nice to relax and be away from the madness for awhile.

Toes in the water....

Tuesday, January 5th, 2021 started a little slowly. Kari and I were up and enjoyed a nice breakfast at the resort.  Everybody under 40 eventually got up, ate and arrived at the lobby for our scheduled adventure.

Today we tried our hand on a UTV/ATV tour.  We drove 2 UTVs, 4 seat all terrain vehicle.  This is usually not my jam.  I would rather hike, walk, bike, paddle board something a little more quiet and relaxing.  However several people including ScottyD convinced me this was a fun time.

View from the Hyatt lobby before we left to UTV. A little raining and overcast.  So we had a little nervousness about how are day was going to turn out.

One happy island even has a happy bus to take you around.

UTV #1. All smiles before we start the adventure 

UTV #2.  The fun V as it was known across Aruba 🇦🇼 

Our first stop was this grocery store. Amazing place to get 🍺, snacks and pop. Amazing 🤩 

BB and KT enjoying the ride and the murals at the grocery store.

Driver change at the grocery store.  Grace is still smiling so that is something for us all to enjoy.

First stop was the natural bridge.  There was a larger natural bridge but it collapsed in 2004 secondary to the surf conditions created by Hurricane Ivan.  That bridge was call the Mother bridges.  This one is called Son of a Bridge.

Here is the a another shot.

We are all on the bridge

The collapsed Mother Bridge

UTV driving 

Ocean crashing the north side of Aruba 

Our next stop was a natural tide pool you could jump into if the conditions were right.  They were right so everybody took the plunge.

KT preparing to jump

Just up from the pool,  Aruba turns quite arid and dry the rain last night kept the dust down and made the ride a lot more fun.  No dirt and more splashes.

The girls at one of the stops.  Still all smiles

Climbing up from the tidal pool jump Grace, ML and our guide Mark

Our next stop was the remnants of an old Aruban gold mine.  It was built to resemble a fort in an attempt to fool the few remaining pirates still patrolling the seas.  Approximately 50K pounds of gold were taken off the island.

Top of the mine ruins looking out at the ocean 

At the top of the mine looking back on the arid plane.  Oh yeah these dudes climbed up and still managed to smile for 1 photo

Our guide Mark breaking it down.

From here we traveled up the north side of Aruba.  Our drive was slowed by a flat tire on one of the ATVs but our guide team handled it well.  Ultimately, we made it to the California lighthouse at what I believe is the northwest side of the island.

The funny V made some changes and had some struggles.  Luckily we were able to rally and bring this adventure home.

The team in front of the Californian lighthouse.  It was named after a ship from Liverpool that went down at this end of the island in 1871.  The ship was named the SS Californian.

Anseth family by the lighthouse.  Grace is just starting her career as a capes crusader.  We will have to see how that works out.

Art house of the lighthouse 

Our final stop was 3 step beach where you could run and dive, jump or belly flop into the ocean.  I have attempted to destroy any video of my attempt as it looked like one of those drunk elephants that have eaten too much fruit from the Marula tree staggering around and falling into a pool.  Father Time is undefeated and he made sure I knew it today.

BB, KT and I after our jumps in. 

After our tour we return to the Hyatt to prepare for our dinner at The Flying Fishbone.  It was about a 25 minute drive from the hotel to the restaurant.  Beautiful sport on the southern part of the island.  Dinner was at 5 so we could enjoy the sunset.  We sat at a table were we could keep our toes in the water.  This is a good idea unless you bring a little 70 lb ginger who gets cold when the temp drops below 72.  The food was good but the view was amazing and probably worth the price of admission regardless of the meal.

The Anseth sisters at the Flying Fishbone.  They are friends, they are friends!!!!!!!!!

My Aruba Ariba.  Delicious rum 🍹 

The view from the head of the table.  The empty bowl to the left was once filled with ceviche.  Someone crushed it.  Not saying who but m, someone crushed it all by themselves.  

Max and Ashley

Brooke, KT and Ashley 

The Anseth Family 

Sisters. Friends?....one is working the SD style in this photo.

The sunset

After dinner it was a 30 minute ride home and bed for this guy.  My ego was a little bruised, my belly was a little red and I was tired.  On the plus side I saw some amazing views of Aruba and learned a lot about this happy little island.

Stay curious my friends....