bon bini!

(that means welcome! in papiamento..the language of aruba)

we had an amazing time on our honeymoon in aruba. we spent 7 days not working and not planning a wedding. it was wonderful. we left early monday morning and flew with a plane full of newlyweds on a 4 hour flight from atlanta to aruba. one couple in paticular caught my eye - a couple wearing bride and groom tshirts. yes, that couple. and guess who got to sit next to them on the plane? danny! the bride actually woke danny up to ask him what our wedding colors were. oh yeah. i think danny really enjoyed their conversation. ;)

we were greeted with champagne as we checked into bucuti (resort).

we immediately passed out once we got into our room. the first night we ate a little restaurant within walking distance from bucuti called pizza bob's....very good food & danny's first taste of the local beer, balashi.

we went downtown one day & had lunch at iguana joe's. we had some awesome spinach/artichoke dip & danny had a dish that was basically just cheese & a very good mojito.


we wondered around downtown for a few hours. there are lots of jewelry stores and designer shops.


we managed to find a grocery store where we stocked up on some hot & spciy chex mix, combos, crackers, gouda, diet coke, and balashi which were our staples throughout the entire week.


we rented a jeep another day and explored the island.


we drove from one end to the other. we drove to baby beach which is a sort of lagoon where local moms bring their children to teach them how to swim. we stayed on the less crowded side & danny went snorkeling.


a huge portion of the island is a national park, so we drove all over the park. we even did a little bit of off-roading to get around some fallen rocks

and then almost got stuck in the park, but we eventually found an exit & made it back to bucuti.

one evening, we took a sunset sail down the coast of the island. we met a couple from long beach. it was beautiful & the sunset itself was amazing.


we went horsebacking riding at rancho notorious another day. we went on a 2 hours ride through the state park to a cliff overlooking the ocean. there was only one other couple on our tour with us, so it was basically like having a private tour. me and pocohontas (my horse - awesome, huh meg?) took up the back of the line & definitely moved at our comfortable pace. when we got to the ocean, we took a short break & then we got to gallop through the sand (just me & danny and our guide...the other couple was too scared). it was so much fun.


the rest of the time was spent laying at the beach, eating, or sleeping. we spent a lot of time just laying around the beach and relaxing. the sand on their beaches is amazing; it's so soft and white. the water is gorgeous.

i have never seen water that color before. we had perfect weather the whole time. it rained one night, but the sun was shining by the time we got up for breakfast.

the food on the island was really good. we didn't have a bad meal while we were there. madame janette's was beautiful with very yummy food. wacky wahoo's was recommended by a girl who worked at bucuti & then we ended up seeing her there! wacky wahoo's had the best seafood i have ever had. it was all cooked perfectly. perfectly. just about every one of my meals contained some kind of refined carbohydrate...pasta or croissants...so good! we did end up at taco bell one night. it was late & everything was closed. it was a great experience though. danny ended up speaking way too fast for the guy working the window...he rattled off our order & the employee's response was, "...yes....hello." danny had to start all over. it was hilarious.

i also discovered a very yummy drink called a brown lady. it's like a mudslide but with coconut. it was basically a chocolate smoothie with alcohol. yum!

sadly, we had to leave eventually...we were told to get to the airport 3 hours before take off, so we got there four hours early & then ended up having to wait an hour for the delta desk to open (they were precise about that 3 hours), but we were the first ppl in line when the desk opened! we had to go through mutliple security check points & then had to get our shoes thoroughly cleaned because we went horseback riding. luckily, my suitcase did close again after being opened. we landed in huntsville around 10 &, of course, immediately went to pick up the pup from jeff & heather's where she'd been staying.

we had a fabulous trip & would highly recommend a visit to aruba to everyone. it was really hard to adjust to having to go to work the next week...hell, it still is.