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.

a job change for danny

danny gave work his two week notice last week, and so on the 19th, he's going to be starting a new job. how is this wedding related you might be wondering? well, now, danny actually has enough vacation to go on our honeymoon! thank you new job!

i'm stampless :(

we got our passports in the mail monday. how bout that for fast turn around. we applied for them april 5th. that's only two weeks from start to finish. pretty impressive.

now, i have to admit i was sad to let me other passport go. i already had two stamps in it from my trip to europe, but i couldn't renew it. the upside of the new passport - besides getting rid of my terrible albino picture - is that they've redesigned the interior (tax dollars hard at work). no more plain pages. every page has a "american icon" design.



i feel so patriotic now. i also found out that they apparently have some kind of chip in them too. very high tech. i'm going to have to go home and investigate that further.

passports check

we finally applied for our passports on saturday. we have been planning on doing it since we got engaged, but what can i say? we're lazy.

the post office had a passport party day where you could come pay them money, pay the government money, get your picture taken, fill out your forms, and have someone doublecheck that you've paid them money, paid the government money, taken the right size picture, and filled out your forms properly. we were there for about two hours, most of it spent waiting in one line or another. we did get to witness the devil incarnate waiting in line with us and have a post office employee tell me how my ring was beautiful & love is beautiful, so it wasn't without entertainment.

so, in 6 weeks, george bush will allow us to leave the country.

we have a way to get to aruba

yes, we have purchased our plane tickets to aruba. yes, we had already booked the hotel, but there were issues with the plane tickets.

when we first booked the hotel & started looking at plane tickets, the flight to aruba required an overnight layover in atlanta but had a short flight home. this wasn't terrible, but we decided to wait to buy tickets to see if the options changed & b/c we didn't really want to have to pay for them yet.

the next time i looked for tickets, there was a short flight there and back, so i decided that as soon as danny's credit card was in my hand, i would buy them. unfortunately, 2 days later, when his card was in my hand, that flight option had disappeared. in it's place was a short flight there & a long flight home with an overnight layover. a layover on the way there wouldn't have been terrible, but i knew we wouldn't be excited about it on the way back to huntsville when all you want to do is get home. needless to say, i was a bit frustrated.

well, yesterday, i decided it was time to check flights again, and what do you know - the flight option with a short flight there AND back was available! holy crap! no hesitation this time; i'll take them! so, we now actually have transportation to get us to the hotel we have booked. pretty good thing to have really.

we're going to aruba!

that's right! our honeymoon destination is now decided, and the hotel is booked! woohoo!

we are going to be staying 8 days, 7 nights at the bucuti beach resort, aruba's most romantic getaway according to some including tripadvisor.com. it's located on eagle beach, so it's blissfully quiet and uncrowded. did i mention bringing kids is highly discouraged? i am SO excited!





and our room...


:D

warmth

we started looking at honeymoon destinations, and it's killing me b/c i want to go NOW. i don't even know where we're going, but i'm ready to go. i was ready to before we started looking at places & now that i'm seeing pictures, it's really killing me. so i thought i'd share that pain with you. :)

i want to go soak up the sun in some warm place and do absolutely nothing for a week. those are my only real requirements although i'd prefer it to be quiet with no kids running around. i'd love to feel like we're the only people in the world.

one thing that might be an issue is that we'll be honeymooning in september which is hurricane season...so we started our search bylooking at places to the west. the first place i started looking was cabo...

possibility: cabo san lucas, mexico

these are pictures from a resort we are considering.



these are pictures of a little b&b that has the highest popularity rating for hotels in cabo on tripadvisor.com. it's called the bungalows.



i haven't really fallen in love with any of the places i've seen in cabo though...so although the pictures do succeed in making me sad to be at work, i don't think it's the place for us.

other thoughts: somewhere else in mexico, hawaii, jamaica, fiji
other suggestions: anguilla, aruba, puerto rico, caribbean somewhere

any ideas?