Aruba

Darrin and I had the privilege of going to Aruba with his company recently.

I didn't know much about Aruba until we went, but it's probably my favorite Caribbean island now. It's known as the happy island and the people there really are happy. We had a tour guide one day that said on the island if they don't get to something one day they will try to do it the next. If they don't get to it that day they probably won't do it because it didn't matter that much anyway. It made me want to move there!

We had three full days. The first day we went deep sea fishing. That was not my favorite! It was so rough. We rode around for 4 hours on insanely rough waters and only caught one fish. 

Thankfully neither of us got sick. Others on our boat weren't so lucky. The views were pretty though.

The second day we did a UTV excursion. We had heard about this before we went and it lived up to the hype.

We rode through the desert, the town, by the beach, and through very crazy terrain. 

Aruba is also the windiest place I've ever been! It's nice because it's not hot because the breeze but after this day and the deep sea fishing day, I didn't think I was going to be able to get a brush through my hair.

One side of the island is desert and rough waters that you can't swim in. The other side is beautiful beaches and calm waters. 

We had stops along the UTV tours. Local beer for Darrin and gelato for me.

I think I got to drive on the best stretch of the tour.

It was a flat desert that I could open it up and fly.

There was lots of beach time with Darrin's customers. I loved getting to meet them and their wives. It was such a fun time and I can't wait to travel with them again. His company does these trips every 18ish months.

The last day we explored the city. It's definitely the safest I have ever felt on a Caribbean island. We didn't have to stay on the resort. You could take taxis anywhere. Their industry is 100% from tourism, so they pride themselves on friendliness and service. 

We wandered into a local place for lunch and I'm still thinking about this shrimp. I'm going to try to recreate it soon. 

There was a farewell dinner on the last night. We enjoyed hanging out with everyone one last time. 

We talked for so long they turned out the lights and we shut the place down. It was the perfect ending to a great week. Lots of laughs.

Aruba is on my radar now. I'd love the opportunity to take the boys back some time. Another fun fact about Aruba is it's not in the hurricane path and they get very little rain every year. Until next time Aruba!