Aruba, Jamaica ooo I wanna take ya...

Well, in Aruba at the Soprano's Piano Bar when requested to play this song this is how they sing it through the first time... Aruba, Aruba ooo I wanna take ya to Aruba, Aruba come on pretty mama . Aruba, Aruba baby why don't we go... alright, alright, I think you get the picture.

Hal and I went to Aruba on June 9th for the week and we enjoyed every relaxing minute of it! I"ll try to give some of the highlights of our trip...hope you enjoy!

It really all started on June 8th with a day layover in Miami. Now Hal, ended up getting us a night at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa. I will definitely recommend this place to anyone in the Miami area. We had plans to go to the south beach and see what that was all about, but after seeing this place, we decided to just hang out around the resort. We did venture off for dinner and ate at Texas de Brazil. Now, let me just say this place just started off the "I'm gonna gain some weight on this trip" experience. If you have never been to one of these restaurants...it will make you sick ...in the best food you will ever have and lots of it kinda way. We were wanting to take a picture of us and had flashbacks from our honeymoon or any other trip that it is just us, you know where Hal just holds the camera out and we hope that we are both in the picture. So...we asked our cab driver to take a picture of us and lets just say we voted to take the pictures our self next time. I'll let you see the cab driver picture...just like their driving - INSANELY HORRIBLE!

Oh...no it is not your eyes. The guy kept stepping back more and more. I seriously thought he was about to steal our camera. Anywho, it is us...we think :)

Next day...we head off to Aruba. We stayed at the Aruba Marriott Resort. It was absolutely beautiful and the weather was so nice the entire trip. We had lots of fun and made lots of memories. Here are a few that stand out:

Memory #1. Hanging out with my best friend in Aruba. Hope you enjoy some of the pictures :)

Memory #2. We headed straight to the pool as soon as we got there. The pool was very nice ...waterfalls, swim up bar, hot tub...and then out of no where IGUANAS! What! I first saw the tail and let me just say they look a lot like snakes at first. I about lost it! I did eventually get use to them and I will say they were kinda nice..I guess. They loved just hanging out by the pool and eating food that people dropped. Some people were even brave enough to feed these things and they would walk right up to them and eat the food right out of their hands. NOT me! Here are a few pictures of our poolside friends.

Memory #3. The views at dinner: Every night we would have reservations at 6:30 for dinner where ever we went. This gave you time to get settled to enjoy the AMAZING sunset! This was a great treat. Here are a few pictures of dinner time in Aruba.

The first 2 pictures are from our dinner at La Trattoria El Faro Blanco. It is located near the California Lighthouse.

The next two pictures are taken from a restaurant called Simply Fish that was at our resort. The tables are on the sand and every seat is facing the ocean....BEAUTIFUL!

Memory #4-part A. The water activities (snorkeling): One day we took a little adventure on the Jolly Pirate. Hal wasn't too sure with the name and all (he said it sounded cheesy), but I was super pumped! We ended up having a blast. We jumped on a pirate ship with lots of other friends we did not know beforehand and set sail. They took us to three different spots to snorkel. We had so much fun. The first spot was not too deep (I mean you could see the bottom and Hal was able to swim down and pick things up). It was very pretty, but the next spot NOT SO MUCH! The second place they took us was over 400 feet deep and they advised everyone to wear a life vest..do you think Hal listened..NO! Mr. "I grew up in the Marshall Islands and have done this my whole life" was completely fine. Now...Hal jumped right in, but I eased my way in the water. OH, I left off a small detail..we were at the Caribbeans largest shipwreck!!! I mean, it kinda freaked me out when we pulled up and part of the SHIP was sticking out of the water and let me remind you the water was over 400 feet deep! Anyway, Hal jumped in ...I eased in ...and then Hal looked under the water first. His head popped up and he said Maghan, I'm not going to lie this is kinda scary. I was scared to even look, but I finally got up the nerve and FOR THE LOVE...it was like something I saw on the Titanic. SCARY!! Meanwhile, Hal got over his fear obviously because he is off like a fish swimming this way and that. I just tried to keep my mind off of what was below and keep up with him. Thankfully, we did not stay there long. Our next stop was lovely....you could see the bottom again and I felt safe. At this stop you got to sail off the ship on a rope swing into the water. That was SO MUCH FUN...probably my favorite part. After hanging out there for a while, we headed back to shore. The Jolly Pirate Ship is a MUST if you are ever in Aruba...just stay on the ship at stop 2! Pictures below :)

Memory #4-part b: water activities (parasailing): On another day we decided to go parasailing. I have done this before but I think I was like 14 and it was in Florida. Back then you would start standing on the beach and you would land on the beach...it was a little tricky. Anywho, in Aruba it was another adventure! First, this guy would come pick us up in a boat off the beach. He then would take us to another boat that is already out in the ocean and that was where the parasailing would take place. Now, real quick we need to go back to the first guy that picked us up. He was acting more like a taxi from the main boat to different resorts, and so why would I expect anything else but INSANELY HORRIBLE driving (ON water). I mentally was preparing myself for how I would try to not die if we crashed. It was water and I saw myself just trying to dive in if we started to flip. I mean, I grew up on water (Smith Lake) and you know I have probably gone too fast a time or two but I have NEVER experienced anything like this. I was truly scared for mine and Hal's life, the other people and boats we were weaving through to get to the main boat, and heck I guess the driver's life too! I'm back home writing this blog, so we know it all turned out okay. Back to the parasail... it was super fun. If you have never parasailed before then I again would recommend it. The only thing I didn't like was they told me and Hal that we had to go at different times. I would have been nice to go together, but I definitely was not going to disagree with them, so there you go...we went parasailing. Hal and I both took the water camera up with us and we were up there for about 10 minutes each. I'll show both of our pictures below. Just shows how guys and girls think differently...well, maybe it is just my husband. The first two pictures are going up from the boat and then to show you how far up we were. The third picture is the one I took while I was up there and then the last picture is what Hal took. Enjoy :)

Memory #5- Random pictures....just having some fun and enjoying our stay!

Well, hope you enjoyed our trip to Aruba...we sure did! Now if anyone asked me what I was doing on June 25th...I was busy writing this LONG blog. Hope everyone is having a great day!