Aruba Trip - Part 1

OK, I get that I'm 4 months late on this one.  But seriously, who has time?  I promise to do better.  :-)  Famous last words!

Back in April - Todd and I went to Aruba, for a WHOLE WEEK without the kids (thanks mom and dad!).  We went with our friends, Alesandro (Cooch) and Karen, and Kern and Dorothy.  We stayed at the Renaissance Aruba Resort and Casino in Oranjestad and had an absolute blast.  Given that I am writing this in August, rather than April, I have to say that so far, this year has sucked, and this was really the highlight of our year thus far. 

The first day, we decided to hit the private island that the Marriott has - you have to take a boat to get to it. It's a barrier island that is probably a mix of being a natural and man made island.  They have rocky breakwaters that surround the lagoon areas on the island, and I'm fairly certain those are man made.  But the islands are fairly private and somewhat quiet (at least until Kern got there...)

Above is the boat ride over to the island (you can see Cooch and Dorothy).  That is our hotel in the background. 

Above, is the scenery on the way to the island.  The water is so green... and part of me is amazed by it, but the Floridian in me thinks this kind of photo is old hat. 

Dorothy and Kern heading out for a swim.  The water was really clear, and so pretty.  There were also two sides to the island- one is an "adults only" side which is where we went this day.  There were no kids around, and I think on the first day, this was a wise choice for Todd and I.  There were also a ton of flamingos, bright blue fish, iguanas and hermit crabs running around this island.  There's a bar and they serve food there too- which we definitely enjoyed. 

Day 2 found us on a very large catamaran, doing a ton of snorkeling in 3 different locations, along with drinking a ton of Aruba Arriba. Oh boy. The picture above is Kern jumping off the side of the catamaran. This might be my favorite picture of all time. Totally care free. And drunk. 

I don't know what was going on here, but I have one picture of us all looking to the right, and then one of us all looking to the left.  What?  Hello Aruba Arriba!  Out of a very large Gatorade cooler!

It wasn't the picture of Kern drinking MORE Aruba Arriba that I wanted to show you here... despite the fact that we love Kern... it was the super green/blue water that was behind him!  Really!? 

This is what happens after you drink Aruba Arriba all day.  We went out for the most amazing dinner at Barefoot Aruba, just east-south-east of the airport. But of course, we had been drinking all day.  And the drinking just continued...

Dude.  What? 

Here we are for the 5 seconds we spent being serious for the ENTIRE DAY.  This is right before Kern challenged the waiter to a footrace.  A footrace.  On the beach.  In the complete dark.  Kern made up the rules, then forgot them, then proceeded to lose the footrace to the waiter, and then told everyone he met that there would be a rematch (which there wasn't).  Funniest night EVER!