Aruba 2012 Day 8 (page 8 of 10)

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Day 8 - our time has almost ended here - what a sad thought! Today,we stayed in the condo for the morning & watched it rain on/off for most of the morning. It did provide a nice rainbow picture, though!

In between rain showers, Greta got a picture of two small doves in a nest (one was sitting, the other appeared to be standing on the first one) in the coconut tree outside their room. She also got a picture of a lizard practicing being the same color as his surrounding leaves. Later on in the day, Mike got a picture of another lizard - the one with the forked tail. We've seen him around & wonder if it's related to an injury he got earlier in life, or some sort of mutation; it doesn't seem to be a natural type of growth.

Greta & Mike wanted to take windsurfing lessons with Vela, so shortly before the 2 pm start time, Jim & Trina dropped them off . Unfortunately, it started to rain, and rain, and rain. We were told that today was typical weather for December, but unusual for February. So we rescheduled our class for 11 am on Friday because we couldn't tell when it would end, and after the rain, the winds tend to be low & strange, making it harder to learn to windsurf. We first walked around through the Mariott grounds (which was next to the wind surf class) and then walked down the beach. About a 1/4 mile down, it quit raining and by the time we stopped for a fruity drink (Hurricane for Mike, Pelican Surprise for Greta) at the Pelican Bar, it was gray but dry. Shortly after the sun came out and the sky was blue. After a bit, we walked back up the beach to the class area again, then headed further up the beach. We saw some kite surfing operations & paddleboard. It might be interesting in the future to invest in a stand-up paddleboard for the cabin - if we had another day, it would be a good thing to try.

Then we met up with Jim & Trina. They'd been on a quest to find Jim a basic pair of shades to last him the rest of the trip in Aruba & found some. They stopped for a pizza (one margarita, one chorizo) and Greta & Mike ate the leftovers in the car ride back.

After getting back to Oceania, we headed out to the pool. Everyone but Greta sat in the sun & relaxed; Greta found the shade a bit more welcoming. We stayed there until late afternoon & then walked back to the room (which is all of about 50 feet away from our little yard).

Mike & Jim then got some good sunset pictures & we saw a cruise ship off shore for the first time since we've been here (we've seen many cruise ships, just not from our condo before). We searched the internet for a casual place for supper & settled on Smokey Joes. There was a 20 minute wait for a seat, so we walked down the street & back & then only had to wait a few more minutes. Inside, Jim & Trina got boneless wings for an appetizer, and Mike/Greta got the Carribean Patties, which were dough-wrapped, deep fried dumpling-type items, (one gouda, one chicken, one beef - the chicken was the VERY best). For meals, Jim got the 1/2 rack of ribs and a skewer of shrimp, plus fries & rice/beans for a side. Trina got a salad, fries & a pulled pork sandwich. Mike got the 1/2 rack of ribs with pulled pork, fries & slaw. Greta got a 1/2 Rotisserie Chicken in Jamaican Jerk flavoring, with fries & black beans as her sides. All the food was good, and very filling.

We were all tired from a day of doing nothing, so we slowly walked back to Ol' Bessie and drove back to our home-away-from-home. We tried to get a picture of our mini lizard tonight, but the camera didn't want to focus. Apparently it was not happy about not taking 100+ pictures for the first time in over a week!

All in all, a long day of doing nothing exciting can be a very good day indeed!

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