Aruba... Pics, Pics, & more Pics

What can you say about Aruba. I guess I can only describe it in a series of thoughts:

Constant warm breeze blowing

Crystal clear teal water where fish appear beneath you in a matter of seconds like a living aquarium

Sun so hot your skin feels like it is slightly on fire

Slushy frozen drinks that end in oolata in the middle of the afternoon

All in all, it was amazing. In the end, I was glad they decided to charge me two dollars a minute for calls because it forced me to fall off the grid a little and back down from my usual blog/facebook/email obsession. I unplugged, and checked out for a few days, and it couldn’t have been nicer. Sometimes I think about how much time I spend looking at a computer screen these days, and I’ve determined that humans weren’t meant to do so.

We made it!

Janine (a wonderful women, fellow triathlete and good friend from the YMCA) and I left on Saturday at the crack of dawn and arrived promptly at the desk at 1:30pm. Our room wasn’t ready, but it was a quick change in the bathroom and right out to the pool to get our first sun of the trip.

I had two days before I had to start having meetings and I was taking advantage of every last bit of it! The next day it was time to take the water taxi over to the private island. You can find national geographic there within minutes.

Ahhh.. the swim up bar..

My favorite new suit because it + shadows somehow gave me the optical illusion of having breasts.. it's a keeper.

On Sunday I did my long run which started out as a heart rate below aerobic zone run, and ended as a survival in 90 degree heat at 11:00am run / St. Croix half Marathon practice. Janine and I hid water under a bush so we could come back every twenty minute loop and hydrate before heading back out. My head was pounding, my skin was on fire and I really felt like I might toss my cookies a couple of times during the hour plus run. However, Janine was the women of the hour, that was for sure. When she thought someone stole the water (aka, she was delirious too and looked under the wrong bush), a taxi came flying up beside me in a parking lot and out she jumped with a cold towel, ice, and a big bottle of cold aqua. Seriously J, that was amazing! Thank you!!! She said she didn't want to hear about it from everyone when she found me alongside the road passed out later. I think she had a great point! I was drinking the water, while she was throwing ice down my sports bra, it was hilarious! I'm sure that taxi driver thought we were absolutely crazy!!

The next day we took the private boat over to the Island.

I saw this boat and snapped a picture. Imagine going out on that every day.. the water is beautiful!

Our driver was, big. I wanted to ask if he was greek (his arm was the size of my whole thigh), but I held off!

We still got our picture taken with him!

Janine wasn't too sure how she felt about getting her shot with Fred here. Eventually they warmed up to one another and we got it done. We were able to swim three of the days in this little cove area of the beach and I got in some great open water practice! J was a swimmer so I was able to just latch on to her feet (since she swam slow enough to let me!), and swim away!

Finally, we both coerced each other into stopping long enough to take a picture. I'm not sure what we thought these things were going to do to us... but the beaks made me a bit nervous - that's all!

I thought this guy was pretty big...

Until I saw "The Godfather"

This will catch you off guard while you're laying around! Little hermit crabs!

We decided to see what he would do with the apple core. He liked it, so he took it home to the family.

There aren't too many places in the world where you can sit and eat dinner at sunset with your feet in the water. Pretty cool! If you're ever in Aruba, it's called "The Flying Fishbone"

We even stood in the water to take a quick pick! I was a bit sunburned that night.. ouch!

Lots of pics of J & I (and I'm pretty sure you could see your reflection in my forehead in this one!)

Then it was time for Franco's surprise 60th Birthday Party. He actually turned in March, but we had big plans to celebrate on Wednesday evening! I'm not sure if he really WAS surprised, or just acted surprised. Either way, it was a great night among friends.

Franco, Janine and I

The Band

I'm pretty sure she played every instrument in the house

Franco enjoyed his party and we all had a wonderful time celebrating his life. He is truly one of the nicest, most genuine, most caring people I have ever met. I couldn't be more thankful to work for such a wonderful guy. Plus, I heard he was pretty good at football at one time too :) He still wants to challenge me to a mile run.... I told him it's definitely on when he's ready to take me up on it!

Hope you enjoyed the pics!!