Aruba Day 5

Tomorrow we leave. It was a great trip, the first where we've really been free to do what we want when we want. This was mostly because of the rental car. Anytime we wanted to go somewhere, we could just walk outside and go. Yes, I speak the obvious, but it's nice to be able to go to some of the less traveled places like Hooiberg and the natural bridge without literally keeping a taxi driver with us the entire time.

We woke up today, did the breakfast buffet and hung out on the beach for about 2 hours. Although Sara and I diligently (or at least it seemed) helped to sunblock each other, we both burnt to a crisp, Sara on her back and where her watch was before she took it off, and me on the tops of my feet, front of my legs, and my shoulders. I would post a pic, but you might be horrified.

After the beach, we went back to the room and changed for a hike. We had a quick lunch at Blossoms of miso soup, edamame, spicy tuna roll and spicy salmon roll. We also made a reservation at Aqua Grill. Sara copiloted us to Hooiberg, meaning haystack in Dutch, a majestic 500 foot tall "mound" in the middle of the island. We parked the car at the base of the hill and had a quick convo...hmm is it really worth it? Of course it was worth it and 542 steps later we were on top of the hill, with a 360° view of the island. The view was breathtaking even though we couldn't quite see Venezuela as promised.

We then headed towards downtown for a Dunkin Donuts iced coffee, a few postcards, and a picture in front of another ginormous cruise ship. We returned to the room, hung out for a while until dinner. Dinner rolled around and we drove down the row of high rise hotels passing the Riu, Hyatt, Radisson, and Hooters, Ruth & Chris steakhouse, and Benihanas.

We sat outside and had a nice dinner. Sara had a nice gazpacho followed by a boring tuna. I had a half dozen oysters of course with lemon, cocktail sauce, and horseradish. It's hard to know what I like more, horseradish or wasabi, but I am definitely going to try a wasabi glazed oyster in the near future. For main course I had a steak and some scallops. Sara forgot to remind me that you need to get SEAFOOD at a SEAFOOD restaurant. Note to self: if a restaurant only has one steak on the menu, probably best to order pasta or fish. The steak was a bit tough but the scallops were nice.

We declined dessert cuz we had our little hearts set on Ben and Jerry's. I had the strawberry cheesecake in a sugar cone and Sara had coffee in a sugar cone. We chatted with a really nice woman who worked at B&J. She said she's never left the island which was interesting but also that she speaks four languages (dutch english spanish papamiento) just like nearly everyone else on the island. She said it only took her about 8 months to become conversational in english. Some countries teach math and science, but in Aruba where 50% of the GNP comes from tourism, people learn different languages.

All in all, a memorable trip. I checked, and though we have a confirmation number for our United flight tomorrow, we dont have confirmed seats, so I'd peg a 5% change that we spend another day in Aruba or at least invoke rule 240. If all goes to plan, we'll get into New Orleans a little after midnight tomorrow, and I probably will cease posting with daily regularity as life gets boring again. :(