June 6,7

The Aruba vacation is winding down. One part of me says boo-hoo....the other part says I am ready to go home and see fur kids, get the garden planted....etc....

Thurs the 6th went on another trek to the Alta Vista Chapel for sunrise. This time got up there around 5:45am...brought some treats for the stray dogs that live up there. The locals do feed them as well.

Unfortunately, the sunrise was not as beautiful as when we went on Tuesday.  Oh well....still very nice.

Remainder of the day just hung on beach with friends enjoying our final beach days.

Dinner was at Amadeus for another great dinner! 

Link to restaurant;

http://amadeusaruba.com/Default.asp?page=home

Friday the 7th.....went to Casabari Rock Formations looking for the Shoco owls. Unfortunately did not find any....we did see some other birds and lizards and got a few shots. Unfortunately they are turning this into another tourist trap and built a cafe / snack bar across the street. This kind of activity will drive the wildlife away.

Link about Casabari;

http://www.aruba-travelguide.com/discover/attractions-and-sights/Casibari-Rock-Formation.html

Returned back to resort to enjoy final beach day.....

Dinner was at the lighthouse. Unfortunately was not as good as when we went last week. My meal was just ok...service was eh.....oh well....

Link to restaurant;

http://www.aruba-latrattoria.com/

It is Saturday morning now and time to pack it up and get ready for the long day of travel.....will add additional 

blog updates over the weekend.....so bye-bye for now from sunny Aruba....

A few pics.....

Here is me and Doreen at Casabari Rock Formations.....

Popular snorkeling location.....

Love this house in Boca Catalina area....I believe you can rent it.....

Aruba June 3,4,5

So....I missed a few days worth of activity.....

Tuesday - highlight of this day was the early morning trek to the Alta Vista Chapel. A group of us left the resort at 4:45am to go there. About 15mins to get there. Pitch black when we arrived. Set up camera gear in dark using iPhone flashlight. Got some awesome twighlight pictures using 30 sec exposure. Then when the sun came up it was unbelievable. There were some clouds but this made it even more dramatic.  The were a couple of cute stray dogs that live up at the chapel. Locals take care of them and feed and give them water. I went back to the chapel today 6-6-13 for a later sunrise and of course I brought treats for the pups! Needless to say, the Tues sunrise was the best.

Beach was really windy and the sand was kicking up...oh poor us!

Dinner was at Amore Mio for pizza. Think we finally found good pizza in Aruba. Thin crust, wood fired, 10 inch pizza. Very good.

Wednesday - today Kathy and I went to the Ostrich Farm. Was pretty cool. Saw 3 wk old babies.

The ostriches are funny and pretty dumb birds. Got our pictures taken with the birds. Good place to go at least once. From here we took a drive down the road to the gold ruins on the rough side of the island. Snapped some cool pics.

Today we also went for a snorkel / sail on the Black Pearl. We were a group of about 15. Had a good time as always. No unusual sightings in the water other than the normal fish. This is always a great take.

Dinner tonite was hot dogs and other left overs on the grill....nite-nite.....

I can't believe we only have 2 more days....where has the time gone!

A few pics I have on the iPad.........

Aruba June 2nd

NIt is ground hog day in Aruba! Once again, it is another sunny beautiful day. 

Yesterday's adventure was that Kathy Mackenzie and I ventured over to the Donkey Sanctuary. The is run by an organization that rescues donkeys on the island. We were fortunate to really be the only ones there at the time and got to go in the corral with a mother and very young baby donkey. Of course I took tons of pics. However, on my other camera. They actually had a couple of other young that were already mixed in with everyone else. You could pick them out easily and they always followed their momma around. Kathy then bought a bag of grain to feed them....it was hysterical.  Here is their website; http://www.arubandonkey.org/

After that we stopped at the Ayo Rock Formations. Very strange place. Enormous boulders with all these smooth carve outs.  Area dates way back to the Indians and they would gather here to hear incoming thunderstorms and did some paintings on the rocks. Here is some more info;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayo_Rock_Formations

After that.....yep you got it......sun, sand and drink in hand! 

Dinner last night was at Smokey Joes for ribs! Yummy! Oh....and we tried deep fried Oreo cookies....oh my!

Here is their website; http://www.smokeyjoesaruba.com/

A few pics from yesterday on the beach;

Nick in all his glory.......

Tom in all his glory!

Fun times......

Sunset....

Aruba June 1st

Had Internet connection issues......oh poor me! LOL! I guess the island lost connection with the satellite. All is well now. Week 32 gang have all arrived. Fun crazy nite last nite on beach until well after sunset. More fun and craziness to follow....

Friday nite we tried Sweet Peppers restaurant. It was ok...not terrible...but not a do over. There are too many really good places to eat here.

Moved into our 2 bedroom unit. A/C is not the best...need to go get this resolved!

Dinner Saturday nite was burgers and dogs at the BBQ area with friends...loving the new grills and BBQ area they put in.

Need to figure out my photo excursion for today...I guess that is it for now....

Here is view from new room.....