Aruba Vacation

 Mark and I had the opportunity to take the dreamiest vacation to Aruba with our friends Phil and Joyce. Phil and Joyce have a condo on Eagle Beach and have been going there for over 20 years. They invited us to go with them and got an immediate YES from us! It was amazing!

Day 1:

This was a long travel day! We left Boise on Saturday evening and after three flights we got to Aruba midday on Sunday. The first thing we did so head straight to the grocery store to get our food for the week. By the time we were done with that, it was time to check in and get settled. I was dying to see Eagle Beach, so we spent the evening out there playing in the water, and watching the sunset. It is the most gorgeous white sand beach I have ever seen. The water is the most amazing blue; it was beyond post card worthy!

The sun starting to set over the water.

Notice how there are no waves on this part of the island. It made it perfect for swimming and relaxing in the water.

What a perfect way to start our trip!

Day 2:

Mark and I got up early on Monday morning for a short run on the beach. There was no way I was going to pass up the chance to run on a beach like that. We basically had the whole place to ourselves!

It's crazy how the color of the water changed throughout the day.

After our beach run, we had a beach and pool day. We spent the first half of the day at the beach playing in the water, and soaking up all the sun we could. The second part of the day was spent at the resort pool. My idea of the perfect way to relax is laying in the sun with a good book. I made it through almost two full books on this trip.

The resort had a fun slide. That's how Mark and I liked entering the pool. Yes, we still act like children. 😂

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That evening we went downtown for a schnitzel dinner. Afterwards we walked over to what would be equivalent to a boardwalk, and watched the crabs on the rocks. The water is even amazing at night!

The cutest little crab!

I can't even get over the color of the water!

😍😍😍

Tricia & Joyce

Day 3:

We kicked off our third day by running the Hooiberg Steps. It's a series of 618 stairs that takes you up Mt Hooiberg to the high point of the island. I did the stairs 4 times, and although it was only 2 miles, I got over 1500 ft of gain, and my calves were sore the next morning. After round one, our clothes were soaked with sweat; talk about crazy humidity!

This was right up my alley! I loved it!

We could see the whole island from the top.

Round two!

After the stairs we had breakfast at a yummy dutch pancake place.

Then it was time for snorkeling! So dang fun! We saw so many cool things! We swam with sea turtles, saw an eel, huge black sea urchins, and so many varieties of cool fish. I could have stayed there all day!

Snorkeling

When we were done snorkeling, we drove to a beautiful part of the island with a rougher coastline. 

This is salt. The water gets in the rock holes during high tide, then evaporates and leaves behind the salt. 

A rougher part of the coastline.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool.

There were iguanas all around the resort. They just hung out by the pool. Who can blame them? I loved them, and wanted to sneak one in my suitcase to bring back to the farm.

I love their little toes!

Dinner that night was at an Italian restaurant called Sol Mare. Very yummy!

Day 4:

Our 4th day started with another beach run. We went an hour later than the last time, and you can see how different the water color was with the sun being higher in the sky.

So gorgeous!

We were so excited about our adventure for this day. Joyce and Phil had been telling us about the Seabobs for months, and we couldn't wait to try then out! A seabob is a little motorized water craft that you ride on that can go across the surface of the water, and can also dive down under the water. It was one of the coolest things we've ever done! They get the same guide every time they do it because he's so good! We saw some incredible stuff! We found lots of sea turtles, followed a big sting ray for a while, held the creepiest star fish, saw a sea snake, rode into the biggest school of fish I've even seen, and saw so many bright colorful varieties of fish.

Me and Mark on the seabobs.

One of the many adorable sea turtles we saw.

This was the coolest fish!

We followed Mr. Stingray for a while. Once he got bored with us, he zipped away so fast.

This is Phil going into the huge school of fish.

Joyce holding the creepy starfish. It moved like a giant spider!

That night we had dinner with Gino and Sonia. They are Aruba natives that Phil and Joyce have known for years. We had heard a lot about them, so it was fun to meet them in person.

Day 5:

This was one of my favorite days! We did so much! I'm training for a couple big races, so I needed to get a semi long run in while we were there. Joyce, Mark, and I set out on a 15 miler, that was basically a running tour of part of the island. Phil was our driving aid station along the way. Good thing, because we went through a ton of water.

A ship wreck not far off shore.

Arashi Beach

Seriously dreamy!

Our turn around point was at the very tip of the island.

The last few miles were so hot! I'm not sure I've ever sweat so much in my life. I sat down in a chair outside the condo when I finished, and I left a puddle under the chair. It was nuts!

After our run I thought we were heading onto the National Park, but they detoured to a donkey sanctuary just for me! 😭 I was in heaven! I would have stayed there all day. I was tempted to tell them to just pick me up on their way back, but I didn't want to miss the national park. 

Right before we entered the sanctuary, we made friends with a peacock. 😆

So pretty!

I gave it some bread.

At the sanctuary, you could pay for buckets of food to feed the donkeys. Between me and Joyce, we bought lots of donkey food! 😁

They even had a three legged donkey there that had been hit by a car on the island. They did surgery to try to save it's leg, but it didn't work good enough, so they eventually had a remove the leg. What an amazing place. That donkey is healthy and happy, but without a place like this it would not have survived. You could tell the donkeys were happy, loved, and well taken care of. I loved everything about it!

 After they drug me away from the donkeys, we went to the Aruba National Park. The coast line was so rugged on this part of the island, and so beautiful! We had these amazing coves and cliffs all to ourselves! There are also a lot of wild goats on the island, and you better believe that we made friends with all of them. 😆

Phil-Joyce-Tricia-Mark

😂😂😂

That night we had dinner at the Flying Fishbone. Our table was right in the sand along the water.

So fun!

😍😍😍

Day 6:

Day 6 was a beach day! Mark and I got up and walked a couple miles on the beach in the morning. Then we spent the day playing in the ocean, and reading in the sun. It was perfect!

The sea turtles come up on the beach to lay their eggs. The spot gets blocked off like this, and then 6-8 weeks later the babies are hatched and they make a mad dash for the water. So cool!

Our morning walk.

The water was so calm. We'd just float out there on noodles. 

Mark and I even snorkeled off the beach a little bit. We saw a small ray and some silver fish.

That night we ate at a restaurant up by the island light house. Such a cool place to watch the sun set. You can see the whole island from up there.

Joyce and Phil enjoying dinner with a beautiful island sunset.

The lighthouse.

The last little bit of the sunset along the coast.

Day 7:

Day 7 was our final day, and it was a good one! We got up early and headed out to snorkel. We wanted to swim with the turtles before all the boats came. It was a big success; lots of turtles, and a big jellyfish!

I laugh every time I see this picture. Mark is a pro at selfies! 

After we snorkeled, we went parasailing! That has been on my bucket list for years, but I honestly never thought I would do it. I didn't want to go up alone, and with Mark's fear of heights and open ocean water, he swore he would never do it. I figured this would be my chance, because I could go up with Joyce, but Mark said he'd do it! What?!? He loved it and wasn't even one bit nervous! So fun! We had a windy day, so we got whipped around pretty good. We even saw a sea turtle from way up high.

Joyce and Phil went first, so we could watch them and know what to expect.

Our turn!

So fun!

I love this picture, because it shows what we could see. We could see clear to the bottom of the ocean in some spots.

😂😂😂

This video shows how much we were getting whipped around by the wind. It was a wild ride!

Joyce and Phil

Mark and Tricia

That night we had our favorite dinner. The restaurant was incredible! It's called Pinchos, and the location was great, the food was great, the service was great, and the sunset was great. So glad we saved the best for last!

This was the perfect way to end our trip.

The sunset was just getting started. It just got better and better.

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This is what the place looked like from shore.

Thanks Aruba!

And that's a wrap. The next day we started our long trek back to Idaho. So grateful for Joyce and Phil for inviting us to join them. They do this every year, but for us it was the vacation of a lifetime. We loved every single minute of it. It's so different than what we normally do, so we soaked it all in. They were the perfect tour guides for the week. We came home tan, rested, and rejuvinated.

It also made me excited for the chance to visit the Cannons in America Samoa the next couple of years. Island life is so unique and fun!