Category Archives: Vacations

Sunday in Aruba

December 1, 2008 Maurice Leave a comment

Today – Sunday – we spent some time in the water, and some time doing a little exploring. We headed north to the California Lighthouse, but stopped for a swim at Malmok beach. The water was good and clear today, and we saw a number of fish we had not seen in the Caymans.

The water seems a tad cooler to me, than last year in the Caymans – not that it is difficult to get in or anything – it’s still warm enough to walk right in, but I do think it’s cooler. Some of the fish seem bigger too. The ubiquitous Sergeant Major seems to be fatter here! Maybe more tourists feed them! hah

After about 90 minutes in the water, we headed to the California Lighthouse for a beer and a rest. The view from here is pretty good. Aruba is not as flat as the Caymans, but it’s not like it has towering peaks, either!

After our rest, we headed back into the ocean at Arashi beach. It was a little rocky getting in, but man, was it worth it! We saw some Carribbean reef squid – very cool looking beasties that travel in schools of 20 or more. Big eyes and kinda alien looking. We also saw what we initially thought was a sea snake of some sort, but turned out to be a type of eel.

The coolest thing tho, was seeing some French Angelfish! In the Caymans, we bought a photo by a local favorite diver/photographer of the French Angelfish, but we never actually saw it in the water. Here in Aruba, we’ve seen at least a half dozen already.

For dinner, we headed to the Amazonia Churrascaria (steakhouse). It was quite an experience. There are no menus – they start you off with a big salad bar, and some pumpkin soup. Then they give you a little wooden peg, painted red and green. Put the green side up, and you’re going to get meat! They bring around meat, meat and more meat skewered on swords – if you want some, he cuts you off some. There was steak, and porterhouse, and filet, beef roasts, pork roasts, chicken, sausages, lamb…. you name it, it was there! Quite an experience!

Then we came home and lounged in the swimming pool and hot tub for a while. We ended the evening listening to some karaoke in the pool bar. It was lots of fun, with some real talent there… Simon Cowell better get his butt down to Aruba!

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hey guys – thanks for the comments! We have some pics of the complex and we’ll get them online in tomorrow’s post for sure.

Aruba, Vacations

Aruba – One Happy Island!

November 30, 2008 Maurice 3 Comments

We struck out for Aruba by driving across the border to Seattle and picking up a flight to JFK in New York, then on to Aruba. Peter and Pam were just a bit anxious to get going, so we got to the Seattle airport by 430, for our 11 pm flight! The flights were both long, but the second one was one of the worst flights I’ve experienced. Why some parents feel they can let their children scream and yell and misbehave so badly is beyond me.

We arrived in Aruba to find they’d just had a brief rain shower! Not a great omen! The people here are supposed to be the friendliest in the Caribbean, but they aren’t! The ladies in the car rental were rude and obnoxious. I’d suggest you don’t rent from Alamo, unless you like attitude, no smiling, and slow service.

We drove from the airport to our timeshare with no incidents – we didn’t get lost once! The architecture here is interesting, with a wide range of tastes. We’ll get some photos up of some of the strange and unusual in a few days, as we explore more by foot. It’s a larger timeshare than the one we had on the Caymans. The complex has two swimming pools, and two hot tubs, so it’s spread out over about twice as much area as the Cayman timeshare.

The timeshare itself is roomy and spacious. It has a slightly musty smell, which is a little off-putting. But this is a common problem here in Aruba, and the Caribbean in general. We’ve brought our Timmy Ho’s coffee with us, as we usually do! I’m sitting by the pool, using my wireless laptop to connect to the web and upload this update. I have to admit tho, there are TONS of mosquitoes here – we’re going to have to get some OFF right away, or Pam will be swollen and red in no time!

We had a Balashi (Aruba’s locally brewed beer) or 5 in Coco Locos, the pool bar. Peter made friends with staff, quite quickly, as you can see from the pic! It restored our faith in the island’s motto – One Happy Island. Very friendly ladies for sure!

I wanted a quick dip in the ocean, but the ocean was not clear and I couldn’t see a thing! Note the pic of my hand – kinda blurry huh!? Not what you expect in the Caribbean, so hopefully it was because of the rain shower stirring it up. The beach was very nice of course, with the fine white sand the Caribbean is famous for…

We had dinner at the Sawasdee Thai restaurant. It was not good. The food was average at best, and a far cry from “Thai” food. It was basically Chinese food with spices, and poorly spiced at that. That’s a shame, because my favourite Thai restaurant in Vancouver is of course, the Sawasdee, and my fave on the Caymans was called the Sawasdee too!

I’m not sure what we’ll get up to today (Sunday) since Pam and Peter are still in bed, but I’m sure we’ll get some beach time, and I’d like to wander around Oranjestad and get a feel for the place and a couple pics of the architecture so you can get a sense of where we are.

Vacations

Ohio 2008

June 25, 2008 Maurice 2 Comments

Ohio June 2008

Now, we were in Ohio again this summer, staying at Joy and Randy’s place. (Happy 38th Anniversary you two!) We played a TON of golf – and let me tell you – Ohio is a GREAT place to play golf.

Let me tell you – some terrific courses, for some unbelievable prices. How does this sound? 18 holes on a terrific championship course, a cart, lunch and a sleeve of balls for 20 bucks! Yep that’s right, we did that in Ohio. And there were other great deals too – but the sleeve of balls kinda set this one apart!

Comparable courses back home in Vancouver would be double, triple or more! Not that you couldn’t pay more in Ohio, but there was no need! They live quite close to Firestone GCC, so that tells you there is a pedigree there. Every day there was a new challenging course to play. But sadly, we took very few pictures. Most of these shots are from the one course – and I’m not even sure what course that is, to tell you the truth.

But hey, 9 rounds in 11 days… we played a lot of golf!

Here is a movie of a couple famous golfers, who recently (October 18, 2008) celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary.

Amish Country

Mesopotamia, Ohio This is the parking lot at the local Walmart in Amish Country, southern Ohio!

As Randy says, Sam Walton knows a thing or two about marketing, and he wasn’t about to pass up customers with shall we say, less than traditional modes of transportation!

Taking a tour through Amish country is a must when you’re in Ohio. Lots of beautiful furniture made by people who take the time to do really nice work. Just amazing to wander through some of the places.

This is outside the store in Mesopotamia. Randy and Pam try to pass as Amish, but the jig was up when we told Pam that she had to get up at the crack of dawn every day!

Standing in the middle of town, across the street from where Randy and Pam had their picture taken is what is billed as the biggest horse in the world. Whether it is or not, this large wooden horse with Amish buggy is pretty darn cool, eh?

Ashtabula County, Covered Bridges

Randy is a prodigious driver and we get to see a lot of the beautiful countryside in Ohio. The golf courses I’ve already raved about, but the area where they live has a lot of deer running around, too!

I believe this movie is of the Harperfield covered bridge, in Ashtabula County, in north eastern Ohio.

This county is quite famous for the number and variety of covered bridges in the area.

ALL THE OHIO PICTURES.

Grand Cayman, Vacations

Feeding Frenzy!

December 7, 2007 Maurice Leave a comment

Lots and lots of fishes! This is a feeding frenzy folks! Pam brought some fish food into the water and they went crazy for it! Not sure it’s the best thing to be doing, feeding fish? Might attract some big nasty fish, who knows?

We chose a site right at the cruise ship harbor in downtown Georgetown called Eden Rock for our last dive, and man, are we glad we got in here. The entry to the water was easy, with stairs cut into the rock. As soon as you hit the water, you see these HUGE fish called Tarpons.

The next couple of pictures are more of the same feeding frenzy. It’s kind of amazing to be totally surrounded by all these feeding fish, with HUGE tarpons just looking on.

Check out the last couple of pictures on this page for the tarpons – they are about 5-7 feet long and about 200+ pounds – quite intimidating! The waiter at the restaurant right beside Eden Rock, cleans his fish, then throws the debris in the ocean. The TARPONS jump right out of the water to grab the pieces! Unreal!

We saw some other great fish, too. Tim spotted this blue peacock flounder. It was so cool to see him move. He kinda glides along like a flying carpet.

Here is a movie of the dive with the tarpons, off Eden Rock. Some fairly large fish here!

Grand Cayman, Vacations

More snorkeling pictures

December 6, 2007 Maurice Leave a comment

We have snorkeled every single day, and most days twice – unless shopping got in the way! I’ve said it before, and it certainly bears repeating, the clarity of the water is truly astonishing. Sometimes it seems we can see as far as we can on land. It is just that clear.

This blue-lipped fish is really bright. Called a rock beauty, it lives up to that name, that’s for sure!

I never dreamed there was such a world under the water! Everywhere we look, there are fish, and lots of them, not a bunch here, a few there, none there. There are fish everywhere we look, everywhere we turn.

Of course we had another great sunset. Going to miss those a lot. Vancouver can get some good sunsets, but a lot are just ho hum. Every night has been a great picture here on Grand Cayman.

Grand Cayman, Vacations

Swimming with the stingrays

December 5, 2007 Maurice Leave a comment

We’re nearing the end of our vacation, and today we headed out to see the famous Stingray City. We took a large catamaran about a mile off land, and then hopped into the ocean. It was FILLED with stingrays. The Stingrays having been coming to these waters for years to collect the scraps the fisherman toss over the edge, as they clean their catch. The stingrays are quite docile, and don’t mind being handled and touched. They feel sort of like a big portabella mushroom!

It was really quite an experience.

Then they took us to the Coral Gardens. That was easily the most amazing experience we’ve had in the water! I was so distracted, I did not hear the blasts to return to the ship and almost got left out there! Honestly, I simply did not hear it, it had nothing to do with not wanting to leave!

But the fish were amazing. We saw a very cool Nassau grouper, Pam’s been waiting for one of those. Big faces and lips on them. The colors of the coral were something to see as well. We thought we’d seen coral, but wow, this was so much different. There were long golden stalks of what looked like feathers waving in the sea. There were elkhorn coral, brain coral… coral I can’t name. But seeing it all together like that, in this huge teeming world, it was amazing. Just remarkable.

Grand Cayman, Vacations

Sunday is the day to relax

December 3, 2007 Maurice Leave a comment

Today we mostly just swam in the ocean, since Sundays are pretty closed up around here. No shops or markets are open on Sundays, so it’s just a quiet day of relaxation.The weather was nice – about 28 or 29 C – the ocean was about 27 or 28 C – so it was nice swimming out to the reefs to see all the fish.

The queen triggerfish is really amazing. He was quite large, about 2.5 feet high. The way they move is so graceful and elegant. They don’t really seem to be doing anything, yet they are moving along at quite a fast clip. the coloring on his eye – it is amazing, wow. Really cool to have seen this fish today.

The coral is really cool. Very colorful, and lots of fish like to hide out among the spikes and growths. These yellow guys are called yellowtail snapper, or maybe a French grunt?

We have seen a couple different kinds of these flat-bottomed fish. They look like little ships floating in the ocean. They have the tiniest little wings to move them along. Cute! I find myself drawn to them!