Tuesday at Baby Beach

November 9, 2010 Maurice Leave a comment

We took a drive to the beach, and things seemed to be calming down, so we drove down to the south of the island to Baby Beach. It’s always been a great place to snorkel, with a man made barrier that creates a bowl of calm water, that is never over five feet deep.

Well, it was a great decision! The water was clear, and there were just tons of fish to see! We were very surprised how good it was. The water levels are high, and we were able to easily go further out than we ever have before. We saw all the usual suspects, chubs, yellow tail snapper, parrot fish, blennies, damsel fish, Sgt Majors, plus durgons, Caribbean reef squid and many others.

I took a few nice movies, that I think are worth taking a look at…

They are in high def, so I think they give a better feel of what it is like to be in the ocean here in Aruba. The first movie is of the Caribbean Reef Squid. They hang out in schools, and there were about eight or ten of them together. They communicate with each other by changing color. They are pretty shy, and move off when you get too close to them.

This movie is of a Black Durgon, a type of triggerfish. It is quite a dark fish, but it does have some yellow around its eyes. I like the way to moves, quite graceful.

This last movie is a little longer, but I was just drifting along a rocky ledge. When I paused, you can see several fish coming up to the camera. The smallish darker colored fish that is quite aggressive is called a Damselfish. He is the most aggressive – and will often nip at you! haha Delusions of grandeur I guess – or maybe a shark in a previous life!

Just a reminder about the photos: if you click on the GALLERIES link at the top of any page, you will see a new Gallery called Aruba 2010 – that has all the pictures from our trip this year. I have not referenced all the pictures in the blog posts. As of today there are 13 pictures in the gallery, but I have referenced only 10 in the posts. So if you want to see more pics, then head to the Aruba 2010 Gallery.

Aruba, Vacations

Sunday in Aruba

November 7, 2010 Maurice Leave a comment

Just a short post today. Not much to tell. We went to the beach but the waves were very high again, so we retreated to the timeshare and hung around the pool. We tried out the hot tub and had a few drinks.

The old restaurant called Coco Loco’s has been renovated and renamed the Caribbean Palm Restaurant. The menu is much different, quite a bit more upscale. The renovations are nice too. It changes the ambiance of the place, that’s for sure. It has nice rich wood cabinets and linen covered chairs. I’ll take a few pictures or maybe a short movie of it another day.

The two parrots are still here, as are the friendly iguanas who hang around the pool side.

This evening we went over to Paseo Herencia, an outdoor mall open ’til late in the evening, for an ice cream. It’s tough to find parking, but we got lucky. While walking to the mall, we strolled down a street with signs every 10 feet threatening to tow all parked vehicles. In front of every sign, was a parked car! haha

Here is a short movie of Boca Catalina. You can watch these movies in high def mode too. Click on the little 360 button and you will be given the option to watch in 480 or 720 mode – the 720 is full high def. You can even make the movie full screen, and it will give a really nice image.

Aruba, Vacations

Safely arrived in Aruba

November 6, 2010 Maurice 1 Comment

We left home this morning, thinking we might have a long delay at the border, but we crossed over into the States the quickest we have ever done it. There was absolutely no wait at all. The border guard chat took about 10 seconds and we were done.

With the recent problem with potential bombs on some flights we expected some delays at the airport, but again, the delay was the shortest we’ve encountered. We simply walked right through security – there was no line, no standing around, right through!

The flight was fine, a little rough on the landing, but we arrived about thirty minutes early. The inflight movie was Salt, with Angelina Jolie. I thought it was an interesting movie, but she was horribly miscast. She just doesn’t strike me as being a very tough actress. I didn’t believe her beating up several men at once. Anyway, it was entertaining.

We grabbed a hotel close by, with a free shuttle. Listened to some bad karaoke (is there any other kind?) had a drink, and got a decent night’s sleep.

Back to the airport for another crack at check in/security and it was again smooth as silk. This time security took at least five minutes tho! A tedious delay! haha

We were pretty impressed with how smooth everything went, both with the border crossings, and airport security.

This airport in Atlanta is huge – close to a million flights a year. Very well signed, and lots of friendly staff to help. We were standing there looking confused, wondering where to go after we’d checked in, when a nice gentleman stopped and asked if we needed help. He pointed out where we needed to go, and off we went.

We’re waiting here to board our flight to Aruba. I’m going to have to post this from Aruba, since the Atlanta airport charges for WIFI. And I won’t pay for WIFI – it’s just not right. We’re hoping that Hurricane Tomas won’t affect the flight too much.

ADDED LATER:

The flight to Aruba was very nice. Terrific landing. Landed ahead of schedule, too. So all in all, a great start.

We got the rental car, checked into the timeshare, and headed to the beach! But WOW – the waves are incredible! We simply didn’t think we’d get much snorkeling in, so we came back to the pool and did a few laps.

We’re going to head downtown for dinner – keshi yena, natch – but I wanted to post this little movie of Arashi Beach.

Holidays

Halloween Night

October 31, 2010 Maurice 2 Comments

Well, Halloween was UNREAL this year. Never dreamed there would be this many kids. It’s been twenty and thirty deep all night long. They started coming about an hour before we regularly get kids, and it has been non-stop all night long.

Honestly, we never dreamed there would be so many kids. There had to be close to 300 tonight. I’ve never seen it so packed, for so long! It’s a good thing we went and got a few “extra” candies, just in case! We ran out of practically everything.

Here are a couple of movies I took – one is quite early in the night – so you can see the display a bit better. Hope it gives you a sense of the place.

This is a game that Pam plays with all the kids… it’s a little dark, but you get the idea!

Holidays

Halloween 2010

October 29, 2010 Maurice 1 Comment

Here is a movie that I took tonight. It didn’t work out that well, but I uploaded it to youtube anyway. Somehow, I managed to get a light to emit from the camera sometime during the movie. It wasn’t on at the beginning of the movie, but somehow came on during it… I guess I better try and figure out how the heck that happened, so I can turn it on! haha Might come in handy while we’re taking underwater pictures.

The pictures aren’t that great either, but they give a sense of the place. We made some changes this year – went with a total graveyard theme. We’re not quite done, but I’ll get it all done tomorrow. Since Halloween is on Sunday, I guess that’s a good idea huh?

It’s been fun doing some things early this year. I didn’t realize how many people get a kick out of it. I think we’ve almost had more people stop and talk to us about the Halloween yard than when we do the Christmas yard!

Vacations

Smooth Landing

October 24, 2010 Maurice Leave a comment

About 30 years ago, we had a winter vacation in Mexico. While returning home, the pilot came on the intercom and said the weather was so bad in Calgary we were going on to Edmonton and we’ll land there. About an hour later, he comes on the intercom and says the weather in Edmonton is so bad, we’re heading back to Calgary to land!

We circled the airport for about an hour or so, which we learned later was to partially empty the fuel tanks in case of ummmm an “accident.” Well, I stumbled on this video of our landing!

Now that’s smooth! I bet the passengers were happy to get off that plane!

All About Max, Surrey Parks

Hawthorne Park

October 10, 2010 Maurice Leave a comment

We went for a short walk around Hawthorne Park. Pam’s recovering nicely, and she’s eager to get back out into the sunshine. We had an incredible rain storm here on Saturday, but today (Sunday) was very nice, sunny and warm.

Max gets a kick out of Hawthorne Park because it has a large duck pond, and he always gets crazy, trying to chase them. After his dunking in Green Timbers, we were wondering if he was going to dive in after the ducks at this park. He chased them, but he didn’t enter the water! Guess he learned his lesson!

They are doing a lot of work on Hawthorne Park. There are a lot of paths blocked off by fencing, and they seem to be adding crushed rock to the paths. It will be really nice when they are done, because some of the paths are quite muddy in the winter rainy season.

They have put in a “dry” river bed, with these large metal sculptures, in various colors, of cattails. I’m not sure if they intend to bring water to the river bed, but it’s looking good so far.