Brunch and beach

We started off the day with a fancy all-you-can-eat champagne brunch at Le Dome. Unlike the Sunday brunches in Seattle, you actually order your dishes, but you can order as much as you want. When we arrived at 11 am, the waitress told us how we could eat as much as we wanted and jokingly added that we could eat until the brunch ends at 3 pm if we wanted to. After we ordered and finished just about everything on the menu and a couple things twice (Tim even had escargot), the waitresses seemed to avoid our table, and I think we ended up leaving around 2:30. ;) 

We spent the afternoon back at one of our favorite beaches, Manchebo.  We spent the afternoon walking the beach and swimming, and stayed until sunset again. It was really cool. :)

The other side of the island and back

After spending the last few days on the north-west side of the island, we decided to explore the other side today.  The south-east side is marked by this large red anchor.

After that, we went to Baby Beach. The water looked nice there and we'd heard it was good snorkeling, but the setting isn't as nice as the other beaches we'd been to, so we didn't spend much time there.

We went by Rogers Beach and saw some cool boats.

And we even found some goats at Boca Grande.

In the end, we decided we liked our side better and spent the rest of day back at Manchebo Beach.

Here's a self-portrait.

And here's a shot Tim took from his chair while I was swimming past.

And sunset...

The Tranquilo

After lounging on beaches the last two days, we decided to take a boat ride today on the Tranquilo.

We sailed from Palm Beach around to the south side of Aruba to a tiny island/pier, where we stopped for snorkeling and lunch. The open bar also made the ride nice. ;)

It was cool because after snorkeling from the pier, some of us went out on the dingy and drift snorkeled further out in the ocean in deeper water. Also, here's an odd video we took showing a plane landing and then the captain of the boat catching a tuna that was half-eaten by a shark!

After the boat ride, we stayed at Palm Beach for some time, and then went back to take a nap.  We had great food for dinner at Wacky Wahoos. Yummy. :)

Arashi Beach

Today, we went to Arashi Beach at the bright and early hour of...well, not very early cuz we slept in again. We're not even sure of the time since we've stopped using our watches here. :P 



We got a nice spot under one of the umbrellas with our towels in the sun right at the water's edge. You'd think it might be hard to find a spot like this, but we basically just drove right up to it. :)


Mixed with relaxing near and in the water, we also snorkeled at the corral next to the beach.  We swam to another beach, snorkeling along the way, before coming back.  We stayed at the beach until sunset, whatever time that was. :P

Manchebo and Eagle Beaches

Today was our first full day in Aruba, and we spent it at beautiful beaches.

 
 

After going to the beach, we went Pinchos for dinner.  It's a very romantic restaurant located on a pier over the water.  Here's what we ate:

 

And here are pics at the restaurant.  

First Day In Aruba

Yesterday was our first day in Aruba. We got in around 5pm. After getting our rental car we headed off to the apartment we will be staying at for 10 days.

We are staying at the Paradera Apartments, a small place we found online that had good reviews from TripAdvisor. Here are some pics:

 
 

After settling down in the apartment, we went to the beach that evening. Here are some pics and a video at the beach.

  

Charlotte layover

Yesterday we departed from Seattle at 11:30am and arrived in Charlotte N.C. around 6:45pm Eastern Time. At the airport in Charlotte, we couldn't help but think of Jovanna back home. :P

 

Our flight from Seattle to Charlotte was changed from a red-eye getting in Tuesday morning to a normal flight arriving Monday night, so the airlines gave us vouchers for a free hotel. They put us up at the Ramada located on Billy Graham Parkway, clearly a high-class neighborhood.

Despite the name, we didn't see any gentlemen nearby. :P

Mr. and Mrs. Hanks

August 23, 2008 was our big day and what a wonderful day it was! Everything seemed to fall into place. The weather was beautiful and it was great to have so many family and friends together in one place. We are so happy to be married, but it is still surreal. We are looking forward to the rest of our life together!!!