At the end of my last blog I said I wasn’t going to tell you what we had planned for our anniversary. Planned is a strong word for it. The Monday before our anniversary we decided to go to Aruba that Friday to celebrate.
We both got our passports almost two years ago because we were going to go to Spain with Jason’s mom (I thought that’s where Jason was going to propose) we ended up never using them but nonetheless……passports=check
Also a few years back we got a timeshare. I LOVE our timeshare and we used it to go on our honeymoon. It’s like paying for your vacation a little every month verses all at once.
Jason and I had been talking about going to St.Augustine for anniversary because it was open with the timeshare and only about a 3 hour drive. Neither one of us had ever been there so we figured why not.
Either Sunday or Monday Jason was looking at the timeshare website and just playing around. He noticed that our timeshare has a spot in Aruba. I had totally forgotten that they did. Aruba is originally where he wanted to go on our honeymoon but they were all booked up so we ended up in Hawaii instead (hey, im not complaining)
Anyway, he realized that they had rooms open and it would be nothing to book it for the weekend.
Monday I went to work and even though our pto schedule is booked solid (I knew my boss couldn’t give me the time off) I was able to find someone to work that day for me on Friday!!! That’s all I need to be able to go!!!
We booked the room and then got on the phone with his mom to get the plane tickets!
Jason looked it up and for us to buy plane tickets would have been around $900. We thought of just buying the plane tickets to MAKE SURE we would make it but I bought a protection plan so didn’t we wouldn’t lose the points with the timeshare if we needed to cancel. We ended up getting standby tickets for less than half the price!!
Friday FINALLY rolled around and we got to the airport around 4:30am. We had no problems getting on the flight to Atlanta and from there to Aruba! After a 3 ½ hour flight we landed in Aruba!!
After checking in we decided to grab a bite to eat and hang out at the bar by the pool. We weren’t sure what we were going to get into and most of the water activities were in the process of closing down but we had seen a flyer for a party bus that takes you to a bunch of different bars. The flyer said that there were two options. You could go for dinner and then the bars or skip dinner and just hit up the bars. We decided since we had just eaten we would skip dinner. We headed up to the room to relax until it was time to go but then decided to go check with the concierge to make sure we could get a spot on the bus.
Turned out the bus had already left and there was no later bus for that evening (the flyer was WRONG!) We were kind of upset because we didn’t know what else to do for the night. Since we were only there for the weekend we wanted to make sure we made the most of our time while in Aruba.
The lady at the desk, Ann, saw how desperate we were and grabbed her keys and with her thick accent said “come on babies, we can still catch them”
She ushered us to her own personal car and in a whiff we were off!!! It took us about 10mins to catch up with the bus at the lighthouse, where they were doing a sunset champagne toast!
This was the pic i got as we were pulling up.
They agreed to let us on the bus and poured us a glass!!! We hopped on the bus and headed out! They even let me bring on my unfinished champagne!!! We ended up sitting next to two very nice ladies, both from Jersey!
Lol picture from inside our crazy bus!
Our first stop was dinner. As I said earlier, Jason and I had already eaten and weren’t really hungry so we just picked at our food and talked with our new friends. At every spot they gave us a drink card so we got our first drink free!
By the time we made it to the second bar we were all hammered (Jason and I had started drinking hours before while at the poolside bar)!!! The music at each place was excellent and everyone was dancing and having a good time! At one point they had a bunch of guys up on the bar and they all took their shirts off (you better believe I got a picture of that!!!)
Yes that is a picture of the driver of the other bus taking her clothes off at the bar and NO Jason would NOT get up there with them...i tried ;-)
Our bus driver, Smooth< I have a feeling that’s not his real name, lol> was awesome. They were playing music on the bus so we were dancing non stop. At one point while going through a traffic circle he just kept going round and round and round and everyone was laughing and hooting and hollering!!! Everyone we passed KNEW we were having a good time!
After when had been partying for a few hours they began dropping everyone back off at their hotels. We were still a ways from our hotel but Jason saw a casino and couldn’t resist. He had them drop of us right there!!! I’m not even sure where we were!! . Ill be honest, I don’t remember too much after that. I know Jason was doing well on the craps table and I was walking around trying to use my cell phone, even though I had realized earlier it wasn’t working. We were goof balls!! We didn’t remember until the next day that on the way home Jason pushed the stop button on the elevator and forced it open about 6inches before it was flush with the floor and I tripped coming out! Crazy I know but we had an amazing time!! Hahaha.
The next morning we felt like something you would scrap off the bottom of your shoe, but we had agreed the day before to sit through a timeshare presentation. So at 9am in the morning we got up and headed downstairs. Thankfully they served us breakfast which was very much so needed and we ended up with a nice sales guy named Joey. He was great and wasn’t pressuring us to buy, we are already owners anyway so they were trying to get us to upgrade. We are very interested but my husband decided at the time we are not ready yet. Of course I stand by everything he says so we headed out. Just for sitting through the presentation they game us $100 gift that we could use for any of the activities they had on the list.
They had everything from jet skis to parasailing to guided tours.
We ended up choosing an ATV tour. Crazy enough the guy giving our gift warned us to be careful because the week before a tourist got off of a cruise boat and 30mins later got himself killed on a four wheeler doing the same thing we were about to!!!
This was a little unsettling but we decided to do the tour anyway. Jason and I both grew up as kids riding four wheelers so we felt responsible enough not to do anything stupid.
When we got there, there was another couple going with us. They were going on the dune buggy instead of the four wheelers and this made Jason jealous. He decided to upgrade us to a dune buggy as well. I was a little sad I wouldn’t get to drive the four wheeler bc we were getting two of those and only one dune buggy, but he promised to let me drive some too!
In the end it turned out WAYYYY better in the dune buggy! Bc we were sitting next to each other we were able to talk, whereas had we been on the four wheelers we wouldn’t have been able to as easy without having to scream.
The couple that went with us was really nice and we pretty much hung with them the whole time. The first place they took us was to the natural rock formations.
Next was to a natural bridge that had just collapsed back in 2005. This is one of the most beautiful sites I have ever seen. The water was amazing!! After this we were on to the next site and on the way they trail got more interesting! Jason let me drive and we were zooming through rough trails of sand and rock. I got us airborne a few time (hehehe) and then it was Jason’s turn to drive. His favorite part was doing doughnuts!
They took us to gold mine ruins, to Aruba’s first church, and (back to) the lighthouse, called the California lighthouse which was named for the steamship California, which wrecked nearby on Sept 23, 1891. The sites were great but nothing compared to the natural bridge and ridding wide open in the dune buggy!! At the very end of the tour our tour guide left the rest of the group who were ridding in jeeps and took us by ourselves to let loose though the red sand!! All you could see of the other two dune buggies was their dust trails!!! By the end we were all covered with dirt but is was so well worth it!
The last stop was to the beach so we could clean up. It was soooo refreshing. In Aruba the temperature is always hot and humid. That day it was like 90 with a heat index of over a hundred! I’m from South Carolina and all, but I was dying from the heat!!
I think I STILL have dirt in places it shouldn’t be!!! Lol~~
They let us swim for awhile and then it was time to head back : ( We were out there for over 3 hours and I really had the time of my life!!
That night we went to the high rise hotels for dinner and just walked around. We didn’t find much to do, so casino it was again. We didn’t do as well as the night before, but we still had a good time. We decided not to stay late, or drink too much since we had to fly out the next day.
Thankfully we made our flight and made it home in time to eat the traditional bite of wedding cake we had saved from our wedding day!
It was the best impromptu trip I have EVER taken!!
Can’t wait to do it again!!
This is the picture from the RR web site. Mine didnt look exactly like this but close enough so that you get the idea!
