aruba part 1

we did not leave for our honeymoon immediately after our wedding; instead, we left at the end of the week. (we got married on a sunday but did not leave until the following saturday.) brian had to go in to work for two days during that week which kind of sucked, but i was off work and used the time to write thank you notes and just enjoy being a brand-new-newlywed. and then saturday came and we were off to aruba!

we had a week booked at the caribbean palm village resort starting on saturday august 7, so we took the red-eye out of san francisco on friday night. you can't fly directly to aruba from the west coast, so we flew into jfk in new york and from there headed down to aruba. we arrived early saturday afternoon and stepped out of the airport into the balmy, breezy caribbean air. fabulous! we spent that afternoon unpacking and relaxing by the pool before we went to dinner at the resort's italian restaurant, valentino's.


the next day we slathered on the sunscreen (aruba is in the tropics, so the sun is stronger and we didn't want to burn) and headed into downtown oranjestad, the capital city. aruba is a small island of only about 110,000 people, and oranjestad is pretty much the only town of interest. the other "towns" (like noord, where we stayed) are really tiny hamlets, and are scattered around the island's southwest half. the southwest half of the island is pretty, developed, and the beaches are white sand and sheltered from the pounding waves of the sea. the water is warm, turquoise, and calm, like a giant bathtub.


on the pier at king's beach

the next afternoon we took a submarine tour of aruba's coast. we saw a couple shipwrecks, common because the populated southwest shore is so shallow. (the calm, clear water, shipwrecks, and abundant sea life all make for great snorkeling and diving as well.) neither of us had ever been on a real submarine before - the ride at disneyland doesn't count! the captain even settled the submarine down on the ocean floor. it was very neat being under the sea, knowing that it wasn't a theatrical ride tethered to a track along the bottom.




we visited two shipwrecks in the submarine. because the water off aruba's populated coast is so shallow, numerous ships have wrecked there.


the next day we headed back into oranjestad - we were taking a heli-tour of the island! again, neither of us had ever been in a helicopter either, and we didn't know what to expect. i'm not a huge fan of flying and was terrified for the first ten minutes, but i finally relaxed enough to enjoy the ride. our pilot, christian, took us over the barren northeast coast, whetting our appetite to see more of aruba.


with our pilot christian, before i gave myself a heart attack


oranjestad from the air


the natural bridge, on the northest coast

after our heli-tour we explored downtown oranjestad. pretty much every day in aruba is around 85° with a cool ocean breeze - in other words, perfect and perfect for strolling. we had lunch on the marina (and maybe enjoyed some yummy aruban beer) and then went out to see what we could see. downtown aruba is pretty small and quite walkable, and there were a few historic sights for us history lovers.


lg smith boulevard, downtown o'stad


caribbean colors in downtown o'stad

iguanas are a protected species in aruba, so they're everywhere. there are four in this photo. though they are protected, they are also a delicacy, and we were told if we wanted to sample some iguana soup, there was this guy down on the beach...




jan henrik, one of aruba's prime ministers


brian thought queen wilhelmina was pretty hot

did they ever get us good

because we knew brian's leave was ending soon, we decided to take a trip over to the jelly belly factory in fairfield. it's no secret that jelly bellies are my favorite candy ever and i've been wanting to take a tour of the factory in the worst way for the longest time.


we got there just in time to browse the lobby a bit and get in for the last tour of the day. we're not moving very quickly these days with the kiddo and all. there was a ton of ronald reagan memorabilia (he famously loved jelly bellies also!) as well as jelly belly art, "mosaics" made with jelly bellies.


then we took the tour. unfortunately photography is not allowed on the tour but let me tell you how neat it was! i love seeing how things are made and this did not disappoint. there was a room full of huge kettles for melting sugar, right across from stacked pallets of sugar and 2,000-pound bags of cornstarch.


we saw the huge machines sorting out the beans that were too small and too large, and other irregular beans. these are called belly flops. i love that. the factory goes through 85,000 pounds of sugar in an 8-hour period, by the way. c&h comes by every morning to refill two huge silos outside. they also use real oils and flavors in the beans. for example, the chocolate beans are made with real dark chocolate, and the jalapeño ones have real pepper oil. also, the flavor is in the bean itself, not just the hard shell, unlike most other jelly beans.


after the tour of course we browsed in the shop. they sell each individual flavor in bulk which i like because then i can make myself a mixed bag without the yucky flavors like licorice. (that's how we were able to do jelly bellies in only our wedding colors as our wedding favors.) this is where they get you: the tour itself is free, and they even give you a free bag of jelly bellies at the end. we spent way too much money in that shop. man do i love those jelly bellies.

the factory also makes much more than just jelly bellies. chocolate and gummies are two we saw loads of. if you're ever in the bay area, the factory tour is a fun way to spend an afternoon.

family

i went south this past weekend to visit my mother, so this week i am thankful for:

1. fun times visiting my family and friends. i got to spend time with my best girl alice and my girlfriend krista, which was really nice because i don't see krista often and alice is great fun. my family is fun too, and my mother's brother and his wife were down from seattle as well as my grandparents and my sister. we ate good food and played cards, which is what my family does. everyone was down for my mom's birthday, the big 6-0.


my sweet grandparents have been married for 61 years!


i have not seen my uncle harry and his wife mary since brian and i got married. harry is hiding behind mary, who is a whole lot of fun. it was really great to get to see them and spend time with them.


i learned a new game called golf (not solitaire golf), which is insanely easy and pretty fun. my grandma, who swears - whether we play cribbage, rummy, or anything else - that she hasn't gotten good cards in ten years, of course won. she is a sneaky one, that lady.

2. generous moms. i had made another one of this blouse, this time in a plain white batiste. heaven knows a basic white blouse is a wardrobe staple. at least it is in my wardrobe. i wanted to jazz it up some and my mother's machine does fancy embroidery stitches that mine does not. i also put some fancy (for me) buttons on. it is still a basic white blouse, but now with this:


it is kind of hard to tell i think, but the embroidery stitch is little leaves on a vine. i did it in white sulky embroidery thread, which is 100% rayon and shiny so the tone-on-tone embroidery stands out. i had never used sulky thread before and i am not sure i love it. the thread kept breaking and i don't know if it was the tension or the machine or the stitch or what. maybe i was doing something wrong and i didn't know it. the embroidery turned out very pretty though and i really like it. that is basically why i love sewing, because i can make something like a basic white blouse and put my own special little touch on it, just for me.

3. safe driving and nice weather. even though we are a bit farther north now than we were in marin county, the drive is actually 30 miles and 30 minutes shorter. it was a beautiful sunny day both on the way down and the way home. i was very surprised to see some snow still, at the very tips of the san bernardino mountains:


every time we drive down together, brian gets excited when we get to san dimas, because of bill & ted's excellent adventure. (i get excited because it means the end is near[ish].) so i had to call him and tell him how EXcellent it was that i was in san dimas.


pyramid lake (in the angeles national forest, near the grapevine) looked pretty good to me. i have never stopped there but i always want to. i really like mountain lakes like that. someday...


these signs always crack me up. what, you thought sacramento and san francisco were like 100 miles apart? nope, they're right next to each other. no, really! also, i have a bridge for sale if you're interested.


* yes, i understand the sign. they still make me smile.

the best time i've had for someone else's birthday

thank you for all the well wishes - our trip to capitola was so nice. short, but it was really nice to get a change of scenery and away from the "pressure" of our regular life, even if that pressure is just the kitchen floor waiting to be mopped.

it took us about 2½ hours to get there from our house - 144 miles. we didn't hit any traffic and it was a nice clear drive. that drive over the santa cruz mountains on highway 17 is so pretty too. i think the only thing that would have made the drive better would have been if i didn't keep missing the turns. we had to take eight different freeways to get there and i missed one or two. fortunately brian napped for most of the ride so i didn't have to hear about my lame-brain navigation.

we stayed overnight at the capitola inn, which is up on a little hill. i think it overlooks the ocean, but our room was in the back with a view of the trees. it didn't matter much to us because we were not in the room for very long. because it was mil's birthday, we went to dinner at shadowbrook, a beautiful restaurant built into a hillside. there is a hillevator to take you up and down the hill from the parking lot to the restaurant below, which of course i loved. i'm easily pleased like that. i had creamy artichoke soup for an appetizer (the recipe is on the website!) while everyone else had calamari (i don't eat seafood) and then i had grilled mushrooms for dinner. it was quite a filling dish and one of the most delicious things i think i have ever had.


the next day we had breakfast at a diner down on the beach. this was my view out the window as i ate my eggs:





of course, we couldn't leave without some pictures to remember us by. if only ron and brian could get their camera-phones to work.




then we walked around "downtown" capitola which was pretty cute and quaint. there was a candy store that sold jelly bellies by the pound. i love jelly bellies, especially the peach and pear flavors. there was a new pomegranate flavor also that i had never seen, which was so delicious. i highly recommend it on its own or with peach.

we did some window shopping and then it started sprinkling. we weren't really that interested in braving the rain, so we decided to go get some coffees. we went back to shadowbrook to sit by the fire. by the time we got there the sprinkles had let up but it was still chilly. brian and i still wanted to see it in the daytime though, so we walked down the hill instead of taking the hillevator. it is kind of a steep walk which we knew, because we had walked up the night before after dinner. they have a beautiful herb garden, which would be heaven to me. i would love to have an herb garden like that, but i don't have that kind of backyard space.


after enjoying our coffee we made our way to our respective homes. i think i missed every turnoff that i was supposed to take and we had to turn around and go back a couple times. fortunately we were feeling relaxed and generous from our weekend so it just ended up being an adventure and not a frustration. i guess that is pregnant brain for you, not noticing where you are going until you are passing your exit.


all in all, that was the best birthday of mil's that i have ever had, and i hope she has a lot more.

we left up $65

we spent this weekend in reno, nevada, on a weekend getaway sponsored by my company as a reward for our excellent results during our recent life promotion. brian did not originally really want to go. he said reno was boring and there was nothing to do there but gamble and we were too short on funds to be spending money frivolously like that. fortunately, i talked him into it. our room at the peppermill resort, dinner saturday night, and breakfast sunday morning were taken care of for us, so it was a really inexpensive getaway. we paid for gas and anything incidental up there and since we were feeling frugal, there were no incidentals.

it was really nice to get away and get a change of scenery. it's also nice that the reno/tahoe area is only about 1½-2 hours away from us now up on interstate 80. we drove up early saturday afternoon and it was a gorgeous day in the sierras, cool and clear and sunny. the leaves were turning on the trees and it was so pretty though i'm sure nothing like what happens back east. well, we take what we can get here.

truckee is about a half hour outside of reno. we stopped at this vista point over donner lake, just outside of truckee. you can see the snow up on the tops of the mountains in the distance. there were tiny patches of snow in the shady spots along the highway too.


i was playing with the exposure (or something?) on my camera because it was really sunny and i was afraid the picture would get all washed out. i guess the opposite happened. i'll have to learn more about that.

i really like stopping at vista points because you often get to see pretty views that you would otherwise miss. plus, it's a nice chance to stretch your legs and get some fresh air.


brian does not like stopping as much as i do. i think he usually just wants to get there, but he is a good sport about letting me take my pictures.

the hotel was really nice. apparently it's been recently remodeled and brian said it looked a lot better than it did before. i had never been to reno or the peppermill before so i didn't know the difference. brian really liked that there was a 45" flat-screen tv in our room. all the better to watch espn, i guess.

saturday night we had a really nice dinner with work. there was so much food and man was it ever delicious. what were they thinking offering up an 18 oz. steak? who can eat that much? i made a pretty good dent in it though and ate all my vegetables. brian could not decide what he wanted for dessert so the waiter brought him two, one on the house. i had a cherry blintz and it was so delicious. how do i get that served at my house?

the breakfast buffet was an island theme with all kinds of plants and trees and even a waterfall. it really felt like we were eating outdoors in an island paradise.




brian could not believe all the food that they had. if you can handle the smoke (though it was not smoky in this one), i think they are a really good deal for the money.

we didn't spend too much time in the casino. brian wanted to keep me out of the smoke, and either way it was really bothering both our eyes. he did stop to play some quarter slots and ended up winning a little over $100. with the money we had paid to play that meant we were up about $65. we left before we could spend it on something else, but we didn't get too terribly far. we stopped in at the kids' arcade.


i love skee-ball, so we tried to play a couple rounds but the machine was broken. so we played some other arcade games. i think that's way more fun than gambling. brian beat me at the football throwing game. what can i say, i'm kind of a girly girl. that was our last stop before heading home and was a nice way to wrap up our mini-vacation.