Aruba June 5, 2009

I just got back from 7 wonderful days in Aruba. It was absolutely A_MAZING!!! I’ve been to other Caribbean islands but none of them were like this. This island had just the right amount of sun and wind to make the weather perfect. The water temperature was just right. I would play volleyball on the beach, work up a sweat, jump in the water to cool down , and start all over. There were even days that I didn’t do anything. I just lied underneath a palm tree, listened to the water and the palms rustling in the breeze, and napped the day away. It was so relaxing. And to think, I wanted to go to Bora Bora. My boyfriend made the decision to go to Aruba.

The Soul Beach Music Festival happened to be going on when we arrived. We were able to get tickets to the Jamie Foxx Concert that night. I’m not his biggest fan but it was something to do. And actually, I really enjoyed it. He’s an ok entertainer but the part I really liked was that it was on the beach. The next night was a concert by Common and Robin Thicke. Again, not a big fan, but Common was really good. He rapped a lot of the oldies like Bonita Applebum. I like that song. Oh and Biz Markie was there too. Robin Thicke was eh. The thing I remember most about his performance is that he just could not stop sweating. It was gross. His shirt was soaked.

We stayed at an all-inclusive resort called the Riu Palace. It was really nice. They have a great pool with a swim-up bar and drink service for the rest of the pool area. Their fitness center sucked so I had an excuse to workout less. I did run on the beach, however. Running is one of my least favorite aerobic activities but somehow the beach makes it better. Our room was on the top floor in the center of the hotel so we had a great view. My boyfriend’s birthday was on the 25th; they left a bottle of champagne and two glasses with a happy birthday note in our room. I wasn’t impressed with the food. There were 5 restaurants on the grounds, 2 buffets, a Japanese restaurant, an Italian restaurant, and a gourmet restaurant. The buffets sucked. I hate buffets so I guess you could take that opinion with a grain of salt. The food was dry from sitting under the heat lamps and I’m pretty sure the items on the buffets were left overs from the restaurants the night before. The Japanese restaurant was ok. They didn’t have a sushi menu. They just gave an assortment as appetizers. The Italian restaurant was just ok as well. The gourmet restaurant was good. I had the lamb, one of my favorite things so I may be biased. Overall, I liked the Riu. I’d stay there again.

We did normal couple things like dinner on the beach and spa treatment. We also rented a jet-ski and went tubing. The most exciting thing I did was learning to kiteboard. It was awesome. I flew out of the water a couple of times because the kite but it was exciting nevertheless. I’m going to post some pics from my trip on flickr. Check it out.

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