The weather was a bit dicey this morning, but it turned out to be a pretty nice day. We woke up to some rain as we were headed out to breakfast, but by the time we were done eating the storm had cleared.
At breakfast, we said goodbye to some friends we met at the pool- a marine commander named Frank and his wife Theresa, from New York.
Arabella is finally starting to warm up to these vacation breakfasts. She ate hash browns (the stringy kind), fresh strawberries and a big cup of milk. The server who has been taking care of us all week, John, has been trying so hard to get smiles out of Arabella and she’s just not having it at that hour.
We were a little late getting to the pool because jarmon had some work to do. We knew DD had saved chairs early, but we didn’t know the pool staff had gifted us a cabana for the day. Last year, we rented one everyday to keep Arabella out of the sun, but it didn’t make sense this year since I can’t drink. I guess today was a slow day because of the touch and go weather. It was nice to have a prime location for picture taking on our second to last day.
At the pool, we said more goodbyes. Our favorite server- Kenny- who has taken care of us at least two years now is off on Friday and Saturday. His friend- Evans- will be around.
Arabella is really loving the water. She played with some older girls on the steps— and was very fond of their pool toys. Especially a dog that wags it’s tail.
Arabella has officially graduated to her big kid swim vest and spent hours crawling around the steps and playing with the toys brought along by MJ.
Jarmon did some work during the day and I did some reading (finally!), which gave dd and MJ a good dose of AB. She is loving the attention and even took a nap outside today in the cabana.
We still didn’t make it to the beach- we want to see how Arabella responds to the sand. Hopefully tomorrow, but the weather doesn’t look promising. We also still need to take our annual window pics.
We decided to return to Aruba Beach Cafe for dinner— which would also make possible another visit to Kilwin’s and the all-important souvenir shopping.
Since rain appeared to be imminent, we took some photos in the hotel lobby before leaving. It was a good choice— by the time e got outside rain was coming down in sheets. Luckily, it ended before we got to Lauderdale by the Sea.
We hit the souvenir shop first. There’s a big mega store in Lauderdale by the Sea that has become our go to place to shop. The stuff isn’t the best quality, but its t-shirt game is strong, which is arguably the most important thing. We were in the door for all of about two minutes before I noticed that they had the giant Ty stuffed animals that Arabella had been obsessed with at Seven Springs last summer. She didn’t get one that day because the store closed— and there hasn’t really been an excuse to get her one since. I was planning to get her one online as her “gift from the new baby”— but as soon as I saw them I knew she was getting one tonight. She also fell in love with a small Ty unicorn and MJ bought her both. We tried to buy a t shirt for the new baby, but they didn’t have anything small this year. We got Arabella a sweatshirt with a dolphin hood (I admittedly thought it was a shark when I picked it out, but details details). MJ and I got cheap trucker hats and Jarmon bought his annual back scratcher. We also got some taffy for Baxter’s wonderful dog sitter.
We got out of the souvenir shop just in time to get ice cream. Needless to say, it was worth rushing for.
We spent a little time in the lobby when we got back. Jarmon had a cocktail, I had a soda water with lemon (my late night go to this trip since my daily glass of wine has always been consumed many hours before). DD and MJ chased Arabella around the lobby while I stole the day’s photos from their phones. We’re all bummed that the week is coming to an end.
Trina Orlando 