Our vacations

So we got back from the vacation we won to Aruba, back on April 5, and we have been sharing our vacation with you. In case you have missed our prior postings read more here:
Part one – See how our flights went, with our first view of the island
Part two – Learn about the locals, driving, and our first tourist adventure
Part three – how did we win this? Check it out, and see how our first sailboat ride went…
Part Four – Grocery shopping with out coupons in Aruba
Part Five - Sarah’s first snorkeling adventure
Part Six- The windy north side
Part seven – The windy north shore and the waves
Part eight – Thorns and Sushi
Part nine – Five days of island bliss

Well after leaving Aruba we had 2 six hour flights to get back to a delay in Las Vegas. So we hung out, and winded down to get ready for life back home. As soon as we landed and got our rental car we drove over to the History Channels show Pawn Stars. Sarah and I both love to watch that show.

Sarah and I both are not gamblers so we never really wanted to go to Vegas. But since Sarah had never been to the Strip we drove through it. It was past midnight and of course it’s the city that never sleeps. There were people and even young kids and babies every where. Why some one would drag their kids around that town at such a late hour, we will never know. But all the lights were fun.

One thing that is sure true, is that The Strip sure is Sin City. I understand that Las Vegas is just a normal city, but the strip is a whole other world. So many naked or almost naked pictures every where. There were trucks that had huge billboards on them that drove around the strip and had images of poor girls that barely had a quarter size piece of fabric covering them. Such a shame and disgrace. I don’t know why anyone would ever want to take children there. I know some casinos are child friendly, but you would have to put blinders on them just to drive through town.

Anyways – the above picture is our view from our room. The hotel room was nice, but the trip to get up there wasn’t. The smoke was killer. Sarah is so sensitive to smoke and her throat started to close up. Mine, not so sensitive, even became very dry and sore.

But one of the fun things that i decide to do in Vegas was to rent a Mercedes. Sarah wasn’t impressed at all. She is a small town dairy farm girl, and fancy things like this was a waste to her. Luckily most of the rental was paid for by Hertz, due to left over certificates from our prize. So it made it a bit easier to handle. But the car was nice, fast, sun roof, leather, and lots of fun – for me…

We had to top it off and I had to break out the instruction manual. Sarah thought it was funny and took a picture of me.

Early in the morning before our flight, we headed back over to visit the Pawn Star shop. Their sign says 24 hr, but that doesn’t mean you can go in. At night they are closed, but people can come and pay their bills at all hours of the night. In the line waiting to get in, that was the talk of the day.

You know the show that has Rick, The old Man, Corey, and Chumlee. No the guys were not there that day. The security guard that sits in a chair at the front door was there, and we didn’t get a picture with him.

We clicked a few shots off of us in line. The shop is more of a tourist spot now then a pawn shop.

One thing Sarah spotted was a Troll doll. It was the smaller size ones, that was about 3 inches tall. Not sure if you can see the price tag on it. Yes it says $70.00, and no the hair isn’t gold strings. Not sure the story behind it, but it was very expensive. I think the shop had more souvenirs and gifts then actual pawn items.

Well another flight and we made it home. By this time we had just wanted to get home to our kids. We got home in the early afternoon, and the only kids home were the two young ones, Maleeya and Maveric. Their eyes lit up and ran over to us. With bunches of hugs and kisses – We were home!

Thanks for reading our vacation postings, and putting up with us and our travels! The vacation was well needed and we came home totally rejuevinated and ready to get back to our site. Just today we have made some business changes that will advance our social media sites. We want to be a part of your life and help you save money like we have.

Thanks for all of our readers, and stay tuned for some fun social media changes!

So we got back from the vacation we won to Aruba, last Tuesday, and we have been sharing our vacation with you. In case you have missed our prior postings read more here:
Part one – See how our flights went, with our first view of the island
Part two – Learn about the locals, driving, and our first tourist adventure
Part three – how did we win this? Check it out, and see how our first sailboat ride went…
Part Four – Grocery shopping with out coupons in Aruba
Part Five - Sarah’s first snorkeling adventure
Part Six- The windy north side
Part seven – The windy north shore and the waves
Part eight – Thorns and Sushi

Well it’s Monday morning now and we have been in this tropical paradise for 5 days now.We took one last shot of our view from the hotel room. We grabbed our bags and headed back to the airport.
We forgot to show you the view from our room opposite of the beach. It is a bird and wildlife sanctuary and really make the island a nice place to look at.

Good Bye island. We had a blast. We really needed this trip! We never really had a honeymoon, and so after 10 and half years of bliss and four kids we finally had our first break from the kids! We never really even thought about our home. We had both of our parents take care of the kids. My (Matts) poor mom even suffered from a kidney stone the whole time she was here. But was so tough and didn’t even let in to the pain she was feeling. She didn’t want us to worry – Thanks Mom! It was so nice having technology of the internet so that every night we had a video chat with the kids. We could see and talk to them and they could see and talk to us. It really took away the amplifying stress of wonderment. On a normal trip where you can’t have the video chat, stress on both parents and kids can build and make the relaxation of a vacation dissipate.

On every license plate the national slogan read – “One Happy Island”…. and it really was! Thanks Aruba!

So after 2 security checks at the airport, both US and Aruba customs and then Home Land security (which only asked – “Do you smoke or use tobacco?”, and then asked “Do you drink or purchase alcohol?” – which surprised me being Homeland security and all) We finally were at the gate at the airport in Aruba. We got some rest, some one on one time, some sun, and got a little tan!

So since we had some time waiting for our six hour flight back to New York, and then our over night stay in Vegas, Sarah finally broke down and got on the computer for the first time since we left. It was so nice having Ingard back home running the site for us. Many probably never even knew we left. Ingard did a wonderful job, and after over two years of being online, and posting daily – we finally got a break to rejuvenate!

One more day of post – See our short stay in Las Vegas!

So we got back from the vacation we won to Aruba, last Tuesday, and we have been sharing our vacation with you. In case you have missed our prior postings read more here:
Part one – See how our flights went, with our first view of the island
Part two – Learn about the locals, driving, and our first tourist adventure
Part three – how did we win this? Check it out, and see how our first sailboat ride went…
Part Four – Grocery shopping with out coupons in Aruba
Part Five - Sarah’s first snorkeling adventure
Part Six- The windy north side
Part seven – The windy north shore and the waves

Well it’s our last full day (Sunday)in Aruba, and we are cramming things in. We drove out through the capital and on to the far eastern side of the island. In the museum the other day, we read there were wild goats on the island. We hadn’t seen any the whole trip.  Till Sunday  we  were headed through town after Church, when guess what we saw? Sure enough there was a small little heard of goats being lead by the male goat. They just roamed down the road and go were they want. Kind of strange to see.

Once we got to a open area, I convinced Sarah to to hike out off the road to see the waves. From the car it looked like a normal little hike of maybe a few hundred yards. Once we got about 20-30 yards out the terrain switched to this totally rugged and jagged old coral and cactus.

Poor Sarah got poked a handful of times. She only had flip flops on that didn’t hold her feet still. So her feet kept sliding off and touched these little viney plants. She said at first it felt like a needle prick. Then this intense burning and heat sensation took over. It happened every so often and the pain continued to intensify.

I offered to carry her but she refused. We finally made it back to the car. She dealt with the pain that finally went away after a few hours.

We hit the beach one more time before the sun went down. It was fun until something kept hitting my back. At first I thought it was some debris in the water. I turned and nothing was there. So then I thought maybe it was the strings on my bathing suit floating around me in the small waves. Then I turned around again and noticed a small four inch fish swimming around me. He kept pecking on my side and just became so annoying. I got up and stood in the water and he kept pecking at me. So I got out of the water. Sarah thought I was being silly and didn’t believe I was being pecked on by a fish. So as she sat there in the water and all of a sudden – peck -peck… she was his next meal. So she jumped out too. And we decide to lay in the sun for one last time and enjoy the time together watching the sun set on our vacation.

Once the sun went down and the cool breeze set in we decided we better head in. It was so much fun there in Aruba and it was our last day in the warm sun!

There was one of those Japanese Steak house restaurants in the resort and we thought we would eat in a fancy place just one night. So we sat down in the restaurant and while we waiting for the chef to come out and put on the cooking show, we ordered some sushi. I had, had sushi back in Washington D.C. long before we were married. At some Japanese restaurant that spoke no English. Sarah though had never had any. Being a small town dairy farm girl she never had the gumption to go eat raw fish. I talked her into it and once they brought it out there were two pieces. One for me, and one for her. I dipped mine in the soy sauce and a dab of wasabi, and down the hatch. Sarah cut her’s into three pieces. She did the same dip process and after the first little bit, I was surprised that she actually finished the rest of it.

We ate Yellowtail sushi. For those of you who haven’t had it yet, it isn’t what you may think. Most fish actually do not smell. if your fish smells like fish or rotten fish then it isn’t fresh. Raw fish really melts in your mouth. If it’s a texture thing, then really the only texture you will taste is the rice. Raw fish truly melts in your mouth, the chewing is just for the sticky rice. So step out of your box and try some like Sarah did. For around $5-$8 you normally will get two pieces of sushi… try it and make a night to remember!

There are only about 2 more parts left to our story – More to come

So we got back from the vacation we won to Aruba, last Tuesday, and we have been sharing our vacation with you. In case you have missed our prior postings read more here:
Part one – See how our flights went, with our first view of the island
Part two – Learn about the locals, driving, and our first tourist adventure
Part three – how did we win this? Check it out, and see how our first sailboat ride went…
Part Four – Grocery shopping with out coupons in Aruba
Part Five - Sarah’s first snorkeling adventure
Part Six- The windy north shore

So Sunday afternoon we wanted to check out some sites on the less visited North side of the island. It is very windy and rocky on the north side. We were in a rush trying to get everything in before it got dark. And so we quickly stopped at a couple different sites.

We found this out cropping of rocks that were getting pounded by the ocean waves. I wanted to go down closer to the coast line to get some good photos. I headed down the rocks and turned back to see if Sarah was coming. She was all the way back up by the dirt road. She took a shot of me trying to encourage her to come down with me. The whole time all she could say was “Be careful” and “don’t get too close”. Even though the waves were crashing, we never even got wet.

On our way back up to the to the car, we noticed these piles of rocks. Once we noticed what they were, we saw they were spread out every where, all over the shore line. So Sarah turned and started her own little pile to place on the cost, as a way to remember our spot by.

Of course her’s is the one she has a rock over, and mine is the the little two rock pile on the left side.

Further down the road we visited the natural bridge site. The main natural bridge collapsed years ago but the smaller one pictured immediately below is still there.

On the right side of the photo below you can see the slanted slab of rock laying in the ocean. This is what remains of the larger natural bridge.

Back up the path, heading back into town, we stopped at Bushiribana Ruins. This was an old gold smelter, or melting building. It was located right on the coast and was built using old stone. It dates back to 1825, and produced some 3 million pounds of gold!

Sarah striking a pose in the door way to her castle!

We can’t say if we found gold or not. I guess if we suddenly stop posting and run off in to the sun set one day, you will know if we found a stock pile of forgotten gold.

More vacation stories and photos to come…

So we got back from the vacation we won to Aruba, last Tuesday, and we have been sharing our vacation with you. In case you have missed our prior postings read more here:
Part one – See how our flights went, with our first view of the island
Part two – Learn about the locals, driving, and our first tourist adventure
Part three – how did we win this? Check it out, and see how our first sailboat ride went…
Part Four – Grocery shopping with out coupons in Aruba
Part Five - Sarah’s first snorkeling adventure

So Saturday morning we stopped at Dunkin Donuts. We have never been there, and do not have any near us. Inside we each picked our donuts, and I happened to see Guava filled. So I tried it being on the island. It was ok, but it was no raspberry or blueberry filling!

Next we drove out to the northwest point of the island and visited the California Lighthouse. Named after a ship that wreck off the point there and not the state. It was high on a hill and on the windy north side of the island. We also got a closer look at the shrubs that were all over the island. After the 1700′s complete deforestation, all that grew here was cactus and thorny bushes! These things had huge, hard, and sharp thorns!

All all of the shrubs you see below are all made of those thorns! With a few tall cacti growing up from around them.

On the way back to our next tourist site we drove through a neighborhood and saw some huge, and very expensive homes.  So if this is your home we would love a stay with you on our next trip to Aruba…hint, hint

Then after driving a short while we turned into this cute little neighborhood. The homes were all similar in size and all had a cute yard with bright island colors!

So even if these homes are one of yours, we would love to stay here too….hint again!

Since there are no street names or signs anywhere on the island it was a little hard finding the tourist places with out paying tons for a ride on a tour bus. But we found them! Here is the chapel Alto Vista. It is a catholic chapel that is around 250 years old. It was very cute. All though we aren’t catholic, and being that it was Sunday, we reverently visited in side the open doors. It was very nice and beautiful inside. Not to disturb those praying inside, we avoided pictures inside. It too was on a hill top on the north side of the island and was also very windy.

More of our last full day in Aruba tomorrow…

So we got back from the vacation we won to Aruba, last Tuesday, and we have been sharing our vacation with you. In case you have missed our prior postings read more here:
Part one – See how our flights went, with our first view of the island
Part two – Learn about the locals, driving, and our first tourist adventure
Part three – how did we win this? Check it out, and see how our first sailboat ride went…
Part four – come with us on a grocery shopping trip – with out couponsSo Saturday was our day to Snorkel! We headed back over to the same place we went on the sunset cruise. We got there early to get set up with our only coupon deal of the trip. With the company we went sailing with, if you booked two or more events with them then we got to rent a $30 camera goggles for free! I thought I did pretty good. I wore it since poor Sarah was so nervous about just staying a float.

The plan was to sail out to two different sites. The first was at an old wood ship wreck. It was in about 10-15 feet of water. We had fun after we got over the nerves of swimming in the ocean. For me believe or not, but my big scare in life is sharks. I even checked shark attacks in the Aruba waters prior to our trip. Poor Sarah really never knew how to even swim. The first day we got off the plane we jumped into the ocean and I gave Sarah a crash course on swimming. The forward motion of swimming, especially with fins, helps keep you up. So we swam and swam the first day. By the time we got out in the water after a minute or so of very mild hyperventilating, and me holding her by the arm, pulling her forward swimming, she relaxed. We were able to swim around and checked out all of the sea life. Sea urchins, cuddle fish (type of squid), and tons of fish swimming around we had fun getting used to the water. One issue we had was that our goggles kept fogging up. The standard spit in them didn’t work, and one of the tourist with us noticed us trying to keep our goggles clear, offered to give us some drops he brought, once we got back to the boat.

So as we swam around I snapped pictures and video  with my free rental of goggles. The sea life seemed so interested in us. They would swim so close, and I kept trying to reach out and grab dinner but never got any.

I am sure Dora, from Finding Nemo is swimming here some where…

After we headed back to the sailboat, we fixed our goggles with some drops a fellow tourist let us use. And we all sailed off to dive at Aruba’s famous German ship wreck of the MS Antilla. When Germany broke ties with the Netherlands that dislike spread to Aruba where the Antilla was anchored off the coast. It was a U-boat supply ship and since Aruba supplied a large portion of the fuel and oil for the war, Germany had interest in that region. When the countries broke ties, the Dutch Marines on the island gave the ship 24 hours to surrender. The captain sent all of the crew off and heated up the boilers for the engines and let loose cold sea water into the engine room and the hot boilers and the cold water exploded and sunk the ship in 8 mins.

Below are short videos I took with our Free goggle cam. There were thousands of little fish that came up and started swimming around us. George, our native dive guide who later we found out was 54 years old, could dive down 150 ft he said. In the videos you will see bubbles come up from far below. He made large and small bubbles and even a couple bubble rings from down by the sea floor. The sea was much more choppy further out. And the up and down and then the quick looking up and seeing where I was at was due to the current and trying to head the warnings of our guide to stay close to the boat. In one video you will see George up out of the water.

All tourist had to wear the life vest. When we got out we took a fun picture of the both of us.

On the way home we wanted to stop and get a milkshake. We couldn’t find anything open later in the night since most of the places that didn’t serve alcohol closed around 5 pm. So we swung by the ole’ McDonalds and ordered a milkshake. One starnge thing about the McDonalds and other American chains was that there were no tourist there, only islanders. So as we drove around to order, Sarah noticed this sign…

Yes a Chicken Mac. I should of ordered one, but it looks like two full patties of chicken breast in a normal Big Mac style meal. One thing about this is that the Big mac is basically one beef patty split in half because the meat is so thin. In the Chicken Mac it looks like two full chicken meat patties…

More Aruba vacation coming soon…

So we got back from the vacation we won to Aruba, last Tuesday, and we have been sharing our vacation with you. In case you have missed our prior postings read more here:
Part one – See how our flights went, with our first view of the island
Part two – Learn about the locals, driving, and our first tourist adventure
Part three – how did we win this? Check it out, and see how our first sailboat ride went…
So here is our second full day in Aruba. It’s Saturday and we have realized how expensive simple things like a bottle of water is at the resort we are staying at. I spent way more then I wanted to on a bottle of water on Friday night at the resort, after our sunset cruise on the sailboat. We got back to the room and I ran down to the hotels gift shop…Yeah, not a good choice but we needed the water. Although it was after the shopping trip below that we realized that the islands tap water was the best water we have ever had. The island used salt water and processes it through a desalination process. Which was awesome… But anyways Saturday morning we wanted to check out the local grocery store and went in to compare prices, and get some water.That’s Sarah showing off our two bottles of water we bought at about a quarter the price of the resorts price. So next time you travel, find where the locals shop and save money by going there. While we were inside we noticed the majority of the items were all in dutch, since Aruba is a territory of the Netherlands.

We took some photos of common items that we know are back in the states. Below is a 12 pack of Caffeine Free Pepsi. In their money  – Florin or AWG it was $12.39 or in US dollars $7.08 for a 12 pack….. ugggghhh

They must use a lot  of cheese and deli meats and sausages, because they had more employees working their cheese deli counter then anywhere else combined. And they had a HUGE selection meat and cheeses. I was shocked…too bad I didn’t take a photo.

The store did not offer gallon sized milk. All they had were Skim milk, 1% and Vit-D milk HALF GALLONS only!

In Florin / AWG it was 7.19 which in US dollar it is $4.03 per Half gallon!!!

The Philadelphia Cream cheese Fat Free in Florin / AWG was 4.99 and in US dollar it was $2.80 per 8 ounce size.

Egg-Land Best Large size eggs in Florin / AWG its 4.89 in US dollar it is $2.80 for one dozen

A pack of celery in Florin / AWG is 3.29 , in US dollar it was $1.85

To our surprise all of the cashiers had stools to sit on. Which we had to take a picture of! It always puzzled me why USA cashiers have to stand… strange.  All we bought was water… but it was fun to see the prices of items in Aruba compared to the States.

This was just the morning, so stay tuned for Sarah’s first snorkeling adventure in tomorrows vacation post.

Need to catch up on our vacation posts?

Read part one here

Read part two here

So to start off with, many folks have wondered about this trip and if there was any thing that was kind of hookey being that it was free. And they wondered how we won it. Well we won it by an ad we placed on our site for JetBlue, back in fall of 2009. I wondered if it was a legit thing too. We placed the ad, and then after 2-3 weeks I took it off our site because I tried to go back to where I got the ad coding from JetBlue’s promotion site, and the site was no longer. So with no ad, and no way to contact anyone, I forgot all about it till yearly January 2010. I got an email from the JetBlue promotion department and it said “Keep up the good work, you are in the lead with only a few weeks to go”. I was shocked. I could barely remember what they were even talking about, and I almost thought it was a spam email. So I frantically looked back in my files to see if I could find the coding for the ad, and I put it back up on the site for a few more weeks. Then in February we got an email from the promotion department saying we won. Long story short… I still didn’t believe that it was real. So we waited and waited for all of the gift certificates to get mailed and in our hands. Once that finally happened and I was able to review everything it was real!

So what we had won was free roundtrip airfare for two from any JetBlue hub – to and from Aruba. And 3 night stay at the Westin Resort in Aruba. And $800 in rental certificates thru Hertz rental car.

So what we had to pay for was the airfare from Boise to Las Vegas, since JetBlue doesn’t fly into Boise. Also an additional night at the Westin, due to our type of airline tickets could only be arrainged on certian flights and certain days, so it was either stay there and pay for like 6 more additional days to go the week before, or stay only one night more on the week we actually went on. So we had to buy one night. And then we had to buy our own food, and pay for all taxes. We had to pay a little more in rental car fees because …you will see later on another post.

So we finished our self guided tour at Fort Zoutman, thankfully they had air conditioning inside… But we learned a lot about the island, culture, and most of all I think it was the importance of conservation. Since they wiped out their island of trees.(Read part 2 to learn more about that)

So while I was driving around the island, I was taking in all the differences of their country and ours. And I saw something strange that I told Sarah to take a picture of. Notice what is wrong in the photo below?

Yes that is a super large fuel depot tank, filled with gas for the islands capital. It has a great concrete barrier in the foreground with fencing going up nice and tall for protection… So whats wrong with the photo… well it’s the parking lot that was used around the tanks. I don’t think having cars and large vehicles driving with in inches of a huge fuel tank is a good idea! KA-BOOM -  I don’t think the feds here would approve of that parking lot.

So on Friday night I had arraigned to go on a sail boat cruise off the shore of Aruba. It was a cruise to see how Sarah would even do on a boat before our snorkeling trip the next day. The sunset cruise was so much fun. We cuddled, talked, and just had fun with each other. There were about 18 other people on this huge catamaran that was probably 45-50 feet long! Personally I have been to the beaches both on the east coast, west coast and in the Bahamas….

But as you might be able to tell in the photo below, my glasses started to develop  a crust on the lens. Poor Sarah’s hair became stiff, and thick, and our skin became incredibly sticky as the longer we were out on or even near the water. It was a bit un-nerving to always be sticky on the boats. Not sure if it is just me and Sarah but the salt was intense down there.

So after I noticed my glasses were crusting over, I took them off to get a good photo of us. I love this one below. The birds, the sunset and the pink and purple sky – it is just so fun to be together.

As the cruise came to a close after about two and a half hours out on the sea, and our refreshments that they served became cold, there was a guy throwing the food out to the sea gulls. So I thought to my self I could “show” the city slickers on the boat (many from New York and Boston) how to really feed birds. So I grabbed the cold food, and hung my arm out over the back end of the catamaran. Within a few seconds one bird became brave enough to get close to me and able to keep up with the boat speed and rocking of the boat. These cute little sea gulls with black heads and about half the size of the sea gulls in North America, caught up to me and grabbed the food right out of my fingers. Once he got it, it was as if I had become a celebrity. No one else wanted to try it, but they all wanted to take a picture of the new found “sea gull bird whisperer” that I had become. They all kept taking photos of me and they kept handing me more food to feed the birds. It was fun to be the center of attention, especially since that is so not me. Sarah has the hardest time getting me to be social. Well after feeding the birds, and showing the city folks how to really feed the birds, Sarah and I returned to our cuddling and enjoyed the rest of the cruise home.

MORE TO COME….

Need to catch up on our vacation posts?

Read part one here
Read part two here