I know the engagement is old news for many of you, but I wanted this post to be included in my Aruba vacation series. Better now than never!
Jeff and I hailed an Aruban taxi to the Flying Fishbone restaurant, a charming, rustic restaurant hidden away from the busy tourist areas. The place was awesome and worth it! If you ever go to Aruba, go to the Flying Fishbone for an amazing dinner experience. We had a table literally on the ocean’s edge. Our feet were in the water. Our chairs sank in the sand, making us feel like little children sitting at a big table.
After we finished our dinner and dessert, Jeff asked the waitress to take our picture together at the table. We gave her the camera, and as she backed up to take the picture, Jeff got up off his chair, moved the champagne stand aside, and kneeled on one knee into the water and sand. Initially, I thought he was trying to pose for the picture. WRONG! He said, “Sarah, I have to tell you something before this relationship continues.” I realized right away what he was doing as soon as he said that, because when he first declared he loved me, he said the exact same line. While I was holding my breath and in complete shock, he then took a ring from his pocket and held it up to me. ”I want to marry you. Will you marry me?” The waitress with the camera had no idea what was going on; she must have been caught off guard! Bless her, though, because she did snap a few!
After a stream of me saying, “What are you doing?” and “You’re kidding!” and “Seriously?” he finally asked, “Is that a yes?” I got myself together and gave a definite “Yes!” We smooched, and then we realized the entire restaurant was watching us. We were giving everyone a show!! There were camera flashes, and they weren’t only from the waitress with our camera. Thank god for that, because a fellow diner behind us got some really great photos of the engagement, which I’ll forever be grateful for. I exchanged email addresses with the awesome lady so she could send me the photos she took. True to her word, she sent me the photos. Most of the pictures here, though, are from her, and they rock! I loved how she or he took a picture of us before the engagement even happened, and they didn’t even know it would happen!
As the evening wound down and we prepared to leave, people from throughout the restaurant came up to us to say their congratulations. Even when I went to the bathroom, women in the bathroom were asking to see the ring and telling me congratulations!
See the dress I am wearing in the pictures? That dress has gone through some rejections throughout the past year and a half. You see, I bought it a year and a half ago, but never wore it until the engagement night. I took the dress with me on many trips, but never felt comfortable wearing it. I only wore it for about 10 minutes in Ocean City, Maryland. I had a sneaking suspicion that Jeff was going to propose to me in Aruba, it was just a matter of when. Since the Flying Fishbone was very romantic, I had an inkling it would happen there. As I was getting ready in the bathroom before going to the restaurant, I noticed through the mirror that Jeff was checking on me. I had two dresses to choose from: the one I wore and a coral colored dress. Trust me, I was hella debating on which dress to wear. But, once I saw Jeff checking on to see what I was doing (which was when he was transferring the ring from the box to his wallet), I suddenly decided that maybe the old dress would finally serve a purpose. Boy, it sure did! Of course, it’s not the dress that made us engaged. The dress has no relation to Jeff’s decision to propose and it definitely has nothing to do with me saying yes. Just a funny story!
I now present to you a cheerful and summery design! This website needed a new look.The previous red wine design was more of a winter look that said, “Cozy up with a glass of wine, a movie, and stay warm, unless you’re in Napa Valley!”So, I decided to use one of the Aruba photos as the header in honor of my first trip out of America and something special that happened there.Now, doesn’t this new look make you want to run to the nearest beach with a margarita?
Before I give you the third installment of the Best Memories of Aruba, let me present to you the bird.
After an exhilarating day of ATV riding, Jeff and I saw this Mickey Mouse painted on the wall of a mini-mart store in the alleys of Aruba.That alley was definitely not censored! The painting definitely gave us a laugh, especially after a long day of nearly getting killed on the ATV (or at least me, because you know, Jeff was a pro).
The next day, Jeff and I decided to chill on the Renaissance Island, because we had an early dinner reservation at the Flying Fishbone.
The Renaissance Island has two divided beaches: Flamingo Beach and Iguana Beach. By chillin’ on the island, I mean slathering lots of sunblock on us, lying on a hammock, watching iguanas and lizards slither by quickly, chatting, people watching, and laughing at flamingos that seemed to be on crack. Watch this video until the end.
Should I be worried Jeff might leave me for a flamingo on crack? Hmm.Seriously, though, I’d never seen a pink flamingo before, so it was a pretty neat moment watching them flock around. The flamingos never went over to the Iguana Beach, and I wondered why.Maybe they were taught by the staff to stay on the Flamingo Beach? Or perhaps something in the Flamingo Beach sand makes the flamingos addicted to the Flamingo Beach! Oh the conspiracies!
While in the midst of chilling on the beach, Jeff kept biting his fingernails as if he was thinking. I asked him what he was thinking about, but he kept insisting he wasn’t thinking about anything.I was all, “Bullshit! You’re biting your nails and acting like something is on your mind.”He was not thinking about the proposal that he would do that evening at the Flying Fishbone.He was thinking about how to scare me with a fake iguana!
Apparently Jeff had devised up this prank while at home before going to Aruba, because the so-called fake iguana was purchased before the vacation. He knew there were many iguanas in Aruba and that I was uneasy about the whole iguana thing. Yay for Jeff - another successful prank for his books!
Renaissance Island had other animals, such as parrots. These parrots were bickering, then turned their backs on each other, kind of like siblings:
In the same area (or cage, but that’s an awful word!) as the parrots, there was a pink duck or something.I had never ever seen a pink bird or a pink duck other than a flamingo, so I have no idea what this was.Perhaps someone thought it would be funny to spray paint the duck pink to match the flamingos?
Put simply, Renaissance Island was my favorite beach spot in Aruba. Palm beach was cool, but it was busy. Eagle Beach stank, literally. I needed nose plugs there. But the Renaissance Island? Pure relaxation. In fact, I don’t think I knew what relaxation meant until the Renaissance Island came into my life. Plus you had to take a boat to get there, and the wind while speeding to the island was bliss.
Second installment of the “Best Memories of Aruba” collection!!
ATV riding on the east coast of Aruba is NO easy feat! All the photos and movies I will show about my ATV adventure don’t do justice in explaining how crazy the ride was. No way could Jeff or I take pictures of the actual scary part, because we had to hold on for dear life. There’s nothing I can do or say to prove to you how scary this was, unless you go yourself.
An employee of Rancho Daimari picked me and Jeff up at the Renaissance Hotel, and we went through a major maze of roads to the ranch where our ATV tour would begin. Our route took us through crazy roads that were bumpy as hell. Our heads were bobbing and our jaws were clenched shut as we tried to prevent our teeth from breaking. The pink cross on the rear view mirror says it all about how jarring the drive was!
Once we got to the ranch, we had to sign legal papers to release the ranch from being sued if something were to happen. My signature on the release of liability papers probably had evidence of a shaking arm. Those legal papers SCARED ME, especially after seeing how bumpy it was on the way to the ranch. Even the rules scared me.
I was ready to go right back to the hotel and kiss an iguana instead. Jeff reassured me and said everything would be fine.
Not even a quarter mile out on my rented ATV, I already got stuck on a rock, scared shitless. The tour guide had to come down the hill and help me get back on track. He told me that the rest of the tour wouldn’t be as hard as the beginning hill. I believed him and went on. Our tour had two major stops: the Natural Bridge and the Natural Pool.
The Natural Bridge was fairly easy to get to, no major mishaps or any heart attacks. I felt good, ATV riding was easy after all!
The bridge wasn’t that awesome because it collapsed in 2005 and ruined the little pool that it used to have.
The dirt area is where the pool used to be. Next to the Natural Bridge, we saw the Baby Bridge, which was pretty cool, but nothing that makes you scream OMG!
After the Natural Bridge, we all ventured to the Natural Pool.Remember how the tour guide told me that the beginning hill was the hardest of the entire tour? WELL, HE LIED TO ME. And, remember how I said ATV riding was easy after all? I FOOLED MYSELF! Getting to the Natural Pool was scary! Keep in mind that I went skydiving before, and the Natural Pool route was SCARIER THAN JUMPING OUT OF A PLANE!There were big rocks everywhere and the hill was just as steep as it was to get to Stinson Beach, California by car. One of my tires even got flat, and the tour guide had to pump air back into the tire. That’s how jarring the rocks were on parts of the route!
Once we got to the bottom to the Natural Pool, I allowed myself to take in the beauty with Jeff, taking pictures and all. The ocean and rocks reminded me of Northern California, while the cacti and desert landscape reminded me of Arizona. So, as a result of my observations, I dubbed the east side Arizfornia.
Once it was time to leave the Natural Pool and go back up that crazy hill with a million rocks, my eyes welled up with tears and I said, “Jeff, I’m scared of dying, and if I don’t make it back alive, I love you.” I’m sure deep down he thought this was funny, but he kept a cool face and again assured me that every thing would be fine.
After the Natural Pool, we went back to the ranch. I stopped right before the ranch while nestled in the hills to take pictures. Everyone was way ahead of me and had already parked at the ranch. By the time I got back to the ranch, I couldn’t find everyone and got lost. I kept going and going, until I got stuck on another rock, with YET ANOTHER FLAT TIRE. All I could think was, “Good Lord, I’m glad this tour is over and I’m on the ranch!”
I googled the link for Rancho Daimari to include in this blog, and I found this thread about a woman who died on the same type of ATV tour. All I can say is I am glad I did not read this while standing at the bottom of the Natural Pool hill, because I would have FREAKED about going back up the scary rugged hill and would have been so determined that I would die.
I must emphasize, the Arizfornia coast was SCARY AS HELL. All the peeing I did in my pants (kidding) and close heart attacks were worth it, because I couldn’t ask for a better accomplishment than yelling, “That wasn’t so bad after all!” and “I’M STILL ALIVE!! TGALJC!!”
If I told you everything I did in Aruba on a daily basis, I’d probably make your head drop right onto your keyboard and you’d forever have a keyboard imprint on your forehead.So, I’ve decided to make a “Best Memories of Aruba” collection.
Let’s call this first set the “Pre Trip Comedy Relief.” Here goes!
While I was frantically packing and running around like a chicken with its head cut off, Jeff was scheming a prank.He downloaded Firebug, a Firefox add-on that allows you to edit a website without going live, and did this:
CANCELED!?I was shocked and was all, “How the hell are we going to get to our layover to get on that flight to Aruba!?”A few minutes later, I decided Jeff was bullshitting.He continued to play out the prank, and pulled up the airline contact info so we could call and figure out what to do. I started to believe that the flight really was canceled.He eventually admitted he was bullshitting, but then I thought he was bullshitting about bullshitting. I know it makes no sense, but that is exactly what happened until he showed me how he did the prank.I could have smacked him, but he makes my life fun.
Proof that I’d never been out of the country (or that I’m an airhead!):
Hi, my name is Sazzy and I’m from White! Where are you from?Jeff found this so hilarious and couldn’t stop laughing. I was puzzled and looked over at his Aruba immigration sheet and saw that he wrote “USA.”Oh.Right. I’m from the USA.Nationality and race, how did I confuse those two?Please excuse me while I go figure out how I graduated from college!
However, Jeff turned into the butt of the joke:
His iced tea spilled all over his shorts and he looked like he wet his pants. Now that was hilarious.
All in all, this was a great beginning to our vacation.Even if Jeff had wet pants.
Aruba was the most perfect vacation – exactly what the doctor ordered! My trip was full of firsts: ATV riding, snorkeling, sailing, going out of the country, seeing pink flamingos, and… getting engaged!
I’m overwhelmed, excited, and happy! There is so much to say about my trip, but this is the most important. I’ll get around to the other firsts eventually!
PS: No, I didn’t go into seizures for not having access to my cell or computer! Why? Because the Aruban life is so perfect (but with HEAPS of sun block, of course!). Who needs Facebook in Aruba?!
I’m truly excited for this upcoming trip. Laying on the private island, pool bar, ATV riding, jeep rental, submarine ride, and so on.
It’ll be cool to see flamingos. Check out this video of flamingos going in circles on the Aruba beach…did the flamingo drink someone’s booze or something? Hilarious. However, these iguanas better stay away from me.
By the way - picking a destination doesn’t make planning any easier than figuring out where to go!
