Eagle Beach, Aruba

Eagle Beach, Aruba

May 12, 2012

We stayed at the beautiful Costa Linda Beach Resort on the northwest side of Aruba.  It is on Eagle Beach, one of the most beautiful beaches on Aruba.  It is a safe, sheltered beach with cool white sands, shallow waters and plenty of shade.  The resort provides shade huts, sun loungers, and beach chairs on a first come first serve basis.  However, it is a public beach with no lifeguards so swimming is at your own risk and you should pay attention to the water conditions caution flags.

During our stay, the flags remained yellow meaning that conditions exist so caution should be used.  We enjoyed walking along the beach and we did a bit of swimming in the Caribbean Sea as well.  It was very pleasant sitting on the beach listening to the waves while the sun set.  We were able to enjoy this gorgeous view for seven nights!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

Preparation for Landing in Aruba

Government of Aruba

International embarkation/disembarkation Card

May 12, 2012

Midway through our flight, the flight attendants handed out the Government of Aruba international embarkation/disembarkation card.  On one side there is a place for the card to be stamped when going through customs at the Aruba airport.  On the other side, you have to fill out your personal information, passport number, flight number, duration of stay, home address and signature.  Next to that, you have to fill out occupation, main purpose of visiting Aruba, number of visits, type of accommodation, how you booked your visit, main source for choosing Aruba and your email address.  The card is perforated down the center.   When separated the half with occupation et al and the written notice is kept by customs.  The side with the stamp and personal information is returned to you.  It is taken when going through the initial screening at the Aruba airport when departing the island.

I had never seen this type of information collection before as we usually fly interstate.  It is an interesting way to collect personal information as well as information pertaining to their tourism industry.  Tourism is Aruba's largest industry!  The official island languages are Dutch and Papiamento (a blend of Spanish, Portuguese, African, Dutch, French, English and Amerindian) but most people on Aruba speak English and/or Spanish.  What is interesting is both the US Immigration Office and the US Customs Office is present at the Queen Beatrix International Airport.  When departing the island by air, you go through an initial screening process then through the Aruba airport security.  Those traveling to US destinations proceed to an area where they pick up their checked baggage, go through customs with their declaration and then go through US security before proceeding to their gate.  Once you have cleared customs you are considered to be on US soil so there is now customs to go through when you land in the US.  It is best to allow plenty of time to get through all these check points when departing Aruba.  The lines are quite long and while they do move fairly quickly it can take well over an hour to clear the checkpoints.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

Beach Rescue Vehicle

Beach Rescue

(Cocoa Beach, Florida)

May 10, 2012  

The beach is perfect for people watching!  As I was walking back to the restaurant, I spotted a beach rescue 4 x 4.  Florida's beaches are heavily used which means from time to time rescue response is needed.  Folks don't always heed beach warnings or behave in a unsafe manner and sometimes they just simply get into trouble in the water.  Of course, there are always unforeseen medical emergencies as well.  It's quite impressive to see how well these beach rescue vehicles are equipped!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

Cocoa Beach, Florida

Cocoa Beach, Florida

May 10, 2012 

We arrived at our vacation home in the late evening of May 8.   The couple that came with us would be vacationing with us in Aruba then returning home on May 20 while we would be staying at our vacation home until May 29, returning home in the early morning hours of May 30.  We weren't flying out to Aruba until May 12 so took a little time to do some sight seeing.

One of our friends' kids works on the cruise ships and was docked at Port Canaveral so we met up with him in Cocoa Beach for lunch at Captain J's.  Cocoa Beach is well known for it's beautiful beach.  I took a quick walk down the pathway from Captain J's to take a few pictures then headed back up to enjoy a lovely lunch on the outdoor deck overlooking the beach.  It was a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours with good friends!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

Blog Your Blessings Sunday - Settling In

My gosh, we arrived home from our spring vacation in the early morning hours of May 30^th and have been going full tilt ever since.  My husband is back at the office, in meetings and has already played golf.  I'm back at the breakfast club, working on my new community garden project, trying to get my own gardens going and dealing with various service personnel working on the house while canning.  My medical tests came back surprisingly better than expected which has been a huge relief even though I ended up dealing with a very nasty reaction to a newly prescribed drug.  We opened the pool and while there was a lot of running between the pool shop and back for parts and chemicals, it cost less than expected and went fairly well.  This weekend we held the last of the season games night with eighteen in attendance.  I feel a bit overwhelmed yet surprisingly calm.  So we are settling in after being away for three weeks.  The sun is warm just perfect for getting a bit of outdoor work done and my husband surprised me with  a Jacquemonti birch!  Life is good :)

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

A Nice Ending to a Problem - Thanks Alamo!

A few days ago I wrote a little about our spring vacation.  While I still have a lot of pictures and stories to share with you from that three week period, I have to say we ended the vacation on a bit of a sour note.  We stopped at the casino on the way to the airport where my husband won $600.  Before going into the casino, we put the GPS, iPod, iPod Touch, SunPass and house keys in the console between the two front seats so we would not have to carry them in the casino.  After the plane landed and we were about an hour away from our home we realized all those items were still in the rental vehicle.  So my husband called Alamo who told him to fill out an online form.  The confirmation email said we would get a response within one to two business days.  We didn't hear anything back last week or yesterday so he emailed them with no response.  This morning he called them.  They had all our belongings and made arrangements to ship them to us via ground carrier!

We have dealt with Alamo for a number of years.  Until now we have never had a problem.  We are very, very pleased that they found our belongings and are getting them back to us as quick as they can.  It's nice to see a company that still actually cares about their customers.  Thanks Alamo!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

Blog Your Blessings Sunday - A Wonderful Vacation

We left on May 8 with another couple on our spring vacation.  We arrived at our vacation home in the sunny south late that night then did a bit of relaxing and sight seeing until May 12 when we flew out to Aruba.  After a wonderful week spent in Aruba we flew back to our vacation home.  Our friends left the following day so we had about ten days of togetherness.  All in all, it was a wonderful vacation filled with laughter, giggles, good food and amazing eye candy!  Over the three week period of being away, we took almost 1,500 pictures!  I'll share some of those pictures here over the next couple of weeks.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012