oh no

I just fried up my very own cheese curds.  It's official...I'm a midwesterner.

Oh, and by the way....they are tasty!!

I'm pretty sure my belly is going to revolt against all the oil, but I didn't make a whole lot (since they are better fresh) and I think, just this once, I'm going to have to just deal with it.

It's not like I make these every day!

(Damn, should have thought to take a picture.  But there are only two left now....)

Coins!

Remember my post...on my other blog...about Army coins?

I was supposed to get one from the Commanding General and he forgot?

Well, John got one for me a few days ago.  YAY!

I took pictures!  First with my cell phone.  And they turned out horrible.  So I went with my camera on the macro setting and they aren't too shabby!  Check them out....

Front of the coin.  Notice it says "Commanding General" on there with 2 stars on either side.  Apparently there is a game at Army events, where you come prepared with your highest ranking coin.  You put them on the bar and whoever is the lowest buys the next round.  I've actually never seen it played, but John usually carries one or two of his high rankers to balls.  :)

The back.  I'm excited I got one.  John has a bunch.  But I never knew I could get one.  Yay!

Time

I am horrible with time management when I don't have anything concrete filling up my day.  Like, say, a job.  It's amazing how much I get done when I have so much more to do.  However, I am enjoying my time where I get to take things a little bit slower these days.

Today, I got up, went for a run (I use the term "run" loosely.  I walked the last half.  but I did push myself...you know, before the walking.  And I did get my pulse up.  So it counts.), called my new friend, and made myself some coffee in my new french press.

Can I tell you how much I love my french press?  It may just be the coffee I purchased (bold, not X-BOLD like espresso), but it doesn't seem to have a bitter aftertaste like home brew coffee I have had before.  I still add way too much sugar and creamer, but I really enjoy the taste of the *coffee* as well as the extra flavors I add.

I have become one of those annoying coffee purists.  And yet I'm all hypocritical as I don't drink it plain.  Which, really, just equates to me being annoying.  :)  At least I amuse myself.

Back to the jobs subject.  I had a meeting with a Family Employment Specialist here on post.  I actually had no idea this person existed until recently.  John actually gave me his card about 6 weeks ago, but I didn't know what he did, so I never contacted him.  He works in the Army Community Service (ACS), which is a part of Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR).  (I just noticed part of the MWR logo on their stickers say "For All of Your Life."  Kinda scary.)
He specializes in financial planning and jobs for military families.  How convenient!  I also learned I was not "in the system."  The MWR system.  A completely different system than the DEERS system, which allows me to be John's spouse in the government's eyes and get all sorts of benefits.  Ah, Army.  I learned all this from a new Army Wife friend.  She's kind of mentoring me in this new lifestyle.  I am very grateful as she is the first one I have met that a) I would like to spend time with AND b) knows a bit about officer life AND c) isn't crazy.  I have met many others who fit only one or two of the previous labels.  I'm sure I will meet more.  I just haven't yet on this small post.  ;)

So.  It was a learning experience.  I have experience with private sector jobs, where you keep your resume to one page.  Two pages tops.  Who wants to read more than that?  I learned the federal government hiring agencies do!!  They give you five pages to work with.  (12000 characters.)  AND, this resume you submit online is much like your first interview!  In fact, if it's complete enough, you can get hired without having an interview!  I guess that just depends on how many other well trained people apply for your job.  I'm guessing with a job so general as "Admin Assistant", there is more competition.

So I've spent the last few days beefing up my resume to tell the federal sector exactly how well I can answer a phone, file and retrieve paperwork, use a computer, and receive visitors.  Not to mention book conference rooms.  The general consensus is that most things in the federal government are exactly the opposite of what you would do in the private sector.

Even our house on post.  The door lock turns the opposite way you would normally turn a lock to lock the door.  Everything is counter-intuitive.

So I'm glad I met with this guy.  And got "in the system".  And found all these other websites to apply for jobs.  I'm not hitting the job search as hard as I could be though.  Mostly because Mom and Dad are coming into town next week and I want to be free for them.  I'll get to show them all around the Quad Cities!  Woohoo!!

It should take about 20 minutes.  ;)  At least the post has some interesting things and historical artifacts.

Observations for the day

You know when it's cool in your bedroom early in the morning and you are all tucked in bed under a heavy down comforter except for maybe one arm, and you notice that your arm is starting to get a wee bit chilly, but otherwise you'd never notice because the rest of you is so toasty under the comforter?

And then you decide to bring that rogue arm back under the covers where it belongs and it's all mmmmmmmmmmmmm  as it starts to get as toasty warm as the rest of your body as you drift back to sleep?

I like that.

In other news, I went shoe shopping today to replace my black mary janes.  For other black mary janes.  I also got side tracked by this cute kitchen store in the mall and I also bought a french press.

Does that make me a hipster now?

Never say never

OK, I never actually thought  I'm never going to have to carry a propane tank across the Confederate Cemetery.

None the less, it was not what I thought I was going to do this morning.  However, I was a trooper and fetched the tank from our grill because we thought we didn't have enough.  We never needed it, but it was better to be prepared.  It was a situation that, rather than driving around (in the midst of construction to resurface the main road), it would be easier to just walk back to our house, fetch the propane tank, and lug it back to the grill area.  Which was behind the Confederate Cemetery.  It was heavy.  I got some exercise.

I also got some confused and amused looks from the construction workers watching me lug it across the road.  You can't see the grill area or the training lanes real well from the road.  It probably looked like I was carrying the tank *to the cemetery.  Not *through it.  Oh well.  :)

I also thought of something else military families are more prone too.  Trying to decide if the big boom you just heard was thunder or artillery.  It was dark and cloudy this morning, so I had to really think about it.  (This is an easier distinction on sunny days.)

Given the training the soldiers are doing, it was artillery.  It was much louder at the grill site, which was the gate to the training lanes.  I jumped *every single time* it was shot which gave CPT Leifker (the ASC HHC company commander) a good chuckle.

It was fun though.  And rewarding.  Seeing dirty soldiers covered in mud and mock blood (medical training) that had been out there for 6 hours come back ravenous and grateful.  Well that felt good.

Nuances about army life

I live on post.  And yet, you don't have to live on a post to appreciate little things about Army life that you don't encounter (well, at least *I* didn't encounter) in civilian life.

We have another FRG event today.  Selling hot dogs to soldiers who have been training in obstacle courses for 2 days and have had nothing to eat but MREs.  Apparently they are appreciative.  I just hope the rain holds out.

Anyway, they are also resurfacing the main road that runs through post near the housing area, and our meeting area to get to these soldiers.  So I got an email this morning and a follow up phone call about 5 minutes ago saying we may have to change where we meet.

To the parking lot behind the tanks.  There is a small area with a bunch of tanks on display to the public.

I'm sure there are state or national parks with tanks in them honoring our military, but you almost always see military gear on posts.  (You know I am completely making that "statistic" up.  I've only even been on 2 posts.  RIA barely even counts.)

But in my civilian life, I was never told to go park behind the tanks.

I love that I live near an area full of tanks.  Actually, to be fair, there are also Howitzers and/or canons.  John can't remember the difference between the two.

An assortment for Monday.

After this, I really have to go start dinner.  :)

This is the view of the Mississippi River looking toward Rock Island Arsenal.  John and I walked (on a GORGEOUS day) down the road and across the bridge on the left to Iowa where I took these pics.  NOTE:  I forgot to check my camera's battery status.  It was dead.  I was able to get these pics by turning on the camera really fast and then taking the picture before it died on me.  Therefore:  no zoom capability.

Yes, I know.  I'm a budding professional. 

SO.  What you are looking at is 

The Government bridge on the left.  From Davenport (where we are standing) to Rock Island Arsenal.  The road then forks off to actually enter the post, or go "around" it (meaning, you don't have to have your ID) and head on to the Rock Island bridge to get to Rock Island.  This bridge carries cars, trains, pedestrians and cyclists.  (Although you're not supposed to ride your bike on the bridge.  You're supposed to dismount.  No one ever does.)  And, it frickin' spins.  The section of the bridge that looks a little bit different than the rest way at the end (toward RIA) is the lock and allows for passage of barges.  So it spins to open.  And then to close.  Sometimes after a long time.  Backing up the rest of the car/train/pedestrian traffic.  Everyone knows what it means "to catch a barge" or "to hit a barge" if you are late coming on the island or trying to leave it.  Especially since the Moline bridge is closed right now, limiting our options.

ANYWAY.  To the right, is the Dam.

This is the back end (downstream) of the dam.

And this is looking even further downstream to the Centennial Bridge.  It looks cool lit up at night.  :)

And THIS.  Well this is proof that big bad army soldiers need comfy woolly blankets too.  He was snuggly.

Promised ages ago.

But not delivered until now.  Our furniture that we got in July.  

Notice the underdresser drawers for maximum storage.  I don't think John has even filled up his side yet.  I don't think he knows what to do with so much storage.  He still uses the old dresser in the guest room, and a plastic tub in the office.  He's a little useless at this right now.

Here we have our chest and our TV bureau.  Mmmmm, storage!  It's really a commodity when you have so little of it.  Or when you're delegated space based on the average family 20 years ago.

I don't actually know how the Army does it.  I'm just postulating.

I like it though.  It's perty.  And hopefully, will continue to look perty throughout the next several moves.

Unheard of!

OK.

So, I kind of miss Minnesota.  I was talking to Sarah about this and maybe it's not so much missing Minnesota (with all of the mosquitoes and mind numbingly cold winters) as it is missing the chiropractic community.

As a great example, John and I went out on Friday night for drinks and dinner with a boatload of his coworkers and their families.  We were supposed to go to a concert afterwards, but I don't think anyone made it.  They were doing shots when we left.  They are a fun group.

But I heard something that I would NEVER have heard going out with a group of chiropractic students in Minnesota.

"Yeah, I know my cholesterol is a problem, so as long as I take my Lipitor with my cheeseburger, everything should be fine."

!!!

Yes.  He was joking.

But, that just would not have been said among my former peers.  Yes, we drank.  Yes sometimes it was to levels beyond stupidity.  But we would not have been taking Lipitor!!  And we often discussed nutrition as the proper way to balance out the body, not to mention the ever present, chiropractic adjustment.

I just miss being around so many like minded individuals, achieving a similar goal.  It's a fun energy.  In practice, it can sometimes feel like you are trying to convince patients that this particular goal is a good one to have...not only the work it will take to get there.  I can see why people are professional students.  It's an addicting atmosphere.

I will always link Minnesota to that atmosphere, so, aside from the times where my snot was freezing, I will always think fondly of it.

About that time of year...

...when we start commemorating the events that took place on September 11, 2001.  Today, I went to a ceremony on post that did just that.  Complete with canons and guns shooting and everything.

John, however, did a bit more.

He went on a 5 mile road march in full battle gear carrying 3 bricks that were later used to make statues representing the World Trade Center Towers at 6 am today.  The Towers sculpture played a part in the ceremony today.  His feet were not acclimated to marching in his boots as he hasn't done a road march in a while.  He could barely walk when we went to work between the blisters and the muscle soreness.

Good thing he has a wife with a background in body work to take care of him.

The ceremony was cool.  Speeches and prayers, prayers and speeches.  Oh, and the canons.  Those suckers are loud.  But the part that got me was when they played Taps at the end.  Now, I hear Taps every night.  EVERY night, it's played at 10 pm on post.  It's the go-to-bed song.  They have a 9:30 song (which I don't know the name of.  I call it the brush-your-teeth song), a 5 pm song "Retreat" where they take down the flag for the day, and of course, the 6:30 am song, the well known, "Reveille".  But I digress.  I hear Taps every night, but this version seemed more moving.  They did have a second trumpet (as the good band of St. Ambrose University didn't have bugles...I'm thinking) doing a kind of echo of the first trumpet.  I liked it.

At the end, the band played "America the Beautiful" and all the attendees were invited to sing along.  At first, NO ONE was singing.  And suddenly, you could hear a few voices.  Then a few more.  In no time at all, everyone had started singing.  I didn't sing.  I was too busy smiling at everyone else and their behaviors.  I just thought it was funny, but in a cute way.

Unfortunately, I failed to bring my camera.  So no pictures.  I kind of rushed out the door without my camera OR phone.

Boo.

Anyway, here is to the men and women who died in the attacks on our country on September 11, the police, firefighters and volunteer workers who helped as well as gave their lives, and the members of our military still fighting in a war against terrorism.

Diving

One reason I like to dive...you always get to see cool stuff.  Sometimes you get to interact with animals most people have only seen in aquariums.  Sometimes that's unfavorably...like when I got "attacked" by a reef squid on a night dive in Bonaire.  But usually, if the wildlife decide to check you out rather than swim away, it creates amazing memories.  Don't worry, we're always safe and on the look out if, say, the "wildlife" in question is actually a hungry shark or barracuda.  Normally they look a tasty morsel....which is not human.

O Hai!

Stingray, trying to escape detection.  He had buried himself in sand at one point, with just his eyes showing, until he realized we knew he was there.  Hence all the sand flying off of him in this pic.

Turtle!

But in Aruba, they are known for their wrecks.  (Bonaire is known for shore diving.)  Wreck diving is actually a speciality in diving, and some wrecks are very technical and require advanced training.  Technically, I don't have that training.  But when I penetrate a wreck, it's an easy wreck.  Easy to get in and out of, and always able to see the surface (sometimes complicated wrecks can get divers turned around where they don't know where the surface is or they get lost or stuck.  That would freak me out).

At first, we saw no wrecks.  We saw coral, fish and eels.  And our divemaster posing as a shark.  He tried to convince us he was a shark, anyway.  I didn't believe him.

Spotted Moray Eel

French Angel Fish

Cool looking coral formation 

Fritz...our sharky divemaster.  He offered to take a picture of us...but first snapped a few of him...

He eventually got around to it.  I was even super cool and took out my reg so I could smile.

But we ended up doing some cool wrecks.  First, the Antilla.  Which, if you are a diver in Aruba, you just gotta do the Antilla.  It is a German WWII U-boat supply ship that was scuttled.  The Captain decided he'd rather see his fairly new ship sink rather than surrender it to the Dutch.  The Antilla lies on her left side, so everything is kind of of sideways.  It's a big ship.  More info can be found here.  It was hard to get a good perspective shot, as visibility was kind of down that day.  EDIT:  SE Aruba Fly and Dive (our dive operator) had this article on their website about the "true" story of the Antilla.  Much less dramatic, but she was scuttled, none the less.)

Top of one of the masts.

Cool shot that John took

me swimming through

another cool ghostly shot

The next dive(s) we did were the airplanes.  One is of an old Air Aruba plane that was donated and sunk in 2004 to be an artificial reef, and the other one was also sunk earlier, but was in pieces due to a hurricane that swept through in 1999.  Airplanes underwater definitely feel out of place when you swim up on one.

boo

boarding Air Aruba....

swimming down the fuselage.  thank god they took the seats out.

coming out from under the wing

Second air plane...a little more worse for wear.

huge propellers

The last wreck we dove was the Jane C.  (or Jane Sea, depending you ask.)  Apparently it was a cargo ship that was confiscated for smuggling drugs.  This was our last day of diving, and John and I had demonstrated ourselves to be pretty low maintenance divers at this point, so our team of divemasters essentially grouped us with the volunteer 19 year old dive instructor.  It was a compliment.  We were the first ones in and the last ones out of the water.

Me watching Gino 

Swimming through the cargo area.

John, doing his best impersonation of Captain Morgan on the deck

Gino, photographing at the bow of the ship

And lastly.  Here I am diving the last dive of the day at Barcadera.  It was super shallow, so we were down for 71 minutes!  (Dives usually last 35-50 minutes)  This was just a cool shot of elk horn coral, which I haven't seen in a while, and me.  Swimming right along.  :)

My new favorite book

I picked up a two books for the trip to Aruba, as I always do.  I try to find fun books, easy books, or inspiring books.  Light books, in other words.  Nothing like the book John is currently reading called "Baghdad at Sunrise".

So I browsed Target and happened to pick up an awesome one.

"The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein.

I read the first chapter (just a few pages) on the plane down and I looked at John and said, "This book is going to make me cry."

And when I finished one afternoon while John was napping after a good morning of 2 dives.  I started with a few tears, but then John busted me.  Not sure why I suddenly cry more uncontrollably once I know I'm being watched, but it may have to do with something about not being able to control it any longer.  If I cry by myself, no one can identify the few sobs that escape and that gives me time to recover.

However, as it were, John awoke from his nap and suddenly had a sobbing girl on his chest.

Don't let that deter you though.  This book draws emotion.  It's a good thing.  It's inspiring, it's funny, even withstanding the racing analogies, which I probably would have enjoyed more had I liked racing.  It still has some good metaphors for life, for relationships, for integrity, and good examples for great love.

Did I mention it's written by a dog?

I think one of the reasons I loved it so much was the theme of distrust in western medicine that runs throughout the book.  It just has some entertaining anecdotes.

Read it.  It's quick, yet it will stay with you.  You won't regret it.

Autumn

So we left for Aruba in the midst of heat and humidity (only to arrive in Aruba in the midst of heat and humidity - except Aruba has this beautiful blue ocean and we have...the Mississippi River) and we came back and .... it was cold.

OK, so it was 11 o'clock at night, but it was still chilly! A big difference from when I arrived the first night I moved here, and it was 84 degrees outside. At 11 o'clock at night.

But not now. It was like Mother Nature welcomed us home with autumn.

(Remember Austin? The brit guy I dated 5 years ago? He wasn't super attractive. All the same, I was attracted to him. He constantly reminded me that I meant "autumn" when I said "fall". I would say "I love fall." and he would say "autumn. you love autumn. Unless you love falling down too." And I was attracted to him anyway. Regardless, every time I say fall, I think of him and correct myself. So this is an autumnal post.)

I don't know how Mother Nature just knew that this weekend was the weekend to add the extra chill in the air, but she is gooood.

It's got me all nostalgic, as I am every year in the autumn.

Even yesterday morning when we went to the Farmer's Market in Davenport, it was super chilly!!

But hey, the Farmer's Market was AWESOME!! I can't wait till I have a job...then I can spend all my hard earned money there. Not just farms with produce, but organic meats, crafts, bakeries (both breads and sweet treats, like cupcakes and pies), candles, jewelry, odd things like goose dresses (I don't have a goose. I'm wondering whose goose needs or wants a dress?), cheese, maple syrup, coffee, wine, the list goes on and on.

AND!

It's open year round. Obviously more stuff in the harvest months, but they always have stuff.

And we couldn't spend all kinds of time there, because we had to get John's truck in for a service.

But I will be back.

Oh yes.

I so would like a nap right now

But sometime in the past few days, I decided I'm more witty when I'm sleepy. And so I'm going to try to see if I can be as witty here as I was in my head when we were flying home from ARUBA....

ARUBA ARUBA ARUBA!!!

Dude, we totally were just in Aruba. I have pictures to prove it.

And, naturally, we had an amazing time. Our resort, the Marriott Surf Club (Not to be confused with the Marriott. Or the Marriott Ocean Club. Which are more of hotels. We were in the time share portion of the resort), was GORGEOUS. Very well maintained. Very large. Very.....full of families. And small children. There was a largely disproportionate amount of time spent thinking "ahem, your child is 2. WHY on EARTH did you bring her to Aruba?" or "Dude, it's so 10 pm. Your 18 month old wants to SLEEP which is why he is being difficult and not listening to you. Not because he wants to browse the street vendors with you." I mean, c'mon people, REALLY???

I vowed several times to never bring kids that young, or maybe even kids at all, to a nice tropical vacation.

I will probably be one of those parents, however.

So yes. Lovely (and I do mean, incredibly beautiful) resort, with screaming kids everywhere. It was a toss up.

One of the pools at night. We also had a lazy river. We never used the lazy river though, because you had to provide your own floaties. On sale in the gift shop of course.
Up lit palm trees against the Sky-something tower. We were in the Lighthouse Tower. Two very large Towers of time share family filled fun. This wasn't even the hotel part of the monstrosity of the Marriott, however, only Surf Club residents could use the Surf Club pool. We even had wristbands for it. All the beaches were public. And a nice fine white sand. Ahhhhh...

I digress.
Here is me on the second night, I think, next to the pirate that greeted you at the Hadicurari fish restaurant. I had the Wahoo. It was delicious. John had a filet. Also tasty. He's not big on seafood.
We also sampled the local beer! John affectionately called it "Monkey Piss". He wasn't far off. They also had Amstel and Amstel Light, brewed in Curacao, and even more recently, Amstel *bright, which is only available in the ABCs (*Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao) because they incorporate some local herb only available here. So the story goes anyway....
John, having lunch at one of the hotels eateries, drinking our Balashi beers, mainly because we paid $5 for them. Food was pricey in Aruba. We kind of missed the all inclusive of hotels we had stayed at in the past. The hotel had many restaurants, but they all kind of served the same food. It was odd. Soon, we started to walk down the beach past the Holiday Inn, and near the Hyatt and the Playa Linda to cut through their hotels and to reach the shopping plaza across the street for food. Still pricey, better selection.
Here, at Guida's (I think??? I am SO bad at remembering restaurant names, right now!!) this man is making a parmesan pasta dish by setting the inside of the cheese on fire. And then he stirs it around, then he adds pasta, then he scrapes more cheese off the wheel, then he twirls the pasta in to little pillows and serves up them up on plates. You have to have 2 or more people order this to get it. John and I wanted different things. So we watched as our neighbors ordered it. I had gnocchi and he had a rib-eye. It was tasty.
Awes.
We did not eat here, as we didn't hear good things. This place was downtown too. But I had to take a picture of the stretch VW Beetle and dinosaur on the roof. My camera lens is a little hazy because of the humidity and the fact we had just stepped out of the air conditioned cab.

It was hot down there. My oh my. Hot and humid. Usually, there was a breeze around so it felt ok. But apparently, when there is a hurricane out east (such as Earl), it sucks up the trade winds, and makes things a bit more stiffling in the South Caribbean. Who knew? (I mean, besides all the locals?)

Shopping downtown. Not the shopping plaza we frequented for dinners - because that was in walking distance. Downtown was an $11 cab ride away. But we bought some good stuff here. Paintings, and wood sculpture, and rum cake.

Mmmmm, rum cake!
And the last night...we went on a dinner/sunset cruise on a fairly good sized catamaran with 34 other people. It was kinda pricey, but had the grand prize...the open bar. We had 4 glasses of champagne before dinner.

Did I mention champagne gets John drunk very quickly? Oh BOY! At the end of the night, the wait staff was putting down rum and cokes faster than we could drink them. It was a recipe for disaster, but I must have done something right, because we both survived. And even checked out on time the next day.
Awes. The newlyweds. I didn't think I got that much sun, but in this picture I look awfully dark. And my hair, due to the winds (when they were blowing) and the humidity, was in a perma-ponytail all week. The dress is nice though. A gift from John that he picked up in Hawaii when he was travelling with the General back in May.
Watching the sunset.

Notice how blue the water is? I LOVE Caribbean waters!! Crystal clear and very freakin blue.

Caribbean sunset....

there was another picture in here too, but I have decided not to post it. It was of another couple we befriended on the boat. We got to talking and they are American, but live in Aruba, and will be for another few years. He's a US Customs officer. She's a teacher turned stay at home mom. They were very nice, but I didn't want to share too much info about them. Because they were also fun. He was drinking rum and cokes too, you see. He was as happy as my drunk John here. And while it's not illegal for him to have drinks, or have a good time, I didn't want to ID him, basically. I wouldn't want other people posting pics of me on their blog without permission after all. As for me and John, we were on vacation. *He* had to be at work the next day.

In Aruba, you go through Aruban customs first, then you go through US Customs, while technically still in Aruba. It's like a mini territory or embassy or something. You walk past a sign and it says "Welcome to the United States!" after you just cleared the exit immigration for Aruba. It's kind of odd, but worked out well, and we didn't have to go through customs in Atlanta. They have separated their airport departures by US flights, and non-US flights. Anyway, we saw our new friend the next day, working! He must felt as rough as we did, but he hid it well. He wasn't our officer either. And I wasn't about to shout "YO! Dude! You feeling ok?? Man, we were so hammered!!!"

I'm just trying to be professional. ;)

So, while walking back on the beach, after successfully deboarding the boat without falling into the ocean, we come across this little dance show, which I am sure is culturally significant somehow. But we were drunk. And we stopped to watch just for a little while. Because it wasn't our hotel putting it on. And when I turned back around, I saw this.
It was clearly time to go back and go to bed. We were even supposed to go to Bavaria (a Bavarian restaurant. shocking, I know), to meet up with our new friends, which was within walking distance, but we just weren't going to make it that far.
One more before we go!
This is the site that we woke to. So pretty. So Blue. I was kind of sad to leave Aruba, but happy to get home.
And this was such a nice treat too. We had flown over some island...I don't which one. But this is some shallow water of the ocean at about 35,000 feet. (the white stuff being clouds) And there are like sand dunes down there. They were very cool looking. About 30 minutes later when I looked down, all I saw was deep blue.

Overall, a great vacation. I have an entirely different post about the diving. Because it was pretty cool as well. I just hope I get around to posting it. And it gave us something to do and somewhere to go everyday.

Because our neighbors at the Marriott were annoying. We could smell what they were cooking, or had for take out, we could hear when they were punishing their kids, and we could hear when their kids were watching Spongebob. Aside from the other gorgeousness of the resort, I probably wouldn't recommend it. While, I got a nice little peppermint infused towel to welcome me to Aruba while standing in a huge line waiting to check in, the niceties ended there. We mentioned we were on our honeymoon. (Aruba tries to market heavily to honeymooners and promises gifites upon arrival at participating hotels.) We got "Congratulations." Apparently time share owners don't get that deal. We also had to pay for room cleanings!! We didn't. We made our own bed and were careful not to soil more than the 2 towels each we received upon check in. The charges started at 13,50 florin and went up to 33,50 florin. Per day. They charged us $1 per local call. (we made 2 to the dive shop.)

All in all, maybe try the hotel side. My experience was to never own a time share with them. I just felt nickel and dimed the entire time. And constantly like I was being sold on something.

However....the stay was free. So can I really complain? No. But it's an honest review for my four readers! :D

And I still have stories about the Buccaneer restaurant, the skinny dipping chicas on the beach our first night there, the singing waiter, the singing cab driver, the other couple on the dinner cruise boat who were recently married as well..... The girl looked like Mila Kunis. (from That 70s Show and the voice of "Meg" on Family Guy. I think she was also in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall") She also looked like Katie Holmes a little bit too. And the water show at the shopping center - like a miniature version of the Bellagio show. And I'm saying it was like 1/10th that size. But it was pretty. And the Razz-berry mud slides. It was more of a dessert than a drink and it was SO tasty!

But alas, they may have to wait for another day!