We had plenty of time for breakfast this morning since it’s pretty much a sea day until we disembark for dinner tonight. And there were extended breakfast hours because of the time change. Since Bob has to have food as soon as his feet hit the floor he gets room service delivered (usually tea, a smoothie and a banana for him – coffee for me) to tide him over until we actually have breakfast. So he puts the breakfast menu out with delivery between 7:30-8:00. Seems reasonable, right? Yeah, until you remember that’s really 6:30-7:00. And we have nowhere we have to be today until dinner reservations at 5:30pm. (Rolling eyes here.) Good thing we had nothing planned today and could just veg out (again).We found chairs in the Solarium and planted to read. Well, I read. Bob did more people watching than anything else. DE and Sarah found us sometime before lunch and relayed their casino stories. Sarah come close to having a knock down drag out with a couple of ladies at the black jack table trying to tell her how to play. (Note to self: don’t tell Sarah when, or not, to take a hit. She don’t like that.) After lunch that’s exactly where we ended up again. They played, I watched. Maybe one day I’ll join them – once I feel like I understand enough about the game. Everyone is in the black and playing with the casino’s money – for now – so that’s a good thing. We hung around there until about 2:00 and the ship was scheduled to dock at 3:00 so we went wandering to find a good spot to watch. We can see some from our balcony but I wanted to see more. I just love watching the ship pull into the pier. It’s weird though – we noticed that the ABC islands just don’t feel as Caribbeany as the ones we been to on the Summit. Those islands (St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Dominica, Barbados, Grenada, St. Croix, St. Kitts, etc) have real ports with real shopping and live island music playing to greet you. Grand Cayman didn’t have anything – well we had to tender to that island so no welcoming anything there. Nothing in Cartagena. There’s a port here in Aruba but it’s pretty small and most of the souvenirs are junky stuff. Aruba is very westernized and commercialized. There’s a Pizza Hut right across the street from where we’re docked. From what we’ve seen it isn’t the prettiest of the Caribbean islands, but there are people who just love it.

Since we didn’t know exactly how long it would take to get a taxi and get to the restaurant we met on the dock around 4:15. Figured if we were early we’d just wait. The prime tables were first come first serve. Wouldn’t you know it, there was a cab right outside the port that could take us. Even with traffic we were at the Barefoot Restaurant in 15 minutes or so. They didn’t even open until 5:00. So we just waited. Seated a little after 5:00 the sun was still strong and it was quite warm. But we were on the beach with our feet in the sand!

We started out with drinks and Dutch style crab cakes for an appetizer – awesome! DE and Sarah demonstrated how to do tequila shots – video. Bob and Sarah ordered the blackened mahi mahi and couldn’t say enough about it. My entree was garlic shrimp and it was also wonderful. DE ordered a trio of fish that made him feel stuffed to the gills. They had coffee creme brûlée and he was too full to eat any! What? So Sarah ordered it instead. It was yummmy. Bob and I shared a strained Greek yogurt with white chocolate and fruit compote kind of dessert. It was also wonderful. All this time tables are filling up left and right and the clouds have parted, for the most part, and that big orange ball is sinking. Colors are starting to fill the sky and everyone is snapping pictures all over the place. (My card reader is not working for some strange reason I haven’t been able to figure out so it looks like I won’t be able to really see any of my pics until we get home. It really bites!) Hopefully I got some decent shots. Our taxi cab driver on the way back to the ship highly recommended we try The Flying Fishbowl next time too. Said it’s a little further up but worth it.

The guys hit the blackjack table again until it was time to head to the theater for the juggling comedian, Pete Matthews. Oh man. That boy is really not right. First, he’s very good at juggling. Second, he’s funny as hell. Third, it’s just hilarious to watch him make loads of fun of all the older people on the ship. He takes no prisoners. And nothing is sacred. He’s the kind of comedian who could do 6 shows back to back and they’d all be different because he plays off of the audience. Would love to see him again.

Tomorrow we’ll hit the beach and hopefully get some snorkeling in. We need to practice before we get to Bonaire – that’s the real snorkeling excursion we’re looking forward to. It’s been booked for over a year.

Until tomorrow!

Next day ..