Ok, so this sounds really silly, but we did right at zero planning for our big Christmas trip this year. We booked our trip to Aruba back in April maybe because we found a steal of a deal on the flight—direct from Miami. Other than finding a couple of places to stay on Airbnb and securing a rental car reservation, we did not do any research on what to do, where to eat, etc. We did nothing.
We finished our random trip out West and kicked it into holiday mode. We had Christmases with our families and friends. We worked like mad getting ready to be out of the country, but we still did not do anything to prep for the trip. This is so abnormal for us. I normally have a few big things I want to do in a location. Jackson would tell you that it is usually the cheesiest, most touristy thing available and I would not argue. Not this time, though.
Thursday afternoon we Ubered to the Indianapolis airport with MacKenzie’s head poking out of her carrier. We had an easy flight down to Ft. Myers, grabbed our rental car and headed for Susan’s condo. MacKenzie was quite pleased to be back in the warmth. We agreed.
 |
| MacK in her carrier along with our luggage! |
 |
| TROPICAL SMOOTHIE for dinner- yum! |
Friday morning we went about our normal Naples routine and headed to our favorite breakfast restaurant, Skillets. We ran a couple of errands and hit the beach. We went to dinner at The Dock for our favorite shrimp nachos and then walked around downtown Naples taking in the holiday atmosphere. It was lovely.
 |
| Happy Petefish at Skillets |
 |
| Beach views |
 |
| There were some crazy reminders of the hurricane that hit this area in September! |
 |
| Shrimp nachos |
 |
| We got two orders! :) |
 |
| Festive Naples |
 |
| Jackson and Susan |
 |
| MacK enjoying her magic door! |
We finally came home and decided we should pack for Aruba since we left in the morning. We threw some bathing suits and towels in our bags and called it good. Maybe we are getting that hang of this traveling thing?!
Saturday morning we made the roughly two hour drive from Naples to Miami International Airport to grab our flight. Minus a few toll roads that snuck up on us (thanks for the bad info, Google), we got there without much issue. Jackson had scoured the internet to get a good price on a car rental from Ft. Myers airport (RSW) returning to Miami and he found one for $68! That was cheaper than an Uber from RSW to Naples even. SCORE! He’s so good at finding a deal.
We returned our steal of a deal rental car and easily caught our flight to Aruba. It was a short flight and I didn’t even get to finish the movie I started (I need to see the last 10 minutes of that movie!), Mystic River. I figured out later that it was an old movie, but I had not seen it and the selection was limited. I was riveted by it, though, so that flight literally and figuratively flew by. ;)
Customs were a breeze. Seriously. I think it is only easier to get into Canada. We got our little Kia rental car and headed for our first Airbnb. The island is kind of broken into two sides: the busy side and the quiet side. We thought it would be cool to see both sides so we booked Saturday through Tuesday morning at a place in the quiet area. Yeah, that was a mistake. It is TOO quiet over there. There was honestly nothing going on. There were only a few restaurants and it was not very tourist friendly.
 |
| Donkeys on the side of the road! |
We got to our Airbnb and it was much more rundown than it had been appeared in the photos. We also thought it had an ocean view and it did not. We were pretty disappointed. Our host, a nice man named Lester, did recommend a lovely local restaurant for dinner. We headed to Kaman’s Kitchen and were the only patrons there. Their iced tea was not brewed, it was mixed. Otherwise, the food was amazing. I had garlic shrimp and it was the best I’d ever had. I also had a dish they called “bami” which was basically chow mein. Lovely! Jackson had a pork chop sandwich that he enjoyed. What a relief. I generally don’t believe in eating in empty restaurants since I assume they’re gross if they are empty but this turned out to be a good one.
 |
| Kamini's Kitchen |
We found our way to a local grocery store to pick up some stuff to keep at our place since it had a kitchen. Wow. This grocery was not like one we’d ever seen. It was very small and had a limited selection, but we got some breakfast supplies and called it good. One interesting thing was that they do not sell cold milk in the local stores. They have boxed milk and drink that. We bought some as an experiment, but I did put it in the refrigerator before tasting it. I’m happy to report it tasted the exact same as milk at home when an Oreo was dipped in it. HA! :)
 |
| All the groceries were wrapped up! |
 |
| Grocery haul! |
Our bed turned out to be a double and while the place did have air conditioning, it was situated just beside to bed so it blew right on you all night. BRR! We are used to sleeping in a kingsized bed so this small bed was a shock to the system. (I understand we are spoiled, but we also paid a pretty penny for this place so I was pretty annoyed.)
Sunday is a pretty quiet day on the island so we decided to do some exploring. First we went to beach closest to our place, Baby Beach. It was a pretty nice place, really. It looked over the oil refinery, though, so you just had to not look that way. Our place had a snorkel set so Jackson headed out to see what fish he could find. I put our towels down and fell asleep on the beach. Yes, like a real homeless person. I cannot believe that I was tired enough to just pass out, by myself, in public, in a foreign country, but I was. We think I slept for about an hour. Jackson returned from snorkeling and chuckled at my sleeping, but just put his towel out next to me and soaked in the sun while I slept. So strange!
 |
| Sunrise |
 |
| A random park |
 |
| Our fancy rental car |
 |
| Jackson at Baby Beach |
We decided to keep exploring so we left the beach and took ourselves on a bit of an island tour. We went to watch folks at the beach known for kiteboarding. Wow does that look like fun! If I didn’t have a bum knee I would totally have gone for the classes to learn to do that. We eventually decided that we should not be at the beach in the heat of the day and returned to our place for a rest. It did have cable so we watched a lame movie on E! and got cleaned up to go to the busy side of the island.
 |
| A monument |
 |
| A view of the windy beach |
 |
| Kiteboarding |
 |
| Doesn't that look so fun?! |
We knew we would be staying in that area in a few days, but we were bored! We also had to get a Hard Rock Cafe pin for my mom. The important things, you know.
We found that the Palm Beach area had a lot more going on. We got gelato, hoping it was as good as the places in Australia and Italy and it was pretty close! They did not have my favorite flavors, Snickers or Malted, but it was still darn good gelato. We walked around exploring all the shops and restaurants before settling on a dinner of Mexican/Caribbean food. It was pretty good. We certainly have better Mexican food in Indiana which is humorous.
 |
| Gelato |
 |
| A McDonald's dessert stand! That's something we'd not seen! |
 |
| Sunset from dinner |
We watched the sunset over the beach and enjoyed soaking in the new sights and sounds before heading back to the quiet side of the island for the night. We were very much looking forward to changing Airbnb locations and being in the more lively part of the island.
