"Yesterday's Dream": October 23rd:Aruba and more days at sea.

After a couple enjoyable days at sea we arrived in Aruba. I had made arrangements for a kayaking trip. I waited at the pick-up area on the pier and the kayak tour van never showed up.

Fortunately I met a couple guys that were waiting to go on a sailing/snorkel trip. Their trip representative said they had room for me. He said they would take us to the catamaran sailboat and would also get us back to the ship.

The sailboat was very comfortable and there were only eight people on the trip. (The boat could easily take 30 people.) The sailing was very relaxing and the snorkeling was good. When we got back to shore we were told we could catch the bus back to the cruise ship. Catch the bus? That's your idea of we'll get you back to the ship?

The three of us headed to the main street where a wonderful local man told us, "Just flag down the bus anywhere you see one and it will stop. Really! Sure enough, a van marked "Bus" came down the street and we waved. $2.00 for the 10 minute ride back to the cruise ship. It turned out to be entertaining. The van had the front seat plus three more seats behind it. Looked like 12 people maximum. After we got on, there were 6 of us on the bus. 3 more people flagged us down and joined the group. Now there were 10 including the driver. Stopped again and picked up one more. Looked like one seat left. The driver stopped again. A family of four wanted to get on and the driver said come on in! Turns out there was a little fold down seat at the end of each row. Of course once it was down there was no aisle to exit. Interesting. Felt like we were in a clown car in a circus. Everyone was friendly and we had a good time.

Aruba fire

When I got back to the ship Linda and I were sitting on the balcony enjoying the view of the city. Fortunately, we had the shade. Could not be out there in the sun. As we were sitting there, Linda noticed some black smoke. Really bad diesel truck? Hmmm. As we watched the smoke became much thicker and more black. Clearly a fire on the main drag behind the Diamond International store. Alarms went off, very quickly the street was blocked off and fire trucks appeared. The smoke turned to steam as water was used to put out the fire. Fortunately, it appeared the fire was brought under control very quickly.

We left Aruba and headed to Miami, our last stop where we would rent a car and start looking for a new "Keys Cruiser". Our 2003 Toyota Corolla served us well but it was time to replace it. We would be driving to Miami a number of times and did not want to break down part way.

We used our final specialty dinner on the way at the Tappanyaki Japanese Restaurant. Cindy and Randy joined us and we had a delicious and entertaining meal. The chef not only cooked but performed and had a great sense of humor.The only problem was way too large of portions. We were served many shrimp, many scallops and a large portion of filet mignon. That was in addition to the soup, rice and other sides. No way were we going to finish it. Our chef said the leftovers would be fed to the fishes so I assume the fish like that!

We decided to check out the casino given the sort of long days at sea. We used to enjoy the slot machines but it seems like most places have brought in machines we don't find fun. Fortunately, we found a couple where we could bet $.25 and they were fun to play. We started with $ 10.00. I was playing and won some but lost more. Linda took over and we were ahead. We found a fun machine called Miss Kitty and Linda increased our winnings. I think we were ahead by $10. The next day we played some more and ended up down around $10 but had a lot of fun.

When we first started the cruise Linda had talked about getting room service for breakfast and eating on the balcony. There is no additional charge for room service other than the tip. We decided it was time! We ordered room service and had an enjoyable and relaxing breakfast. The balcony is completely private so Linda enjoyed eating breakfast in her pajamas.

Later in the day, Linda took advantage of a beautiful day and relaxed on the balcony. Her favorite spot on the ship.