Aruba 2022

The alarm went off at 5AM and at 6, we boarded the shuttle for Newark Liberty.  Anticipating a brutal security line-up, we actually got through in minutes and were settled at our gate with an hour to spare before the boarding time.  All 179 seats on our United flight were sold out, but despite the large number of passengers, the door closed five minutes before the departure time.  It was a smooth 4 1/2 hour flight, and we landed half an hour early.  Customs took just minutes, and we were soon on a shuttle to pick up our rental car. The Dutch influence (Aruba is a Dutch territory) was immediately felt, as we drove north from the Queen Beatrix International Airport to the resort where we are staying - Riu Palace.   It didn’t take us long to get out onto the beautiful beach and into the warm Caribbean.  Aruba, along with nearby islands Bonaire and Curaçao — which together form the “ABC Islands” — is a stone’s throw from Venezuela.   As we sat on the beac...

For the last dozen or so years, our annual Remembrance Day weekend jaunt south has been something we’ve looked forward - both as a mid-Fall break amidst the madness of work, and also as an opp to take a deep breath before the Christmas madness kicks in. When I booked this trip last New Year’s Eve, it seemed like an eternity away. And given the uncertainty of Covid, we didn’t know if it would even come to fruition. But alas, departure day is here! We were up waaaay before dawn this morning. I did a 6AM > 2PM work day and then left to pick Pam up at school. It was her school choir’s premier today, at the school’s Remembrance Day ceremony. So when she got in the car at 2:30, we looked at each other and both did a huge sigh of relief that the work day was behind us. By 3PM we were at the airport, through security, and sitting in the Maple Leaf Lounge for a bite of lunch - neither of us had eaten all day, so we were famished.  The flight to Toronto was packed, but it was quite comfo...