Honeymoon in Aruba

After about 2 months of being married, we went on our honeymoon. We didn’t want to be one of those couples who plan on going on a honeymoon “later on” and then never do. Luckily, we went!

We were off to a frustrating start when we missed our first two standby flight options. We made it on the third one and were only put behind by an hour and a half. Once we were there, we mostly just relaxed by the beach and were in no rush to do anything. Our skin was pretty burned from being in the sun all day, but it didn’t bother us. Beach bums with beach buns:)
Since the east coast of Aruba has rougher seas with no sandy beaches or paved roads, we rented ATVs to see the other side. This used to be a natural bridge, but it collapsed in 2005. Still cool, though. This is an awesome natural pool, protected on all sides by uneven rocks, that we swam in for a bit. Shortly after taking this picture, I completely fell onto my back. I was still holding my camera and I heard a loud shatter when I landed on the rocks. I immediately felt pain in my thumb and elbow and noticed blood. I was so nervous to look at my lens, but luckily it was just the UV filter that shattered—only a $40 fix. I was relieved, but couldn’t tell how injured I was just yet. Dave tied his shirt around my bloody elbow, but we were still noticing blood all around the rocks. It took a few minutes to realize his foot was bleeding from stepping on the broken glass. Luckily Dave, my camera, and I turned out to be alright. I still have good memories of this natural pool.
We took turns reading aloud “The Diary of Anne Frank.” It turns out Aruba is owned by The Netherlands, so we still found it fitting to read that book there. It was also cool to see the street signs written in Dutch. We hiked Hooiberg Mountain. It’s Aruba’s only “mountain.” Compared to back home, it is much closer to a hill. From the top, you could see the whole island. It’s smaller than I thought. And apparently on a clear day, you can see Venezuela.
I went snorkeling a few times with Dave, even though I don’t like snorkeling. Actually, not just “don’t like”—I hate it! On this particular time, I had enough of it and starting crying. I feel bad because I really think he thought I would change my mind about snorkeling. I told my mom that story and she said the last time she went snorkeling was on her honeymoon because she hates it too! He snorkeled a bit more on his own and dove down to a shipwreck. For some reason, this lone donkey had a line of cars waiting to say hi. Everyday we would get up and go to the beach. During midday, when it was the hottest, we would go back to our place and eat lunch. But no matter what, we always made sure to get back to the beach in time to watch the sunset. That was our favorite part of the honeymoon. I loved seeing what colors the sunset would bring each night.
We were really proud of the video we made this trip!