We had an outstanding time in Aruba. We got there really early, and we had to roll out of bed early for an 8:30am tour. It was with the Pied Piper group, and there was some confusion in the morning because the bus was supposed to be private, and there were a couple of women on there who weren’t part of our group. They finally got them offloaded, and off we went. Our first stop was the Casibari rock formation, where we took pictures, but not the right ones to claim the cache I wanted there. We all piled back in the bus and went off to some lava rocks; Aruba is a volcanic island and people pile them up and make wishes, so we all did that too. We went to the site of the former Natural Bridge there, which had been created by thousands of years of water wearing away at the rock, but in 2005 it collapsed - around 5am, so nobody was on it! There is still a “baby” natural bridge at the site, but all you can see of the big one is that it’s collapsed. We got back in the bus and went on a drive around the island, and the guide rattled on and on about how great Aruba is. She told us some great housing prices, and when she drove us through a fancy golf course, the housing prices there were not that much higher. A and I got to talking, and we are seriously considering buying a home in Aruba - either to move to permanently eventually, or to rent out, or to start a business from, etc. We have even been talking about learning Dutch or the local language, Papiamento, because we are really interested in Aruba. Our next vacation will be a fact-finding mission there, I think. We stopped by a real estate office in the afternoon and were again bowled over by the prices!

Anyway, after the tour ended, we got off the bus and walked around in downtown Oranjestad. There are several malls there - including a fabulous pink one - and we cruised through them all. I fretted over which “Aruba” shirt I wanted to buy, and I ended up buying two! It is such a gorgeous place and we can’t wait to go back. Moving there would be more complicated than moving to Puerto Rico: we’d both have to learn the language, there is no VRS center there, it’s not the U.S. anymore, we’d have to make twice-yearly trips back home to get our teeth cleaned (not sure why A is insistent upon that one), we’re not sure what we’d do with the cats, etc. But it’s cheaper than Puerto Rico, and much safer and cleaner. (The guide pointed out that the Holloway case was done by an off-islander, a Dutch boy.)

After we walked all we could and came back on board, it was time to get ready for formal night. Dinner was uneventful except for the baked alaska parade at the end. We went to see the production show “Thoroughly Broadway,” but - this was really weird - we’ve seen it before. They tacked on a couple of numbers from The Lion King on the end, and I’m not sure if we saw the Hairspray parts before, but I know we saw most of that show before. It must have been in 2006 when we were on the Zenith. It was clearly a different presentation, because the singers and dancers weren’t the same people, but all the costumes and everything were the same! It was downright weird seeing all that again.