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2003-03-04

Ugh, there is ugly green stuff coming out of my chest. The price we pay for having fun, no? Oh well... Now where was I?

Oh yeah, over dinner Monday night, a few of us guys discussed how much we hated to shop. We decided that when we got to Aruba, we'd just get together, take a walk and see how the day went on.

The woman on the other had, had different ideas. Not only did they plan on shopping, they went to a class on board the ship on how to shop better. UGH!!! Oh and after this class, they got a little book that got them all kinds of free stuff for only $20... Um, hello, if it costs $20 it isn't free, but any way...

The next morning I woke up and looked out my window and instead of ocean, there was a reef with a little tree on it just sitting there. We were in Aruba.

M.E. and I had breakfast and then we all met up in the Solarium for 10:00. The women headed out on their mission and the guys just sort of ambled out to explore. Our only mission was to avoid shopping, and the only way we could get sucked in was to run into the women so we stayed as far away from the jewelery stores as possible.

The crew consisted of Lobsterman, Donut, Rich-it and me. We walked and discussed how much we hated to shop and talked about the differences in men vs woman shopping. It was a true male bonding experience, so of course we needed beer. We sent Rich-it ahead to scout and he found a perfect little private resort right on the beach that was more than happy to take our American dollars in exchange for cold Coronas.

We talked some more and watched this little pird fly from licquer bottle to licquer bottle drinking from the spouts until he was smashed. The we walked back. A most productive non-shopping day.

We decided to hit Johnny Rockets, a burger joint on the ship for most excellent chili fries and burgers. Just as we were starting our burgers, who shows up but the women. They sat down two booths from us and were so excited from their shopping that they didn't even notice we were there, well at least not until Rich-it came back from the mens room.

Then we had to hear the squeels of shopping bliss. See what I bought and it was on sale... UGH... Turns out they weren't done. They just came back to refuel and drop off the already full bags of loot. The guys took a nap and later met at the pool for drinks. The day was so sucessful that we decided to do it again the next day at Curacao. And so the anti-shopping club began.

We planned on switching around different people at the two tables we had each night and since the day went so well, we went all guys and all girls. This flipped out the servers totally. I guess it is the first time it had ever been done on any cruise they had been on. Of course we discussed guy stuff like beer and bathrooms and food and hot girls. We did shooters and had a ball. We recruited 3 more members of the anti-shopping club that night.

Well just as I'm sitting down to have a drink, there is a tap on my shoulder and a familliar voice saying hey, how are you doing? I look up and it is one of my best friends, Steve who we have been trying to get on this cruise for a year. Seems he got a nice Christmas bonus and decided to come last minute after all and surprise us. Then his plane got delayed and he missed the ship and had to spend a day in Aruba. Can everybody say awwwww?

Man it was so nice to have him and Di there. It made what was going to be a good trip great. It also gave me a casino buddy.

To be perfectly honest with you I wasn't that impressed with Aruba. From the ship we could see the big refinery on the hill and all the oil tanks. Most of the island is a desert and except for the resorts and the beaches, it wasn't much to write home about.

After dinner we decided to go to Carlos and Charlies. This is a place where Wicked Sezzy would feel right at home. Guys in Mexican outfits pouring 151 rum down the throats of the patrons and selling drinks by the yard were their specialties. People were danicing on the table and there were lots of contests. An interesting place... It started to get pretty crowded and honestly the fire back home must have been in the back of everybodies minds because we left pretty early.

We watched the ship pull out at midnight from the Blue Moon bar on deck 13. Just another day in paradise.

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