We checked out of our hotel first thing in the morning so we would be free to wander around for a while without having to worry about getting back in time to check out later and still make it to the airport.
I took a few shots around the outside of the place.
And a few parting photos from inside the room, too, like this one of our tiny kitchen.
And the bathroom. I've read other people's blogs, and I know I'm not the only one who takes photos of bathrooms on trips!
We really didn't spend a whole lot of time here since we were out exploring every day, so I'd never been to the front patio before taking these photos- I'd only walked past it to get to the rooms at the back!
We decided to spend our last few hours in Aruba doing the things we'd come to love there, and the first item on the agenda was heading back to the shallows at Arashi since we'd fallen in love with it on day 1.
On the way I just had to get a photo of this snack stand- we'd passed by it so many times during the week!
On this trip to the shallows we found so many cool critters- box crabs, stone crabs, a mantis shrimp, a polychaete, a sea cucumber (yes, seriously, I finally saw one!), and the one that made Darren really happy was a banded moray eel. We'd spotted one on the first day, and he was really, really hoping to see another before we left.
We also played with a conch and tried to get him to come out of his shell by holding him upside down as we'd been shown in Nassau last December.
It didn't cooperate. Apparently this guy missed that day in conch school.
The next stop on the list was, of course, my favorite little pool near Arashi.
Seriously? I think I could just pitch a tent on the dunes and stay here for the whole trip next time.
Oh, yeah, I ended up with some seriously wet shorts on the way to the airport. Luckily they dried out before we got there (one of the benefits of the desert climate).
We also squeezed in one more round of playing tidepools.
And then ended up having lunch right back where we'd started on the first day- Subway. :)
And soon after that we found ourselves back at the airport and waiting to go home, with me drowning my sorrows over leaving in a frozen strawberry smoothie and munching on a Ritter Sport
bar from the vending machine.This has been our most talked about, and dare I say our favorite vacation ever. We are seriously plotting ways to go back again, and soon!