We landed in Tampa this afternoon on a trip to both visit my grandmother and allow Eric to give a talk at Eckerd College (our alma mater) on Wednesday. We picked gram up for an early dinner around 5 and whisked her off to Bella Brava in downtown St. Pete. We really enjoyed ourselves the last time, so we figured it would be a great place to take her. Thankfully there was a parking spot right in front, so it was easy to get gram out of the car, into her wheelchair, and in the door.

All of our dinner’s were tasty—a margherita pizza for gram, gorgonzola gnocci for Eric, and lobster ravioli for me. We completely filled ourselves up with the fried dough dessert topped with caramelized pears and vanilla gelato. We washed all of this down with the only Riesling they had, Royal Rheingau, which was light and nicely priced.

Unfortunately it’s become more difficult to talk with gram because she tends to fixate on certain things and she repeats herself often. She is much better in person (opposed to over the phone) when we can steer the conversation to the current situation, and after all, she is 88 years old. We had a lovely dinner despite this (of course) and plan on visiting with her a few more times before we head home on Thursday.

Thankfully Curaçao is small island because the road signage is non-existent and it is nearly impossible to find a straight route anywhere! After our national parks adventure, Eric managed to get us downtown to hopefully get a shot of the iconic colored buildings in Punda.

Somehow we luckily scored the closest parking spot along the water to the famous Queen Emma Bridge on the Otrobanda side of Willemstad.

(click for the large image)

We walked across the bridge to get a better view of the Handelskade and look around for a pharmacy.

(Background: my sister’s feet were painfully swollen from all the bug bites she received on the first day of our trip—mine would soon follow—and the nurse was nowhere to be found at the resort. Also, Benadryl was not sold at the gift shop or at nearby supermarkets, we checked.)

We finally found a botika and got ourselves stuck in Punda for several minutes while we waited for the bridge to swing close after allowing several ships to pass through. During these times, there’s a ferry service for those who can’t wait.

This nighttime shot of the Handelskade was taken during our dinner at La Bahia across the St. Annabaai in Otrobanda.

Because we are active travelers (versus passive vacationers), we had been looking for a Caribbean island that could offer enough to keep us busy for five days. American Airlines offers discounted frequent flyer deals in the fall to various islands, so we narrowed it down to two options that could be reached in 25K miles each and only one stopover in Miami—Curaçao and Turks and Caicos. Because we scheduled the trip in October, we chose the island that was outside the hurricane belt.

The primary reason we chose the Breezes resort was it’s proximity to some excellent snorkeling. We could have just snorkeled at the hotel and seen plenty of amazing creatures, fish, and coral. Below is the view from our hotel beach.

Our little waterproof camera came in very handy on this trip, although we needed to give it a break every 20 minutes or so to keep it operating flawlessly.

(upper left: Eric underwater; upper right: a feather duster worm; lower left: unknown friendly fish; lower right: elkhorn coral)

The other area of the island well known for it’s snorkeling is the northwest coast near Westpunt. My sister and her boyfriend, Michael, rented gear (we had our own) and we spent the rest of our morning exploring Playa Kalki near the Kura Hulanda resort. The beach was wide and private and the snorkeling was entirely open ocean with good visibility. There were several divers getting ready to go out when we arrived.

(left: blue parrot fish; right: an octopus hiding behind some giant brain coral)

The next beach we visited was Playa Kenepa beach, which was more cove-like. There was a lot of coral along the rocky outcrops on either side of the beach. Eric took this shot of me just before I scraped my foot on some coral (thankfully not the stinging/poisonous kind). I managed to get this shot of a pufferfish on my way back in to give the camera a break.

We wanted to visit Seaquarium Beach (one hotel over from ours), but didn’t feel like paying the steep entrance fee to the aquarium. I’m confident that the snorkeling is comparable to the experience at our hotel.

This was by far the best snorkeling we’ve experienced, taking into account trips to Hawaii’s Big Island (the northwest coast) and south of Cancun, at Xpu-Ha Palace.

We spent the first day of our trip lounging around on the beach and snorkeling at the hotel, so the next day we ventured out to the north tip of the island.

One of the nice things about Curaçao is that it isn’t very large, so it’s easy to see the entire island if you rent a car. We couldn’t bear to be cooped up the hotel for five straight days so that’s exactly what we did.

Our first stop was Shete Tabla. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that we were able to drive to each of the unique overlooks. Normally I don’t shy away from a good hike (especially along a scenic coastline) but the temperature was pushing 100 and I was already nursing a mild burn on my legs from the day before.

The biggest attraction is the underwater cave at Boca Tabla. The tide level was low so we were able to climb down into the cave and see the ocean splashing in and out.

My favorite part was Boca Pistol, where the water collects in an underground cave and then shoots up and out like a gun going off. Thanks to the speedy shutter speed of our camera, Eric was able to catch the phenomenon pretty well.

The natural bridge at Boka Wandomi was a little underwhelming but the coastline itself was very scenic.

After a cold drink, we drove back to Christoffel Park. We picked up two maps, entered the park, and immediately began to pray that our rental car would make it up some of the hills! The park is on both sides of the main road, so we explored more of the coast and Christoffel Mountain. It was way too hot to climb to the top, but we stopped at various viewpoints and enjoyed the vegetation. October is the beginning of their rainy season, so there was an abundant mix of cacti, bromeliads, and other dry climate plants.

I would highly recommend both national parks to anyone visiting the island… just be sure to bring some water with you!

For the record, we know that we are not all-inclusive people. While I don’t deny the convenience of not having to pay extra/carry money for meals (and drinks), I would rather have the freedom of choosing where I eat. Breakfast is truly the only meal we ever want included in a hotel stay.

We used airline miles for our plane tickets, so we wanted to continue the trend of keeping costs low by finding a good deal for our resort. Unfortunately, our first choice was booked for half our stay, so the best deal was the Breezes all-inclusive resort.

In general, the grounds were fine. We never had any trouble finding a place to put our stuff on the beach (although this is more likely due to the fact that we were there during low season) and the location was great, about 10 minutes into town.

However, the disappointments began to stack up.

Our first problem was the room—we booked an ocean front suite and what we actually got was a (ground-level) ocean view suite. Even then our ocean view was blocked by a disco that played loud music until 2am.

The resort website made it seem that the ocean front suites were actually on the beach, but this isn’t actually true for any of the rooms in the hotel. At best they only have ocean view rooms. My sister’s suite was two floors above ours and although she had a better view, the resort’s huge trapeze set-up on the beach marred what would have been a lovely view of the sunset.

The food was hit and miss; the Japanese restaurant and buffet were edible at best, but the Italian restaurant was actually pretty tasty.

Curaçao is not known for its tourism service mentality and this was clear on many levels at our resort. The bartenders were very friendly, but the restaurant service was poor, if it existed at all.

We visited a few other resorts during our visit to make a mental note of places we could stay if and when we returned. If a deal came up, I would definitely take a trip back, I just wouldn’t stay at the Breezes resort.

We are back from our trip to Curaçao!

We have plenty of information and photos to share; I’m planning separate posts on snorkeling, the resort, food, and various other sites and adventures.

Here is a photo of our resort to get you warmed up. :)

Eric sent me an article from CNN this morning about a woman who is suing her florist because he provided light pink hydrangeas when she asked for rust-colored ones. Nevermind that she payed way too much for her flowers ($27,000?), but I understand how she feels.

The florist we hired for our wedding gave me nothing but trouble from the start, but my mom insisted on using him because “other people” had used him at Medinah. His comminication was awful and I swear he wasn’t even listening to us when we clearly described what we had in mind.

Our centerpieces were a pale replication of what we asked (and paid) for but my one main stipulation was no pink. Anywhere. I wanted bright, primary colors only (my bouquet was a red, orange, yellow gradation of gerberas, bi-colored roses, and freesia).

My first disappointment was the fact that he used large stephanotis flowers in my headpiece instead of the delicate jasmine I requested. It looked absolutely nothing like I had imagined even though I managed to twist it into a better shape (he had the flowers sticking up at odd angles). I was not happy.

Fast forward to the ceremony where what did I see in the entrance archway? Pink roses! After I specifically said, no pink! I highly doubt that most people noticed/cared but Eric certainly did. It didn’t ruin the look of our wedding or cause me great emotional pain worthy of a $400,000 restitution, but I am certainly never going to recommend this guy to anyone, ever.

The BCS rankings came out this week and we were not at all surprised to see the SEC conference boasting the most ranked teams.

In fact, the Eastern division has more ranked teams than all other conferences except the Big 12 (they have six total, while we have seven total).

We wish our UGA team was doing better this year, but in a conference like this one… 5-2 is not so bad. Of course, we have a bye week and then it’s onto Florida. Gulp.

We also wish that South Florida was around when we were at school a mere 36 miles away. Go Bulls!

I finally found a wonderful hairstylist to call my very own and whilst sitting in her chair she asked me if I had any kids. I said no, but we did have a dog and she and I agreed that it was a lot of work just to have an animal around, nevermind children.

When I relayed this story to Eric before bed, he said that we were called DINKs—double income, no kids. I countered that we were more like OINKs—one income, no kids.

Gratefully, my freelance work has been steady the last two weeks. Elizabeth was recommended to a big marketing firm in Los Angeles by her old employer and before we knew it, we’ve created an ad campaign for the SPCA. I don’t know how long this good fortune will last, but I plan on enjoying it to the fullest right now.

Maybe we’re MINKs—multiple income, no kids? :)

(I could do this all day.)

This past Saturday, pup and I attended SchnOctoberFest to support the wonderful folks who made Riesling’s rescue possible. This year I donated a custom pet portrait as a raffle prize and I was delighted to see a whole bunch of tickets in my tupperware container. :)

(I actually won the raffle right next to mine!)

We also entered the longest ears contest and Riesling took first prize among the schnauzers. Measuring her was a bit of a challenge, but we determined her ears to be four inches long!

Not only did we have a lovely time reconnecting with everyone from the rescue, including her foster mom, Kathleen, but we won raffle prizes as well. Eric and I have a free movie and dinner to look forward to and pup has a variety of new toys… including a florescent orange gecko that she has very much taken to.

(Photo taken by the lovely Rhonda)