“When we’re ready, we’re ready…so just cool it Missy…” Those were the words that prompted Melissa to finally come to the conclusion that our out-of-the-blue weekend getaway was not meant to be a destination for a marriage proposal, but that of relaxation and escape. Fortunately for me, she was very incorrect.
This past weekend, I surprised Melissa, even going as far as calling into her work to get her Friday and Monday off, with a trip to Aruba. It was actually quite priceless, the look on her face, as she came home from work on Thursday, comepletely drained and exhausted.
“I have a surprise for you”
“Oh? Did you call my boss and get me the day off tomorrow” she says as she falls into bed.
“Actually I did..” Freak-out ensues.
I was able to keep it from her as to where the mystery vacation was located until we got to the airport. I finally folded while we were walking to the gate and let her in on where we were headed.
More freak-out…some tears…
At this point, I figured she had to have some idea what was going on, I mean who just pops out a surprise weekend get-away to Aruba?
When we got there, we stayed at a Marriott, which obviously was paid for through all of the weeks that I hang out there for work using my points. It was a nice place with a private island that you could only reach by taking the water taxi and there was a casino and all of that sort of thing that you would expect from a tropical island.
We didn’t do a whole lot on the first day we got there, having arrived a little after 2 in the afternoon, and the second day was spent playing in the sun, swimming in the ocean, lounging around on a hammock, enjoying the fact that we were basking in the sun in Aruba. It was all quite nice, and frankly Melissa and I both needed a weekend away to recharge.
After spending a lazy day in the sun, we figured that we should go out for dinner and figure out what we wanted to do the next day. That night, we went out to dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse, which was about what you would expect it to be and about what it is at every other Brazilian steakhouse. After dinner, which was uneventful, we went over to take a look at some of the shopping the island has to offer.
Aruba, after it gained it’s independence in 1986, was tired of paying taxes for everything and supporting the other islands in the area with it’s bustling tourism industry, so the one thing that they did upon gaining independence, was eliminate duty on anything that you could purchase there, so in essense, the entire island is a duty free shop.
In that spirit, there are 100’s of jewelry stores. Naturally, as has been the trend in the past few months, Melissa and I walked into a few of them, browsing the wares. That evening, unbeknownst to Melissa, I actually had her ring in my pocket, so as we are looking at rings and the jewelers are doing everything they can to get me to purchase something, I just quietly chuckled to myself.
After seeing about 4-5 different shops, I finally broke out the line from above. “When we’re ready, we’re ready…so just cool it Missy…” I don’t ever snip at Melissa, so for me to come out with that, she knew I was serious and that point an end to any question as to if I was going to use this trip to propose to her.
The next morning, we went down to the Thrifty rental shop to rent a car. We had discussed renting a Jeep so we could put the top down and enjoy the sun, and luck was on our side, because they had one Jeep left. It was about 10 years old and looked to be about 20. It had obviously seen many many miles of off road abuse and we weren’t going to help to extend it’s life a whole lot longer.
One of the main attractions that sounded interesting to Melissa and me was Aruba’s “Natural Pool”. The northern coast of the Island is extremely rough, and there are practically no beaches where you can swim without being smashed into the rugged coast line. The one exception to that, is the pool. The pool is protected on all sides from the rough seas and provides a haven for all sorts of fish, coral and adventurous travelers.
To get to the pool, you have to take a 30 minute off-road trip, which as we were told by the rental agent, was not allowed in our 4×4 rental. Melissa scoffed at this and that comment spurred us into wanting to experience the pool for ourselves, so off we went. After seeing a few other sites on the island such as Baby Beach, the ghetto and the Valero Oil Refinery, we made our way through the island and found our way to the start of the trail up to the pool. We didn’t know what we were in for when we started on the trail, but we were quickly welcomed into the wonderful world of off-roading. It became immediately apparent why the agent had informed us that this trail was off limits to our Jeep. After traveling the trail up to the peak, and then down the other side, we finally made it to the pool.
I would have to say that I thought it was going to be larger, but it was a moderately sized attraction, about the size of 3-4 typical swimming pools and about 2-3x as deep.
After a false start, where I had to go back to the jeep to get the snorkeling gear, Melissa and I were swimming around the pool, enjoying the natural surroundings. Unbeknownst to her, I had a surprise awaiting her, nestled in the tiny pocket of my swim trunks.
At the right moment, I swan down below Melissa and surfaced with the ring. Her face was priceless, totally shocked. Because I had snipped at her the day before, she was 100% totally not expecting anything to come from the trip to Aruba other than a nice vacation away from home. There was lots of fuss, hugs, kissed and all that sort of thing. We had a nice Mexican family that was coming over the rocks take our picture.
We spent the remaining time in Aruba talking about the wedding and what we were going to do about things coming up in the future. We hit up a few more jewelry stores so the Melissa could pick out a different band (I never intended for her to keep the one that the ring was originally set in, as I wanted her to be able to choose), but we weren’t able to find anything that was suitable.
When we got back to Florida, we met up with her whole family and some friends for a gathering at a restaurant where we told the tale of our trip.
Overall, it was a very nice experience.