We have vacationed here several times and this was a cruise stop this time around. We knew we wanted to head to Arashi (one of our favorites) and also snorkel over to Boca.

After getting off the ship, we headed to Arashi by taxi.

We rented chairs and found a palapa for shade for those light skinned people in my family that don't worship the sun like Sakari and I.

The water felt a little cooler than the other ports we were in. I'm not sure why. But we quickly got use to it and then it wasn't a problem the rest of the day.

Kendra and I decided immediately to go snorkeling. Time was wasting and we had a plan. We would go down the beach at Arashi and into the water and head left. We would snorkel the area, where all the excursions bring people on the boats to, for a while and then swim on over to Boca Catalina. Then we were planning on going a little past Boca Catalina (toward Tres Trapi) and see if the starfish were still around in the area.

So, we assigned the kids to the hubby and off we went.

Now...disclaimer...I had no idea that my camera setting was not put on the underwater setting before entering the water. The last setting I must have had it on was the "miniature" (tilt shift) setting. This makes the color of things boost with bright colors and it blurs around the edges of the pictures to promote a "weird" picture. Well, all my pictures in the beginning would be a weird greenish-blue with blur. So...here you have it...

Banded butterfly fish

Hey at least on this setting the close ups were working this time around unlike when we went scuba diving.

Then we came across a rather large French Angelfish. This fish swam right beside us and stayed with us for a while. It was odd that it was getting so close and not scared at all. At first I thought maybe we were close to some eggs or something but she swam with us for quite some time. Either way, it was pretty cool.

Sea Urchin trying to be incognito but he didn't fool me.

I know it's hard to see...but I spotted a smooth spotted trunk-fish. These little guys are just so adorable. Their fins "flutter" back and forth and you would think this would make them slow but it doesn't. He wouldn't let me get too close to him and scurried off quickly each time I tried. I guess he didn't get the memo from the Angelfish that fish are friends not food.

This was some blue colored coral and it's always my favorite color to find (along with purple). You don't always see this color. But, my camera settings would mess up the coloring for my pic darnit.

Christmas tree feather dusters...my favorites!!!

At this point, we started seeing a lot of fins in the water...and they weren't attached to fish either. We had reached the area where everyone comes to snorkel off the boats anchored here. Then I noticed it...my camera settings. I had a Charlie Brown Auuuggghhhh moment and quickly changed the settings.

Evil devil...(fire worm).

There were so many schools of fish this day. Everywhere we looked they were around. There really wasn't anything too interesting or out of the ordinary during this snorkeling adventure.

We had been snorkeling for what seemed like a very long time. We had went pretty far. We came up to assess the situation and noticed we were not even close to Boca Catalina yet. Ugh!

I seriously did not think it was this far. I thought around the bend and over a little. I knew it was the next beach up from Arashi. But obviously there's a few houses before that that I hadn't accounted for. At this point, we decided it was just too far to continue on. Not really too far for us to swim, but too far to continue since we are on a limited time frame in Aruba and we had stuck the hubby with all 3 kids...2 of which would probably never listen to him if needed.

I made the executive decision to swim toward shore and walk the street back and off we went.

Pelicans were diving all around us. I love to watch them circle and dive into the water.

Blue head wrasse

Parrot fish

A swarm of wee wittle fish

A regular feather duster worm hiding in the rocks.

Kendra managed to snorkel all the way up to the shore and over the very close rocks in the water.

We made it out of the water, gathered our equipment and headed to the road for our long journey back...bare footed in the heat.

Although it was very sunny and a balmy 84 degrees, Arbua is known for being windy and windy it was, which felt awesome. We really didn't get too hot on the way back and even the sidewalk didn't burn our feet.

It was such a long swim over to where we were but such a quick walk back. Seriously...I thought it would take awhile and we were probably back over to Arashi within 10 minutes or so.

Sakari had morphed into a mermaid and was showing off for everyone on the beach.

Looking over toward the lighthouse

She's not as light as she use to be daddy!

This usually occurs at some point on the cruise and today would be the day...however, B got smart this time. He was going to let the girls bury him and make sure the sand wasn't going to get in his mouth or eyes this time around. AND he was going to be able to breathe.

Kendra was getting hungry and went up and got food. It looked so good that we decided we'd do the same.

IT.WAS.SO.CROWDED.AT.THIS.TIME!!! We stood in line for a while and then ordered. They told us to "go do something and come back in about 15 minutes". Well, we decided to go over and just sit at one of the tables. Then the crowd got "crowdier" and before long...you couldn't even see the area you pick up your food. 15 minutes had come and gone a long time ago and you couldn't even make it up to the counter. I was in fear that people were probably grabbing other peoples food because they only had a limited option, which meant everyone orders almost the same thing. I slithered my way around the crowd just in time to grab our order before someone else did and slithered my way back out quickly.

So pricing:  Can's of pop is $2. If you want a bottle it's $3. Chicken strips (which is crispy like KFC) is $10 for a basket and to add fries is $5 more. The shrimp basket is $15 (which includes fries with it) but if you only want shrimp...it's still $15.

Oh...and chairs are $7 each but if you wanted 2 chairs and an umbrella, it would cost you $30-40. They told us it's normally $40 but would give it to us for $30. So, who knows. It would be the first time we have ever rented any there because when we rent a home in Aruba, they usually have chairs for us to take and use at the beaches.

It was a lot of food and very filling. I know the seagulls just love us every time we come to the beach. The kids have so much fun feeding them and seeing just how close they can get to them.

Scuba girl...

Kendra and Kambriah started walking the beach in search of sea glass. I had already collected quite a bit and now she wanted some.

Notice she was starting to get a little red...I tried to tell her...even though it feels so good outside and not too hot, you will get burned in this sun! She said "but it don't even feel hot. I could lay out in this all day with no problems" Well no, no you can't. 😉

Aruba's famous divi divi trees. They always lean toward the Southwest, due to the winds that blow across the island from the northeast.

We had told our taxi to pick us up around 2:30pm. We wanted to get back a little in hopes that we would run into our friend at the port. One of the workers at Arashi called a cab for us and when he pulled up, it happened to be our same driver...only this time, there was no problem putting all 6 of us in the van for the return back to the port.