Curacao and the Embassy

BON BINI!! That is Curacao's Slogan.... it means Welcome! Ben, Kimber and I successfully made it to the US Embassy in Curacao and back during the last few days. We left Thursday night on DAE (Dutch Antille's Express) Airline. Our local friends warned us about this airline.... they always have delays. Our trip was no exception. We had delays going over to Curacao and coming back... but hey, we made it!We arrived after Dark on Thursday evening and got our rental car all situated. Since we were on another foreign island in the dark... we had no idea where to go. But with my sweet skills in navigation and Ben's island driving skills... we made it to the Plaza Hotel, after only a few wrong turns :) We didn't realize how beautiful everything was until the next morning. Yes, it rained most of our visit there, but we still had a great time. This is a bridge we went over about a dozen times trying to find the hotel and the embassy. It was pretty neat to see the huge boats just beneath us as we drove over. It was nice to be on REAL roads again. Roads that didn't have speed bumps every 100 yards and not many pot holes that can swollow your car whole. There were even two lanes in some places.... wow... a real step up from St. Maarten!
Here I am with Kimber on our balcony. It was a very pretty and clean island compared to St. Maarten. The only problem was that not everyone spoke English and we don't speak any Dutch, Creole, Spanish and whatever else they were speaking.
These pictures of the Coy pond were inside the lobby of the hotel. The lobby was VERY nice... the room had some issues and a foul smell but we were just glad to lie down! There was a live band playing just outside beneath our balcony until about 2am. We definitely could have done without that, but we were so tired that we slept through some of it anyway. Here is the view from the US Embassy. If it had been a clear day we could have seen Venezuela in the distance over the ocean. Our hotel is the tall building almost in the center of the picture. I didn't get any good pictures of the embassy because it was just surrounded by a huge gated/wall and we couldn't take our camera inside. We did meet up with the consulate, who was a very nice guy from New Orleans. He took great care of us and we were on our way in just about a half hour. It was nice to be on US soil for just a short time. You definitely feel a difference when you walked in the gates. We sure love the USA!

We were also able to endulge ourselves at a TONY ROMA'S!!! It was SOO nice to be in a restraunt with refills on your drinks... which were also cold! The service was excellent... another thing we miss out on living on St. Maarten.

We pounded down the ribs and never looked back.... it was definitely one of the highlights of our short trip. We also got to go see one of Kimber's St. Maarten Grandma's. This is Gladys Busby. She just had knee surgery in Curacao and was staying at her sisters until she recovered enough to travel back to St. Maarten. We visited with her and her family for a couple of hours before heading to the airport.... where we sat again and waited for our delayed plane :) We made it safe and sound... even flying through the tropical depression which gave us just a bit of turbulance. But hey, if the plane would have went down there was a floatation device under the seats :)

**AGAIN... we need to thank Rachel and Cody for taking Holdyn for the night and all day Friday! They are the greatest friends EVER!!! Thanks guys!