Past Trip: One Happy Island, July 2014

No not Staten Island, but Aruba, which is 15 miles north of Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea. A steady breeze keeps it cool even though most days are sunny, the ocean along the western shore is calm and inviting. Aruba is one of the ABC Islands, Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, three western-most islands of the Leeward Antilles.

Our hotel's beach, but we hung out on the beach further down to the left

Just so you don't get the 2 confused, one is a Happy Island and one is where I live and for further comparison.

                                Staten Island               Aruba
Location(Lat/Lon)   40.3N, 74.8W            12.3N, 69.5W
Area (sq. mi.)           58.5 excluding lakes  69.5 no lakes
Coastline                  57 miles                     42.5 miles
Highest point           410ft. Todt Hill          617ft. Mt. Jamanota
July Temp                86F (humid)               82F always and dry and no hurricanes
July Water Temp      72F                            80F
Sand                         dirt brown                  white and soft
People                      basterds                      warm and friendly
Population               472,000                      110,600
Time to Newark       20 minutes                 5 hours
Discovered*            1520 (Verrazzano)     1499 (Alonso de Ojeda)
* by Europeans

Very similar and both are visited by about 1.5 million tourists each year, yet no one actually gets past the ferry terminal in Staten Island, while in Aruba tourists stay for weeks and come back year after year.

Highlights:

• No work
• Nice Breeze
• Nice sand

Lowlights:

• Surf was not up, so I did not get to take a lesson
• seeing people who should not wear such small bathing suits

Lodging:
Holiday Inn located on Palm Beach 20 minutes from the airport.

Same configuration as our room, but our view was of the parking lot.

Dining:
All within a short walk from the Hotel. Afterwards we walked back to the hotel along the beach, each evening we cut through a different hotel to gain access to the beach.

Taste of Belgium - Belgium, had mussels and fries and beer
Aqua Grill - Seafood [fish soup, mahi-mahi, coconut flan; salad, red snapper, 2 chocolate brownie martinis]
Hostaria da Vittorio - Italian,  my favorite of the Italian restaurants we ate at. [brushetta prosciutto, orechiette with broccoli rabe & sausage,  strega; pappardelle speciale, panna frutti o al cioccol]
Gianni's - Italian, right on the main strip, had a lot of staff. We tended to eat early and there was quite a line to get in when we were leaving. [fried calamari, spaghetti with octopus, tiramisu; salad, pasta primavera, brownie ala mode]
Papillion - French [shrimps on toast, seared tuna over rice; crab cakes, Grouper, mousse]
Le Bistro - Located in the open air mall across from the hotel. The food was good, but we were just wondering where our food came from. [salad nicoise, snapper Arubiano, key lime pie; salad, red snapper with shrimp, mousse]
There is a fountain/light show at night in the mall. It can be missed.

And we also ate at another Italian restaurant which is not worth naming, though you have to walk along Palm Beach Noord a ways to get there. I had the insalata di Mare as an appetizer which was good, but our entrees were just OK. Other than this place all the food was very good

I would go again.