Maisie & Grandpa, oh-so-sweet together

Tonight is our final night in Aruba and though it's been a wonderful holiday, both Maisie and I are tired, ready to go home, sleep in our own beds and to see Eammon/Baba again. Tonight though we had the most beautiful sky after sunset and we were able to enjoy it from our balcony during dinner as the color seemed to last and last.

Maisie has had an absolutely wonderful time on this trip especially enjoying some daily one-on-one time with my Dad. Each morning my Dad is the first one up and as soon as Maisie hears him in the kitchen she jumps excitedly out of bed to go see him. Each morning my Dad makes breakfast for the two of them then they eat together. After Maisie finishes her meal Grandpa gives her a special "Aruba only" treat, half of a Dunkin' Donuts sprinkle donut. Maisie really enjoys this special time with her Grandpa and I really appreciate the extra time I get to sleep in a bit.

Once down at the beach Maisie's first order of business is to go for a walk with Grandpa. The two of them walk quite a distance and Maisie always comes back soaking wet from the waves and ready to walk again or to hit the swimming pool. Maisie has become a little walking fiend wearing out three or four adults a day. There was one day that she walked for almost an hour with my Dad from Aruba Beach Club all the way down to the Tamarijn and back. Then immediately upon their return she wanted to walk again so Sandy and I walked with her up past Costa Linda and back. She wanted to go again but I told her after lunch we'd walk again. So after lunch and our quiet time she wrangled my Mom and they walked up to Costa Linda where they went swimming for a bit but when they returned she wanted to walk some more so she and I walked down to the Tamarijn. She would have walked some more but all the available adults had walked their limit so she had to wait until the following day to do all over again.

Our trip has not been without some problems though. Maisie had a bit of a cold before we headed down here but nothing major. Then on our fifth day here, by late afternoon she started really dragging and she wasn't herself. That night she spiked a high fever which thankfully by the next morning was down and with some medicine she was feeling better, not wanting to stay indoors but wanting to be on the beach. She was much more quiet than normal preferring to play quietly in the sand over spending all day in the pool or ocean, so that's what we did. Then once she seemed pretty much back to normal the poor little girl came down with bacterial conjunctivitis in both eyes. Thankfully we were able to contact a doctor down here and in less than an hour we were at the pharmacy picking up prescriptions. The first day of trying to get the thrice daily eye drops and once nightly cream into her eyes was pure he11 but by day two she was less frightened and we got into a groove so now it's easy-peasy...thankfully! I'll tell you though, with just the first application of eye drops her eyes looked and felt significantly better which was a relief to all of us.

Our final little stress this trip was about our next trip. Maisie and I are due to arrive home in the wee hours of Saturday morning and we're scheduled to leave for London on Wednesday. But now with all the talk of a British Airways strike, even though there's now a High Court injunction blocking it, who knows if the trip will happen. At this point whether it's Christmas and New Years in Atlanta or London, at least we'll be together and we'll have a great time.

Signing off from Aruba, next stop Atlanta.