The hazard of trying to write up a beach trip more than a year after it happened is... I have no idea what we did each day!  I am relying on my pictures to jog my memory and on this day, my system has failed me!  I thought we went to a beach each day, but I don't have any beach pictures, so it must not have happened.

It appears that on this day we hung around the house, swimming and letting the kids play in the morning and then we headed into the downtown area of Willemstad.  After doing a bit of shopping we had dinner at our favorite, The Iguana Cafe.  Enjoy these pictures, where no one is wearing a mask because this was our January 2020 vacation! (world's worst travel blogger).

Just a reminder! This trip was in January  2020, pre-corona, so no one is wearing masks!

Since our house was kinda miserable to be in,( I'm looking at you, mosquitos) we were up bright and early every day.  We went to so many good beaches!  First up, Jan Thiel Beach.  Of the 4 beaches we visited, this was our least favorite. It is very close to a lot of condos, so it was incredibly busy.  And the food wasn't that good.  But the sand, the sea, and the sky were amazing!

When we had our fill of sea, sand, and sun (mostly sun, I tend to wilt) we headed back to the house and we ladies went out to the grocery store for supplies.  Not because we are women, mind you.  Whoever didn't go to the store was keeping the kids and we wanted a bit of an escape!  Grocery shopping in a foreign country is always fun.  Especially when it is a mix of Caribbean, South American, and Dutch food!

Provisions acquired, we had a bit of a cook out for dinner and then attempted night swimming.  The mosquitos were so happy I brought them a buffet.  Ugh!

This was one of those rare trips where we not only purchased tickets for our flight, but we flew on a different airline.  Delta doesn't fly to Curacao, so we flew American.  To be honest, it is probably a good thing Delta doesn't fly to Curacao, because if they did, I would want to go there every month.  Or every time there were open seats.  I'd probably want to buy a house there.  Can you tell we love Curacao?

A brief word about the house we rented.  It had this lovely pool.  It had an amazingly lush backyard with a play set for the kids.  It had really good reviews on VRBO.  Well, they must delete the bad reviews, because it was not what we expected.  But I blame myself, really.  When they said "air conditioned bedrooms" I should have known that meant only in the bedrooms.  

But I can deal with a lack of air conditioning, because its the Caribbean! There's a nice breeze!  True.  But the house didn't have actual windows, just plantation shutters with lots of gaps that let in all the mosquitos along with breeze.  Anne and I were so miserable.  We couldn't even sit out by that lovely pool because there were soooo many mosquitoes.  When we planned this vacation we imagined ourselves putting the kids to bed and having a glass of wine outside.  I could only do it when wearing long pants and long sleeves, and then they bit my face!  Never again!

If you are new to my trip reports, WELCOME!  Also, you should know that sometimes we have a trip planned for months, then Rob gets his schedule and we decide to go on the vacation a little early (like in 2019 when we added 2 days to our Hawaii trip at the last minute).  The same was true in January of 2020 when we were all set to go to Curacao.  

The original plan was to meet up with our traveling companions in Miami for 1 night before flying to Curacao.  Well... it was cold.  And Rob had the time off.  We decided to add a night in one of our favorite places on Earth, Key Largo!! (Read about a previous trip to Key Largo here). So the new plan was to fly to Fort Lauderdale, rent a car, drive to Key Largo, spend a day there, drive back to Miami to meet our friends, then fly out the next day to Curacao.  Whew.

The day we arrived we spent most of our time in the pool and hot tub, then we had dinner at The Key Largo Conch House.  We have only been to the Keys in the January/February time frame and this place is always empty, although I've heard it can have a long wait during the season.

The next day we lounged around the hotel for a bit and then went to John Pennecamp State Park.  Oh, and we have this picture of Anne from a previous stay at the hotel where she is next to a baby palm tree.  We tried to recreate it!

For such an extremely short stay, we could only hit up 2 of our favorite restaurants in Key Largo.  Dinner at the conch house, and lunch at the Key Largo Fishery before we drove to Miami.

And then it was time to drive to Miami, where we were staying at the Sheraton by the airport and meeting up with our friends!