Blog

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  • Beach House Meals
    Every year the Margareed family (and extended family) does a HUGE trip to OBX. We have been doing this trip for a little over a decade and love the memories and time with extended family. As you all know, I am frugal so we only eat out a few times each week which saves us a lot of money. I […]
  • Tips for Planning a Large Family OBX Trip
    As a family we are lucky to have great relationships with our extended family. This allows us to take an annual family trip to OBX, NC. People are often surprised that we can take almost the same group each year and still enjoy it. I (Ruba) am the master planner of this trip each year so here are my tips: […]
  • Places to Eat in San Nicolas, Aruba
    San Nicolas is the second largest city in Aruba. It has beautiful art murals, historic buildings, the Aruba Museum of Industry and some amazing places to eat. Each of the places mentioned in this post has delicious food, wonderful service and was reasonably priced (we stick to a tight budget when we travel). If you get the chance to visit […]
  • DePalm Island Review
    One question we get and see a lot is, “do you think DePalm Island is worth it?” Well here is our opinion…YES! Keep in mind we are a family with kids and budget conscious with everything we do! Booking tickets was easy on their website and there was even a coupon. We did the walk-in price because we had a […]
  • “The Aruba Vacation Water Park”
    On our trip, we went to a water park near Hooiberg with some friends. We had seen this park multiple times and never been on all of our trips so we made sure to do it this trip. It was $20 USD per tourist and 20,00 or 25,00 florins for locals with their ID. They were open from 10am-5pm and […]
  • Fishing Charter in Aruba
    Piston has had a fishing charter on his bucket list for years and we decided to check that off his list. We booked easily with a charter called Sunrise Charters N.V. We did a 4 hour morning charter which included bait, lures, fishing poles, sodas/water, fishing licenses, and crew. The captain took us out of Hadicurari Pier on his beautiful […]
  • Our First Day in Aruba!
    I (Ruba) am an over planner so our travel day started out as a nightmare to me. My alarm did not go off and we woke up 33 minutes late! Thankfully, the over planner in me had used the night before to pack the SUV, set out clothes, pack carry-on bags, and have a morning plan. We made it to […]
  • Aruba Restaurants For Us
    Just like activities we also plan eating out in Aruba. Our family sticks to a tight budget so we try to head to Ling & Sons or Superfoods to get groceries and cook occasionally. Here are the restaurant requests for each family member: Nitro:– El Gaucho – Chicken and Lobster – Flying Fishbone – Zeerovers – Bugaloe – Grote Berg […]
  • Freezer and Pantry Clean Out Challenge
    For the next month (minimum) I am on a mission to clean out my freezer and pantry. I think this will be a fun challenge and lead to some interesting meals. I have to start by giving myself some rules: I am still allowed to buy fresh perishable foods (eg. eggs, fruit, bread, lunch meat, etc) Whenever possible I will […]
  • Trip Planning to Aruba 2022
    Let me be the first to admit how stupid I was in my younger years. My mom was born and raised in Aruba and I had the option of visiting Aruba many times growing up. I rarely took advantage of the opportunities outside of the “forced” trips to visit family. As an adult I view our trips to Aruba differently […]
  • Start Here/First Post
    Welcome to the Margareed Family Blog! I go by the nickname Ruba and felt the need to start a blog for families like mine. We are the Margareeds and go by “Nitro”, “Ruba”, “Puck” and “Ace”. I (Ruba) decided to start a family blog because I was not seeing a lot of blogs for families like ours. We are parents […]