ARUBA!!!!

Ok, so I'm absolutely hating Illinois right now. After spending 5 days in beautiful Aruba with sunshine, warm weather, fine white sand, and clear water, I'm back to boring ass cold IL. Did I mention how much I hate IL?
So way back in the spring of this year I wasted an afternoon at a timeshare deal so that I could get a free hotel in Aruba. This was my first ever tropical vacation (not counting Florida Keys when I was like 8), and I must say it was superb. Maybe not the best idea to head to one of the best tropical destinations in the entire WORLD, but hey, who's complaining (meaning it will be tough to beat Aruba from now on). A little about Aruba if you don't know. Weather is consistent all year with highs typically in the upper 80's to upper 90's, lows never drop below 80deg...all year!!! Very little rain since it's outside of the hurricane belt, and when it does rain it will only last for a short bit. The island is small, only 19miles long by 6 miles wide and is located just 20 miles off the north coast of Venezuela. From Atlanta it was about 3hrs 40min down Oranjestad, the capital of Aruba. One thing you need to know is that Aruba is ALWAYS windy, like you will wake up to 20mph winds and they increase to 25-40mph during the day depending on where you are at on the island. This does help keep those temps feeling wonderful. The sun is intense so you need to drink lots of water and apply sunscreen often. Even with 50spf I still got some burnt areas!
I'm not going to go into much detail about the trip. We went snorkeling, jet skiing, sunset catamaran sail, and rented a jeep for a day to head to some interesting places/sites.
Here is the link to the pics...enjoy and please don't hate
http://quinnphoto.smugmug.com/Vacation/Aruba-2009/10621750_8kFXJ