One Happy Island

Now that we've had time to get settled a bit, I thought it would be a good chance to put up honeymoon pictures. I already can't believe it's come and gone - and I already feel like I need another vacation.

Relaxing on the beach. Our typical day consisted of sleeping til 11, heading to the beach for the afternoon, sipping a margarita, a cold Caribbean coke, or an Amstel Bright (best beer for the beach - only in the Caribbean) and reading underneath our personal lanai. Time to head back in around 4 or 5 to get ready for dinner out, taking a taxi to one of the many fantastic restaurants we went to, and then heading back for a happy hour drink and more sleep. Trust me, that is the life.

Our first nice dinner out was to a fantastic steakhouse. I do love some filet mignon!

The sunset sail came as part of our honeymoon package. It was just plain gorgeous.

The gorgeous view we had every day while lounging on the beach. This was taken before the tiny jellyfish larva got to me. On this particular afternoon we decided to swim in that gorgeous water. It was wonderful - completely clear, blue all around, the horizon was this cool looking purpleish-blueish, there wasn't many people around. Best ocean experience ever. Until I got back to our spot on the beach and began to itch. Then began to sting. I tried not to scratch but it was the worst itch ever. I noticed a rash-like redness spread all over my right arm, halfway up my neck, and all over my collar bone. Pretty soon I couldn't take it anymore and literally ran to our room to take a shower for some relief. You will notice in the next pictures that I'm wearing a short sleeve turtle neck. This is for a couple of reasons: 1) Because my neck and collarbone looked so bad, my vanity kept me from showing them to the world, and 2) Because all the salt in the wind and air irritated my skin and the best way to ensure I enjoyed the evening was to cover myself up.

The next day we went kayaking (no pictures because I didn't trust us to keep our camera dry). The salt water splashed all over me while kayaking and caused quite a bit of misery after getting out of the water. I stayed in the shower for at least 2 hours because the fresh water massaging my skin was the only way I could keep from going crazy. Kyle and I used one of the computers with free interntet to research what could have happened to me and the best answer we could come up with is tiny jellyfish larva that you can't see in the Caribbean. They end up clinging to you but don't sting until you get out of the water and you put pressure on them somehow. This made sense because Kyle got an actual jellyfish sting on his chest (the mark is still there now). We both agreed though, that his one real sting definitely beats the tiny little stings all over me.

Now back to pictures...
Our private dinner on the beach while watching a gorgeous sunset. I couldn't stop taking pictures because the view was so breathtaking. Our God is one amazing Creator.

Only real picture I got where you can see the tiny stings. Look at my right arm, collarbone, and neck. It looks more like a sunburn but you can tell it's different. Unfortunately it took almost two days for it to get down to this. It was much worse before.

Our last, amazing dinner out. This place was highly recommended by everyone we talked to and it definitely lived up to the praise. If you are ever in Aruba, we highly recommend a nice dinner at Madame Janette's. They even gave us free dessert and champagne cocktails...



Minus the jellyfish problem, we really couldn't have asked for a better honeymoon. It's been tough to come back to real life, but God has been so good to us. Now I'm ready for our next vacation together! Where will we go? Napa Valley? Ireland? Italy? Skiing? There are way too many vacations that are high on my list for the two of us...