Lucky for me, Aruba is a direct flight from Houston on weekends. Saturday morning flight gets your feet on the island in 4.5 hours. A 20 minute cab ride and I was standing at the front desk getting the key to my “ocean view” room. More on that later.

After quickly unpacking my suitcase, I was out the door with camera in hand. Must get a view of the beach and see if I can locate some colleagues who probably are laying on the beach and sipping some suds.

The Westin hotel, where I was staying is located in the resort area of the island which is on the Northwest side of the island. Hotel after hotel lined the beach and they had a wide sidewalk for the people to walk along taking in the sites. So when you come to a fork in the sidewalk… what do you do? Talk one and go seeking an adventure.

I took the sidewalk less traveled (really) it just happens that the direction I headed brought me to an area where the beach has public access. And they happen to be constructing a new hotel next to the Westin. So I ran out of sidewalk pretty quickly. I took these pictures before I turned around and headed back towards the hotel bar on the beach. Local brew is called Balashi. I stayed around to catch the sunset. Have you been to Aruba? Tell me about it.