I really got spoiled this year for my birthday! I spent the day at the beach with my folks and the kids while Kyle was at work.
He came home early and made me my favorite cupcakes from scratch. In the words of my father "Kyle is just too good to be true!" - Agreed!
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| My favorite cupcakes. TO DIE FOR! |
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That night I got to go out with Kyle to Opus and have Lobster (YUM!). |
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| If you look closely you can see the ocean from our room! |
Then two days later I got to go to Grand Turk - which is another island here in Turks and Caicos. Kyle had been working there so he would have to take the 1/2 hr flight every day, but had the option of staying overnight, so I went and met him! We again got to eat an amzing dinner - a fish fry by the pool on the beach.
I woke up early and went for a little jog and then went and rented a bike to explore the island with. Even though I would have loved to spend the day with Kyle, he had to work, so I really enjoyed spending the whole day alone. Never thought I would say that!
Grand Turk is completely different from Providenciales. It is a much smaller island in size (7x1.5 miles) with a population the same as Raymond. It is such a cute little island with a ton of character! It's home the TCI's Capitol - Cockburn Town. From 1600-1900's it was a huge player in the salt industry. Around 1940 fridges became houshold items and salt wasn't needed to preserve food. See how much I learned?
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| Don't you wish this was your classic car parked at your house on the beach? I do. |
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| Are you tempted? |
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| "Main Street" The post office and church below face onto the ocean. |
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| Columbus may have first hit land in Grand Turk - that's what they're claiming anyways. |
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| On my bike ride to the lighthouse. |
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| This is not what Providenciales (the island we live on) looks like. It almost made me feel like I was back in Canada to see so far! |
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| Grand Turk was the landing place of this astronaut who landed in the ocean nearby in 1962 after the first succesful manned orbit of the earth. It's hard to believe some guy fell from outerspace in this little thing and actually lived. |
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| Grand Turk lighthouse |
I fell in love with all the beautiful old homes there. Apparently it's Bermudian architecture from the Salt and Colonial Era. The one at the top is my favorite, but I couldn't figure out how to write under it.
I went to a couple beaches and the sand here isn't nearly as fine as it is in Providenciales. If you have a stop in Grand Turk on your cruise ship, don't waste all your time on the beach or shopping - take a cab over to old Cockburn town! If your planning a trip to TCI I would almost say skip Provodenciales and go straight to Grand Turk, but the beach in Provo is just too good to pass up!
After my day as Lance Armstrong I met up whith Kyle and one of the local guys gave us a ride to the airport. He knew I had been riding around all day and asked me how I liked it. I told him I loved it and that I felt like I saw all that there was to see. He smiled and said "are you sure?" I told him how I had biked all the way up the the light house and all the way down to the cruise center. He was really suprized and told me that yes I had in fact seen everything! I was sooo exhausted after, it was 14 miles of biking or more (I got lost a few times) and the last time I rode a bike was 7 years ago. How sad is that?
So while I was galavanting around the kids were with my parents at Taylor Bay (see below) catching starfish and having a blast with Grandma and Grandpa. Thanks Mom and Dad!
Oh and Kyle was of course hard at work!
