Dane and I recently took a completely unplanned trip to the island of Turks & Caicos and by unplanned I mean, Dane planned the entire thing while I was laying on the couch completely out of it after my surgery and then just asked me if that sounded good and I said, a nice relaxing vacation to a tropical destination, sign me up! (honestly, I didn't think Dane was serious so I didn't let my hopes get too high but then he booked the hotel so I knew it was a done deal!) Since I had packed for my surgery recovery and not for a tropical destination, Dane actually had to fly home for a few days and get the things we needed (like some swimsuits and our passports) then we were on our way. We first planned to fly to Atlanta then from Atlanta down to the island but we ended up having some difficulty with that plan and we missed the flight to the island so we ended up spending the first night of our vacation in Atlanta. Since we were there for the afternoon so we decided to at least check some things out and we were torn between the
aquarium (which Dane had been to) and
Stone Mountain. After talking to a few of the locals we decided on Stone Mountain. We were a little nervous to venture to an outdoor park because there was a heat wave going on but we decided to go for it anyway and I guess it is good we live in hot Vegas cause it wasn't too bad. We walked around the park for awhile (I can't believe how much there is to do there!) then we took the tram up the 'mountain' so we could look out over the city. I don't know if it is because I live in a desert now but looking out across an entire city of green with the occasionally gap for a neighborhood, was absolutely beautiful! When the sun goes down at the park they put on a laser show on the side of the mountain and that was really fun to watch! We tried to get some video of it but it just didn't turn out. Here's a few pictures from our day in Atlanta:
The next morning we headed out for the island of Turks & Caicos. For those of you who don't know where it is (like myself) here is a map:
On our way to our hotel in the taxi, the driver was telling us all the secrets of the island while singing Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry", he told us the number one rule was no levis on the beach! The locals will nail you as a tourist so in order to fit in leave the levis packed in your bag. Another rule was to try the islands famous White Chocolate Bread. I thought it was a little weird sounding but just thought ok whatever. We arrived at our
hotel right at lunch time so they took us into the restaurant to eat. After dishing up my plate I saw an entire table set up with breads of all kinds. I saw the White Chocolate Bread so I grabbed a piece and headed to the table. Well needless to say after Dane and I tried a bite we proceeded to have a piece (or two) at every meal while we were there! It was so delicious!
The rest of our time we laid on the beach and relaxed! I have never been to the Caribean before so I don't know if other islands are like this but it was really beautiful. The sand was pure white and that included all the sea-shells we found. The ocean was also not huge crashing waves like I think when I think of the ocean, it was really calm, almost like Bearlake in the early morning but it was all day. The water was not only calm, it was the prettiest turquoise color I have ever seen and so clear that you could see your toes no matter how deep you got.
We saved the last day for snorkeling just in case my eye didn't like it but all was well and it was really cool. We had a great tour guide/boat driver that not only took us to three spots to snorkel but also took us to a giant sandbar to find cool sea-shells and sand dollars and then drove us past Oprah's ginormous vacation house she has there and informed us Bruce Willis also has a house on the island.
We decided our vacation wasn't long enough and I think I have officially converted Dane to tropical destination vacations :) We had lots of pictures so I put some of them in a slide-show below.
