The Mister and the Sister: Turks & Caicos Vacation

We had a great week relaxing in Turks & Caicos. It was our first real vacation with just the three of us. We taught Lyla the art of the lazy beach vacation and just got such a kick out of sitting back and watching our girl soak up the sand, surf and sun.

We began every day with breakfast on our screened in porch. Lyla and I were on the early bird schedule, so sometimes we went for a pre-breakfast walk before Mark woke up. We had a one bedroom apartment that was bigger than our NYC apartment. The night we got in, we went to the grocery store to stock up on food and other essentials ($24.99 for a six pack of beer!!) for the week.

This was Lyla's get-up for her walk to the beach: pink sunglasses, bathing suit and yellow flip flops. She refused the sunglasses at almost any other time of the day but always had them on for the morning walk.

Lots of bathing suit changes (and lots of goofy faces)

We made our way down to the beach by 9 am and shuffled back and forth between the beach and the pool. It was hard work.

Belly shot

No more pictures, mom

Lounging

Sandy tush

Meticulous sunscreen application :). M: "Is it all rubbed in?" L: "Yup, looks good to me."

We usually had lunch at Hemingways, followed by a nap and more beach time as the sun set. We took walks along Grace Bay and Lyla liked watching her "paw prints" (aka footprints) as they were washed away by the waves. One night, we were walking about 1/2 mile from the hotel and Lyla told us she had to go to the bathroom. We made a mad dash to the nearest hotel and frantically searched for a bathroom. I'm happy to say it was a successful trip.

The first few days, Lyla napped back at the room. But she eventually learned how great a beach nap feels. We are teaching her well.

We found other places to lounge too.

Lyla wasn't crazy about the Hobie cat -- too windy and too wet. And she was disappointed she didn't see any sharks!?!?! But Mark got a sailing lesson and even went parasailing.

And speaking of sharks, there were, thankfully, none to be seen on this trip. But we did have our eye out for Provos' legendary dolphin, Jojo. We did get to see some dolphins on our boat excursion. The trip was definitely a highlight of the vacation. I'll post about it separately.

Lyla made a few friends on trip, each of whom she invited to her birthday party. As she told them, she is "still 2, but almost 3."

At night, we went to a few local restaurants and ate conch every which way you can think -- conch fritters, conch wontons, curried conch, conch creole. Do I sound like Bubba Gump? Lyla was enthralled just to go out at night. "We're going to a restaurant? But it's dark out." We don't get out much at night in the winter in NYC. She loved to look for the moon and the stars as soon as we walked out of our room. I think she could have stared at them all night.