A love affair

Like standing on fishes, standing on fishes....

Emma Uber

Emma Ulber's website

Loving these moody blue & grey rooms!

I was far too late

If you have not listened to "Other Lives" yet you should for they are blissful. I have had their song "Tamer Animals" stuck in my head now for days. They have a beautiful video on their website as well. I discovered them at the Radiohead concert last month.

How often do you find dead butterflies?

West Indies, you say? Provo? Turks and Caicos?

You might be wondering how do you decide to go on holiday somewhere like this? Most of the time I end up going somewhere based on a picture. A perfect example of that is when one day I came across a mysterious & alluring photograph of beautiful trees rising up out of a misty fog from a small island. It was almost like a silhouette. This was a picture taken in Acadia National Park and at the time I had never, ever, EVER heard of it. I looked it up and kept it in my mind until in 2007 I went there with a friend. I have been hooked ever since, and have been back twice. It's difficult each vacation I take not to go back there....but there are too many beautiful & interesting places in the world not to discover more. But I'm still convinced I'm supposed to live on Mount Desert Island :) FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!!!

But here we are in beautiful Turks & Caicos.

That is the beautiful water of Turks & Caicos above. This small group of islands are known for their absolutely stunning water, and it's true, you can just stare and stare and not believe what you are looking at....But this vacation has been different on so many levels. We have been spoiled. I'm afraid we will probably be disappointed at the water anywhere else we go. I thought, with the exception of the Maldives, but I ran into someone here who said the water here in Turks & Caicos is even better than the water in the Maldives. Just getting to the point where we decided on a tropical destination was a challenge. If you would have asked me a year ago if I wanted to go somewhere tropical, I would have answered unequivocally NO!!!

But now that our trip is nearing the final end, I am happy we decided on something new and unexpected for us. We had spent days searching through magazines and sifting trhough websites to arrive at the final destination of Grace Bay Club on the island of Provodenciales also referred to as "Provo" in the Turks & Caicos Islands.

We have been thouroughly impressed with Grace Bay Club. I was quite apprehensive with the whole idea of a "resort." It down right scared me...the idea of being so close to so many other people and staff serving you left and right. But I wouldn't say it is crowded here, and there is plenty of privacy. And from our view up and down Grace Bay, I would say definitely Grace Bay Club seems the most appealing having the best dining on the beach (3 restaurants overlooking the water) and I love their "beds on the beach."

I think the only other place I would have possibly wanted to stay more on this island is Amanyara (I have grown obsessed w/ Amanyara resorts that are all over the world), but they were sold out for the time we wanted except for their 3 room villas...which we certainly did not need.

But despite that I am glad we stayed here at Grace Bay Club. When we arrived at the airport they had a driver take us from the airport to the resort. When you walk in the lobby they have the manager greet you and someone else hands you cold refreshing towels w/ the scent of refreshing herbs. At first I wasn't quite sure what to do with this mysterious rag, but you have a natural desire to place in on your face (which I did :)). They then offer you their lethal rum punch! :)

Then they introduce you to your own 7-10pm concierge service. Our two concierge were Marvin & Julio who rotated shifts and took care of everything we wanted to do. We had a resort issued cell phone we took with us everywhere, and anytime we wanted anything we just dialed "2" for Marvin & Julio. One of them would answer and we would tell them what we needed: snorkleing, parasailing, massage for 2...whatever, and they arrange it for you. Pretty neat....and pretty different.

What is funny & strange is that this morning we decided not to go to the buffet breakfast that overlooks the ocean. Instead we decided to order room service breakfast. Late in the morning, we recieved a call from Marvin: "Mr. Clark, you were not at breakfast this morning." Haha the reason why they are calling Patrick "Mr. Clark" is entirely different story I'll have to tell some other time, but I thought it was funny they call and make sure you are okay since you did not show up for their fabulous breakfast. What are they thinking? Are they dead in their room?

I have many funny stories from just our one week here. I'll have to space it out. But what were the highlights?

~a giant sea turtle swimming right underneath me while snorkeling

~going to a deserted island where there shoot Victoria Secret swimsuit photos and searching for giant iguanas- and finding them!

~throwing up off the side of the boat (both of us)

~riding bikes around the island

~getting our first couples massage (patrick's first ever)

~walking on the beach at sunset

~relaxing on the beach (and by the pool)

~feeding the stray cat aka "pirate"

~going parasailing (patrick's first time)

~kayaking

~watching a drunk lady fall off a wall onto rocks and her husband not even getting out of the pool and just saying "she alright, she alright" Hahahahhahaahhahah

~oh, and how could I forget, my hair is GREEN, now. Not kidding.

Live life, live life- you only have one.

habanero & chocolate truffles- turks & caicos

Have you ever had habanero peppers & chocolate truffles? Patrick & I can successfully say we have (although I'll never do it again!). There was a cocktail hour hosted by the staff of the resort we are staying at here in Turks & Caicos (Grace Bay Club). There are beautiful outdoor lounging areas all carefully designed to stagger just perfectly so that no matter where you sit you have a beautiful view of the sunset over the water with a fire burning right in front of you. Island style lighting sways over you, with a bar nearby you can walk up and order anything you'd like courtesy of the management. I tried their "Punch with a Crunch" cocktail. Periodically the staff bring you tastings of various tapas: grapes & cheese or beef tartar. Occaisionally, a management level staff approaches, introduces themselves, and starts asking how we have liked our stay so far. There was one lady in particular I liked a lot or felt drawn to in some way. A large, dark skinned lady, smiling ear to ear and talking to us with her native accent about the local weather patterns. As she talks I try to appear pleasent and pay attention, but really I'm just picking up on some sort of energy of hers, and I'm also thinking about how wonderful it must be to live here and wake up everyday and look out over this majestic water. It's not just the looks of the water either, but the sound...I think it's really the sound that has me mesmerized.

At dinner I had grilled lobster, and Patrick had chicken. For dessert I wasn't paying much attention to what I was ordering, so I was slightly surprised when out came what you see in the picture below. If you look closely you will see there is a habanero pepper on the left side of the picture.

I tried a small piece of the habanero pepper and quickly went through a range of emotions and bodily sensations. Let's just say I ended up having to leave the table early and return to the hotel room. I won't be trying that again! LOL.

The view from the dining areas here at the resort are wonderful. There's nothing like sitting down for dinner under candlelight and looking out over this beautiful water.

Earlier in the day, we lounged by the beach and then the pool. After I had a few drinks I fell asleep on the lounging chair listening to the ocean. Then we went to the spa for our first ever couples massage which happened to be Patrick's first professional massage ever! Now, I have him hooked. :)

Providenciales, Turks and Caicos

I know, I know...I have not yet posted pictures and stories from our recent trip to Cumberland Island, Georgia for my 30th birthday, but I've been waiting on processing of all my film. I just got the prints back a few days ago and I am still organizing it all in my head. It's hard to believe I have actually set foot down in Georgia twice in the last few weeks. And in another few weeks we will be going to New Orleans for one of my best friends 30th birthday! I am already in the mood for New Orleans and have been listening to Howlin Wolf- Smokestack Lightning.

We are on our 10 yr wedding anniversary trip in Turks & Caicos! It seems like an unlikely choice for us (tropical island), but we wanted something new & different, and something that suited the kind of celebration we are trying to have--> just relaxing and celebrating us. :)

This is different than our typical trip which usually involves adventure & national parks. Although, there are two national parks here in Providenciales aka "Provo." They are hard for me to resist.

The water here is just mesmerizing, and Turks & Caicos in general is known for having the best water in the West Indies. I still repeatedly look out over the water and am baffled at the color. I've never seen anything like this.

At dinner we sat outside at a table overlooking the water. Gas fed fires and torches burned nearby with palm trees swaying above. They had ice tea and sweet-n-low which made me very, very happy. A local stray cat found us and I fed him my left over red snapper. On each of our trips I always have at least one encounter with a stray cat (even on top of a large hill in New Foundland in a cemetery!)

You can see "Pirate" here licking his chops and becoming quite full with all the red snapper and shrimp I'm giving him. :)

My favorite part so far is that our room has a large patio that overlooks the water. We leave the sliding glass doors open and listen to the ocean as we fall to sleep. There is also a view of the water from our bathtub :) We just got back from the heated pool & hot tub now. At night it is blissful. There is no one else out.

I'm back from the island of wild horses...

More pics (rolls & rolls of film developing, 35 mm, 120 mm, & my precious infrared film) to come soon.

For now, simply these 2 to hold you over :)