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.