More Turks and Caicos photos

...'kay..apparently the folks at Blogger are COMPLETELY INCAPABLE of posting a vertical photo, so turn your head 90 degrees to the left and this is Kelly looking at a conch as big as small horse as we drove to go snorkeling.

I'm kidding. Don't remember what she was looking at. Just thought it was funny.



Kelly dresses up as a clown fish to go snorkeling.

Turks and Caicos Vacation was Great!

Got back last night from a sunny week in the Turks and Caicos Islands with my dear mother- and father-in-law. Where's Turks and Caicos you ask? It's just over half way between Miami and Puerto Rico. Check out the map below.

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We were on Providenciales island (Provo for short). About 90 square miles total.

Traveling to Provo means no wet t-shirt contests, Hard Rock Cafes or Jimmy Buffet cover bands. You spend your time on the beach, snorkeling or eating. That's it. If your idea if a vacation is yoga at 9 am, tour bus from 11:30 am to 3 pm, 8 pm musical revue after your buffet dinner...Turks and Caicos and Provo is way too laid back for you.

The whole place runs on Island Time outside of the higher-end resorts. For those not familiar with Island Time, it means that start times are frequently estimates. Do you have a tour bus picking you up at 1 pm in front of your hotel? Don't be surprised if the driver pulls up at 1:10 pm and doesn't think anything of it. That's Island Time. Type-A Personalities will need to dial things down on Provo.

Where The Hell Can I Catch The Giants Game?!?

There is a direct flight from New York City once a day, so a majority of our fellow vacationers where from the Big Apple.

Conan O'Brien stayed in the same hotel we did. I guess that is how he is killing time during the writer's strike.

Once I got over my "Holy !!#$, that's a famous person" reaction when I walked past him in the lobby, it was neat to see him just being a dad to his two cute kids and trying not to sunburn his pasty-white New Yorker skin too badly.

Sunny Carribbean Scenes

Our backyard.















These little lizards are all over the island.





You Say Gastropod, I Say Lunch

Some places are known for a certain food. I say Maine - you say lobster; Wisconsin - cheese; Boston - clam chowda; Chicago - thick crust pizza, etc. On Turks and Caicos, the signature cuisine is conch.

These are large saltwater snails and you'll find them on almost every menu on the island. Conch tastes like calamari. They're fried, used in fritters, ceviche, salads and more. Click here for conch info from wikipedia.

Turks and Caicos has the only conch farm in the world on the northeast end of the island.

In the picture below, you see the four players out behind Da Conch Shack restaurant (just south of the farm): the shell, the catch, the fillet knife and the hammer used to poke the hole in the shell.















There was a pile of conch shells as big as my Subaru behind the kitchen. They save the shells to reuse or to sell as souvenirs.