Turks Trip

We planned on a return trip to Destin in September but with the disastrous BP oil spill, I just didn't want to pull the trigger on a beach condo without a full oil spill guarantee. After getting conflicting reports about water and beach quality, we decided to spend a little extra money and get a condo in the Turks and Caicos, a place I had always wanted to travel to.


What a good choice it turned out to be. Wow. We stayed at a small nice resort right on the beach no more than 50 feet from the ocean. We had a 2nd floor unit in the only oceanfront building. Abby was the only kid there under 10, and there were few if any kids at all, but it had calm, crystal clear warm water and sand that felt like powdered sugar, and so Abby was set! Being the low season, there were no more than 20 people on the beach at our resort at any given time, so we almost had the place to ourselves. Our condo had a full kitchen and great view of our little playground each day. I could tell that most of the guests (about half Europeans, half Americans) at the resort were not too happy to see a 3 year old arrive, however, by day 2, most of the guests personally came up to me and told me that Abby was the most happy, joyous, well behaved child they had ever seen. I would have to agree with them on this vacation. Abby's behavior from start to finish including air travel was exceptional. Abby is pretty well behaved anyway, but she was just a dream on this trip. She just loves loves loves the beach and could not get enough of the water. She would just take off without her floaties and run toward the ocean, and I would have to go from a sitting position to a full on sprint to catch her. I don't get how she is afraid of insects but not the ocean - not at all.

I don't have any pictures but one of the highlights of the trip for Abby was watching a rather large bird stalk a huge crab that was crawling on the pool deck into the bushes. Next thing we know, the bird grabbed the crab and crab legs and body parts were flying everywhere. It was totally crazy and probably the most violent thing Abby has witnessed to date! Abby actually thought it was amazing, but I had to keep her out of the line of fire because the crab was just virtually shredded right before our eyes.

We did only minimal sightseeing because we wanted to have a low key vacation swimming and just playing in the sand. Also, we went in the off season, and a lot of the island was shut down. Next time we go, we will do a few excursions and go a little earlier in the season as well. I just can't wait to go back!