It's My Birthday

Today was the magic day!  61 today.......

It really was a great birthday! It started with a private dining breakfast.  We went to the restaurant at the resort and as it turned up out we were the only ones there.  Art laughed and said he planned it.  Then we hung out at the beach.

I found a place where I actually sweat from being so hot.  It is such a foreign concept for me.  But man was it ever hot.....and humid.  We got in the ocean to cool off but even at that it was just so hot that we decided to spend the afternoon at the condo where there was air-conditioning.  

We had a lovely dinner.  Then off to the local casino to celebrate.  It was a little scary at first.  It was like the movies.  Two big men guarding the door.  They looked through my purse they did the metal detector wand.  We passed and they let us in. Art gave me $61 to spend.  But I found out from one of the dealers that they celebrate birthday's.  I gave them money equal to my age and they doubled it in free chips.  I also got cake, champagne, tiara and sash.  They even played a drum and sang.  It was awesome.  I left the champagne but I kept the rest.  The man next to me gave me a 5 dollar chip for my birthday.  So fun!!!  I did terrible... Art did better but we had a great time.  Heard from loved ones and friends sending wonderful birthday wishes.   

Tomorrow we are exploring the island on the love buggy's.  Should be fun. 

This has been an awesome birthday!!! 

If I Had to Describe

If I had to describe this day in one word it would be blast.  Today was an absolute blast!!!!  We had a snorkeling tour scheduled today so we got up early as not to miss it.  Well early for me but certainly not for Art.  We grabbed a quick bite from the room and headed down to the beach.  We walked down to where we thought the boat was suppose to pick us up.  We were told it was a black catamaran.  There was another black boat that pulled in a little ways from our hotel.  I was worried that was our boat and we would miss it so we hurried down to it.  It was not close by any means. It was more than a 5 minute walk through sand.  I was pooped by the time we got there but then I am out of shape and have a bad knee. Turned out it was not our boat but...... there were others there waiting for the same boat we were.   The boat arrived picked us all up then went to the spot we were originally at.  Ugh..... we could have stayed.  My fault!  

Anyway,  we headed out and on our way we there was another boat and there was a cute dolphin jumping it's wake.  Our boat captain saw it and high tailed it over so we could all watch.  it was so cool.  The world's third largest reef is here and we went to it. There were about thirty people on our boat including about 10 kids.  Not everyone but most jumped off to snorkel.  I of course was one of them.

There was a family with three daughters snorkeling.  The girls freaked out once they got in the water.  I stopped to talked to them and told them what I do to start and they tried it and out calmed two of the girls down and the dad concentrated on the third one.  The two girls  had a great time after that.  There were thousand of fish.... I am not kidding.  I have never seen so many and so many different kinds of fish.  It was just incredible.  I even saw a turtle. That was a huge surprise.    

After snorkeling, we went to a island that had a lagoon in the middle.  That was pretty cool.  The lagoon was really warm.  Another boat pulled in and they had a couple conchs.  The first mate and captain of that boat pulled the living creature out and those of the boat ate it.  No thanks!!!  But I was watching and the captain of that boat told me to pick the conch up and he would take my picture.  He took a bunch.  

We then got back on the boat and had turkey wraps and a drink for lunch.  I am a fan of wraps but I will say that was one of the best wraps I have ever eaten. It was so good. 

We then went to a deeper part of the ocean.  The boat had a diving board and a slide.  The rule was you had to jump off the board  before you could use the slide.  You needed to be wet so you could actually slide on the slide.  I wasn't a huge fan of he board.  But I did do the slide twice.  It was really fun!!!!!  Overall I would give the whole tour a 10/10. We spent some time this afternoon at the pool.  The pools here are pretty nice.  

We went down to were a lot of shops are and walked around.  Things here are really expensive.  I know I am cheap but man things are really expensive.  Then we had dinner at one of the restaurants in the area.  Art was wanting some  wings so we found a place that served them.

I was super curious where and how the locals live so we went for a little drive and found one of the high schools.  They are some really beautiful homes here.   Now we are tucked in for the evening.  If I had to describe this day on one word that word would be blast.  Today was an absolute  blast!!!  Hey.... I think I said that already.

Car Trouble

We had a nice breakfast today at the outdoor Restaurant.  We both agreed it was 10/10.  It was sooo good and cooked perfectly.  After breakfast we went to the beach.  They have nice loungers and mini chairs and are all under umbrellas.  The resort is really beautiful.  Anyway, we had fun and even got in the ocean.  I was amazed at how soft the sand is. I forgot my aqua socks but I really don't need them.

This afternoon we headed to the grocery store and on the way the car started making a loud thumping sound.  We thought we had a flat tire but all the tires were inflated. We hurried back to the hotel and called the rental company.  They sent a guy out and he discovered the thread/cord had separated from the tire and was banging against the fender.  We were lucky the tire didn't blow. So we were right in thinking the tire was bad even if it wasn't flat.  We got a replacement car.  

We are going snorkeling tomorrow but we had to print our tickets.  We couldn't get the printer here to work but the office manager helped us and ended up printing it for us.  Art asked her if she knew where we suppose to be picked up as none of the info we had said where we would be picked up.  She didn't know so she called them for us and got it all figured out. She was extremely helpful! 

The Dr gave us some recommendations for places to eat from a friend of his.  We went to one of them tonight for dinner.  It was by the harbor.  It was really good and the waiter was really nice.  There was even a turtle in the water. 

The resort has several pools so I think when we get back tomorrow, we will check one of the pools out.  Most everyone goes to the beach so the pool area is pretty empty.  

I still can't get use to driving on the opposite side of the road.  It is unnerving......I am glad I am not the driver.  Art does a great job. 

Off to Turks and Caicos

 Have you ever wanted to do something for a long time and it comes to fruition?  That is what this trip is.  It seems so surreal.   I have wanted to go to Turks for a really long time.  I decided that since this is my magic birthday I wanted to do something big.  That is what this trip is, something BIG.  I mentioned this is my magical birthday.......I was born 6-1-61 and I am turning 61.  That is a lot of 61s.  I am doing a lot of celebrating.

As I mentioned earlier, we went to Princesses graduation.  We needed to get a rental car so Art surprised me and got a convertible.  I love convertibles.  I even wanted one at one time. Knowing this Art reserved one and surprised me at the car rental counter.  The clerk said you have a convertible and I said oh no we have a mid sized car and Art corrected me and said nope we have a convertible.  SURPRISE! We got a flashy red mustang convertible.  It was pretty dang fun!!!!  The weather was a little rainy so we couldn't have the top down all the time but boy was it fun we we were able to put it down.  

Let me tell you the Atlanta airport is a madhouse.  We got to the airport 2 1/2 hours early.  Turned in the cute convertible and proceeded to the ticket counter....... so we thought.  We were sent to three different lines before we got to the right one.  Thankfully we did all the precheck.  The ticket agent told us that saved us a lot of time and thanked us for doing it.  Then off to security.  I am not sure I have ever seen so many people in one place at the same time.  We were beginning to seriously have doubts we were going to make our flight.  But we did....  just in time.  They boarded five minutes after we got to the gate.  

The flight was great and we got to the island early afternoon.  We got a rental car.  I have never seen a car like the one we got before.  The island is British ruled so ....you guessed it, they drive on the opposite side of the road.  I will say I am glad I am not the driver.  

Our hotel room wasn't  ready when we got to the hotel so we went to the grocery store and picked up supplies.  When we got back our room was ready.  We are on the third floor with no elevator.  You should have seen our faces when we were told "NO ELEVATOR"  oh boy!  Not fun to carry suitcases up but we are getting our exercise.  

We had dinner on site at the outdoor restaurant.  We saw on the online menu they had turf and surf but that menu was old.  When we asked the waiter he said they no longer had it but he would as the chef if he would do it for us.  The chef agreed and that is what we had..... steak and shrimp.  It was soooo good!! Then to bed early. 

The Princess Graduated From High School

It is so hard to believe that the Princess is old enough to graduate from high school.  She is so smart, beautiful, and so talented.  Art and I went to see her get her diploma.  We went a few days early so we could spend time with the entire family. Unfortunately, the Dude and Megaman caught the dreaded Covid.  That meant we would be staying in a hotel.  Dr and Mrs Dr were very generous and got us a hotel room. I felt so bad for the boys.  Not only did they feel super crummy, they missed out on all the fun activities.  Honey Bunch  even sang at Princesses graduation ceremony and she had a solo. She sounded awesome.  Princess earned several honor cords and a gold medal for the many service hours she performed. I didn't see anyone with as many as she had.  She is amazing!!! 

Mrs Dr, Honey Bunch and I went and picked up some confetti canons. (Honey Bunch had the eagle eye and found the canons)  and what we thought was a table top blow up 2022.  Turns out it wasn't a table top but very large numbers for the yard.  They were as big as me.  Yikes!!! But Princess liked them so it was all worth it. She wanted a certain cake so we went to get it but they didn't have any in the case that didn't say Happy Birthday.  We asked the Baker and to make a long story short he had a chocolate and vanilla with no writing but the vanilla had balloons on it.  We said that was no problem and took it.  The funny to that is it had pink and blue balloons. It had the appearance of a gender reveal cake ....... not a graduation cake.  Princess found the humor in it and we all had a good laugh.   I will say it was delicious.  

Graduation was in the morning and we went to a nice restaurant that evening to celebrate. Princess went to party in the afternoon.   We shot the confetti canons off when we got back from dinner and Princess loved it.  I think Dr is going to be cleaning confetti out of the yard for a long time.   

Big congratulations to Princess we couldn't be more proud of her. 

All Good Things Must Come To An End

 Today was our last full day,  It has been a fast 10 days in some ways and a long 10 days in another.  Today was pretty chilly and cloudy all morning. This has been the coolest it has been.  It finally warmed up early afternoon but it didn’t last long.  I got in the pool this afternoon for a last time but it was chilly so I didn’t stay in a long time compared to the past week.  

The construction noise was really bad today.  They had to remove the concrete floor on one of the upper floors.  The used a concussion hammer to bust it all up.  It got so bad we went to our room for a while just to get a break.  That worked out well as Art sat and played his guitar.  It was soothing and comforting.  I am telling you his new song sounds really good.  I am excited for him to record it.  It is one you’ll want to put on repeat.  I will anyway.  We went back to the pool but the noise was worse so  we went for a walk to get away from it.  We were so surprised we found a huge mall. We had no idea it was there.  We didn’t  shop but we will remember it for another time. 

Our waiter tonight tried to tell us a joke.  The funniest part of it was we had no idea what made it funny.  He delivered the punchline and we just sat there.  Then he laughed and we looked at each other hoping the other got it and could explain it.  Nope…. Neither of us got it.  Art looked at me and said I bet it is funnier in farcy.  Then we really did laugh.

We had our covid test tonight and passed so we are good to go home.  .  

Best Massage Day

It has been nice to sleep in a little the past few mornings.  And sleep through the night.  Out neighbors went home,  I think a lot of folks have gone home.  The resort was pretty quiet all day.

We had a good breakfast.  We found a waiter that makes sure Art’s  breakfast is cooked just right.  I tried the French toast today.  It was just ok……don’t  think I will order it again though.  I will probably go back to my old standby….omelette.  

It was a little warmer than usual today.  I didn’t mind.  I like the heat.  I went this morning to get another massage and facial.  It was different than the last one.  I will say I LOVED it.  It was one of the best massages I have ever had.  It was so heavenly.  I think I was comatose a few times.  Not to worry my snorts from snoring snapped me back to consciousness.  When it was all over, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get up I was so relaxed.  The therapist was super sweet.  She was worried about me.  At first she said I needed to relax……my muscles were so stiff.  They were likes bricks.  But that didn’t last long I was so relaxed I could hardly move. She also did some extra  reflexology work on me   If I was going to be here longer I would  definitely go see her again for another one of her incredible massages.

That really was the big deal of the day.  Other than that we just hung out at the pool.  We are getting pretty tan.  I will really miss the warn sun after we leave.  Tomorrow is our last full day,…