So even though it wasn’t my birthday, I still enjoyed Day 3. I mean, I am not some selfish jerk who only cares about having all the attention on him or anything. I know there are some people that simply crave attention and need their egos to be constantly stroked. But not me.
Now, please read this post describing every little detail of the day I spent at Beaches Turks & Caicos and provide compliments and praise when you can. Kthx.
So yeah, Day 3. Nickie and I woke up early on Day 3 and decided to take an early morning walk on the beach together. We let the kids sleep in, grabbed some coffee in the lobby and walked down the beach past some of the other resorts/hotels. All of which looked nice enough, but it was hard to not think how lucky we were to be at Beaches. Even the beaches seemed a little less pristine once we left the confines of Beaches. Full on snooty at this point, we looked to our left and saw an empty wine bottle tipped over near a beach chair and both sort of had a “well this would NEVER happen at Beaches” moment. I swear I almost fanned my face and shouted “well…I never” when I saw it.
But regardless of where we went, the beach was still beautiful.
After a 30-40 minute walk up and down the beach, I threw on my workout clothes and hit the gym. Only 2 miles today. On account of I also walked…pay attention. Plus, the Jessica Jones episode I was watching ended so the timing worked out to stop.
After , I went back up to the room, grabbed Nickie and the kids and we left for breakfast at Neptune’s in the Key West Village.
We had heard great things about this breakfast and it did not disappoint. Neptune’s is set up pretty cool for breakfast. Most of what you eat is a la carte but they do have a continental buffet as well so Myles went over and got some food for the table – some fruit, cinnamon rolls, Danish, and croissant. I have sort of a not-so-secret love affair with Danish. So. This made me happy.
For our main entrees, Owen got plain pancakes again. I feel bad that I didn’t take pictures of much of Owen’s food this trip. But Owen just is really not all that exciting an eater. It would have mainly just been pictures of pancakes. So. You’re welcome.
Myles got the stuffed French Toast. I mean, I guess he gets that a lot but stuffed French Toast is more exciting. Because it’s stuffed. And this one was stuffed with caramelized bananas, whipped cream, and caramel. NOW ARE YOU EXCITED?
Nickie got the Just Like Home – two eggs, shredded potatoes, bacon and sausage. The dish usually comes with grilled tomato as well, but she asked for that to be held. Because in no way, shape, or form would grilled tomato for breakfast be JUST LIKE HOME for us. She said it was very good though, especially the shredded potatoes.
I once again had a hard time deciding between two entrees. It’s a problem. I am one of those guys that typically involves the waitstaff in my entrée decision. Unfortunately, the answer here is usually “just get both.” Wait. Did I say “unfortunately?” I mean “extremely and undeniable fortunately.”
I ended up getting the Vanilla Bean Pancakes with chocolate fondue and butterscotch sauce and the avocado toast with poached egg, onion and bacon. I enjoy when people take things that were once deemed as somewhat healthy and then add bacon to them.
Honestly, the avocado toast may have been the best thing I had for breakfast this whole trip. And that’s saying a lot since I had some variation of eggs benedict like 3 times. The egg was nice and runny and the avocado tasted super fresh. The pancakes were very good too, especially with the butterscotch sauce. I would say this was a perfect combo of sweet and savory for breakfast. Which fits. Since I am also the perfect combo of sweet and savory. RAWR.
Nonnie and Papa, were meanwhile eating at Reflections for breakfast as they didn’t want to wait for us to eat. We have a teenager so. So we met up with Nonnie after breakfast and went to the beach-each. Should I continue to say the water was perfect? I mean, because it kind of always was.
I neglected to mention in my last post that on Day 2 we booked an 11AM glass bottom boat trip. For those that don’t know, this is included, along with most watersports, in the Beaches Turks & Caicos all-inclusive package. But as I mentioned in my Day 1 post, you book it the day before you want to do it. And the spots do fill up so best to book early. We did it right after breakfast.
Papa decided to forego, but Nonnie joined us so we all headed down to the pier. On the way, we were all sort of in love with the colors all around us so I snapped this…
And we walked down to the pier and hopped on the boat. OK, so I have to be honest. I wasn’t thrilled with this little excursion. I mean, I didn’t hate it – we were out on a boat on a beautiful day in the middle of the ocean so how could I?
But I don’t know. We didn’t see all that much really through the glass bottom. We saw some glimpses of turtles. And some small fish. But that was about it. The captain did say because of the direction of the wind, some fish were not coming to their usual spots. And of course, this is no fault of Beaches or the captain or whatever. But it was sort of a meh experience. And the glass was somewhat hard to see through.
For example, here is a turtle…
Again, still fun but I wasn’t like…in love with it.
The yellowtail snappers, however, were a highlight. They came up to the surface and the captain asked to see if anyone had any Cheerios or Fruit Loops to feed them. Thankfully, the woman next to me had some so her kids threw some out to the water. These fish really love Fruit Loops. Toucan Sam may have some serious mascot competition.
After the boat, Nonnie went to go find Papa and grab some lunch so we decided to put in an order at Bella Napoli (located in the Caribbean Village) for some pizzas to enjoy in our cabana by the pool. The pizza took about 35 minutes so we put in an order for 6 different pies (2 cheese, 1 pepperoni, 1 margherita, 1 jerk chicken, and 1 calzone) and walked over to the Caribbean Village to swim while we waited. Oh and also Nickie and I enjoyed some tacos from the taco bar the Cascades pool. You know a place is amazing when I sort of just gloss over the fact that there was a taco bar.
Then, when the time was right, the boys and I walked over to get them.
The pizzas were very good, actually. Being that they were personal sized, we thought maybe 6 would be a good number, but between the four of us, we still left maybe like 1 and a ½ uneaten. These, however, can be brought back to the room for a late-night snack. So.
The kids then wanted to go check out the Shadow Lounge – which is located near the XBOX lounge – to play some ping pong and foosball. This is a pretty cool little lounge for teens and tweens – no adults allowed (though I did manage to sneak in there once).
While they were off playing, Nickie and I got some flamingo time in down at the ocean.
Then we went back to the Cascades Pool to hang out with Nonnie and Papa at the pool bar.
Please note I had a drink in both my hand AND in my Ozark Trail tumbler here. That’s just how I roll.
So remember when I mentioned on Day 2, we wanted to parasail for my birthday but couldn’t because it was too windy? Well, we heard back from the guy we were texting with today and he said we could get out there. So once the kids were back, Owen and I walked down to the pier to meet with the guy we had been texting.
So…as I mentioned, the resort does not offer parasailing so you have to do it through an outside party. When you are at the resort, you will be approached by many people asking if you want parasailing, conch cleaning, that sort of thing. But we had done our research before coming and saw that Sky Pilot was a reputable parasailing company. So when we arrived, we saw a guy wearing a Sky Pilot shirt on the beach and talked with him, exchanged numbers, and kept in touch until we decided to go.
When I got down there, another gentleman approached me and asked if I was interested in parasailing. And I told him we were already talking with Sky Pilot. He was totally cool with that and walked away. Then the guy, wearing the Sky Pilot t-shirt, came up and we started to get things arranged. All of a sudden, the other guy that approached us before came over yelling at this guy telling him we wanted Sky Pilot. Then they started speaking to each other in a language I couldn’t understand. And the other guy walked away.
Super sketch. The boat pulls up and I mean…there is no “Sky Pilot” logo anywhere or anything to designate it as such. But I did see another passenger in the boat that had just finished parasailing and they said it went fine. So on Owen and I went.
They gave us a very quick tutorial on how to parasail, we got harnessed in, and off we went.
Now, as you can see from the image below, this was in fact Captain Marvin’s and NOT Sky Pilot. But we didn’t die. So I guess it’s a glowing review?
But seriously, it WAS very fun. Neither Owen nor I had ever parasailed before so we didn’t really know what to expect. We got spectacular views of the resort and island and we even caught some wind gusts that gave us some interesting turns and lifts. Super sketchiness aside, it was an experience I would recommend.
As exciting as parasailing was, more excitement was on the way. MORE FRIENDS!
While we were in the air, Nickie and Myles met up with our friends, the Falzones (Tony, Larissa, and the legitimately always adorable Mia.) Those that have been reading the blog have most likely seen them on a couple of our earlier Disney trips. We were REALLY excited for them to arrive.
Owen and I met them in their room as they were unpacking, had a quick beer, and then we were off to meet Nonnie and Papa at the Sesame Street show on-stage at the French Village. I have a huge soft spot for Sesame Street. Cookie Monster is god-like and I don’t think I could ever get sick of watching Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. So, I was super excited to see this show.
Wait. I mean Mia was super excited. Ha you thought I meant “me.” I meant “Meeee-a.” Mia.
But the show was super cute – focused on being a good friend and having fun with your friends and friends and friendship and friends.
And I will admit it. I am a full-on Abby Cadabby fan now. I feel NO SHAME.
And Cookie Monster had some SWEET MOVES. Seriously, no one else was doing the Macarena here. He was just feeling the music. They may have to change his name to Boogie Monster. Eh, actually. Never mind. Scratch that.
After the show, I went to take Nonnie and Papa a short way to dinner while Owen led the rest of the crew on, um….I guess, the scenic route? They took a really long time is what I am saying to you now.
But they did get a really cute picture….
Dinner tonight was at Arizona’s in the Caribbean Village. We had a really nice table and the night was beautiful.
We all got steak, pretty much. Though I think there was some chicken floating around and Nonnie got a shrimp enchilada. Both Papa and I opted for the T-Bone.
Which was huge. I love me a good T-Bone. Unfortunately, this was not like….the best. I didn’t love the dinner here. In fact, this was probably our worst meal of the trip. I ordered the steak medium rare and it felt overcooked and tough. I was disappointed because I was really looking forward to this dinner. And no one even called me T-Bone afterwards. Womp.
However, like I said, the night was beautiful. The Mai Tais were tasty. And the company could not be beat. We did have a lot of laughs at the table. Which was easy to do. Since the service was also the slowest we experienced at any restaurant here.
BUT – the night was not over. After dinner, the kids – as they were oft to do – headed over to the XBOX lounge. Nonnie, Papa, and the Falzones were all tired so they called it a night. Which left Nickie and I free to hit – of course – karaoke at Cricketer’s.
I started the night off (again, first song) with “No Diggity’ and a few songs later I jumped in with “Super Bass.” While there, we met another really fun couple. And I really wish I could remember their names. Nick? I think his name was Nick. But they were both super nice.
I decided to do one more song and landed on the song to pretty much almost end all other songs – “Purple Rain.” I could tell when I walked up, people were unsure of how this was all going to go down, but by the end, the whole bar was singing along and I decided then and there was where I retire from Beaches Turks & Caicos karaoke. On account of it wasn’t going to get any better.
So that fun couple said we should meet them for dancing at Club Liquid. On account of being old, we sort of hemmed and hawed for a lil bit but finally agreed to go. We left, grabbed the kids at the XBOX lounge and took them home to put them to bed.
Then we walked over to Club Liquid – the adults-only dance club. And it was HOPPING. We actually met another couple outside that were from Nantucket and started talking to them. Mainly because the guy was like “Purple Rain!” and I could feel the road to stardom starting to take shape.
The other couple we met at Cricketer’s met us at the bottom of the stairs and the 6 of us all walked up to Club Liquid. Nickie and I grabbed a couple drinks, hit the dance floor, and then had kind of had it after about 5 songs. Because old.
So we left and started to head home when we both decided we were hungry so we stopped in at Bobby Dee’s for a midnight cheeseburger and fries. And also ice cream. And it was glorious.
We walked home, holding hands, feeling so lucky to be here. Not just with our family and friends. But with each other. Nickie and I both always have fun with each other but its nice to remind ourselves sometimes how awesome it is we can have THIS MUCH fun together still after 15 years of being married. We are kind of the best.
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