Hey everyone!
Welcome to yet another installment chronicling our super awesome trip to Turks & Caicos to celebrate Nickie!
And while I know – obviously – you have LOVED seeing what Nickie, Owen, Myles, Hannah, and I have been up to. I mean. I get it. We are pretty interesting.
But things are about to get even more awesomely awesome. On account we have a whole slew of people joining us today. So many people we love. All together. On the prettiest island. To celebrate the prettiest girl.
Oh and today? Today, we move to Beaches Turks & Caicos for the remainder of the trip.
So without further ado….lets do this!
Celebrating Nickie’s 50th in Turks & Caicos 2024: Day 3
Day 5 started early y’all.
I mean. Yeah, it started kind of early for us. But it started REAL early for the Pittmans (Steph, Mikey, Sophia, and Scarlett). They were on a flight at 5AM. But I mean, you wouldn’t know it from these faces.
Though, conspicuously, both Steph and Mikey made the decision not to send any photos of themselves at 5AM so those smiling faces may not have been a unanimous situation.
Meanwhile, back at our room at the Oasis, we woke up like 2 ½ hours later, ready for our new adventure.
I got my day started with a Nespresso made in our in-room machine.
We spent some time getting the room packed up so we could move over to Beaches and then Nickie and I drove down to the Graceway Gourmet supermarket down the street to pick up some essentials for the resort.
Since Beaches is all-inclusive, we weren’t picking up anything like beer or anything like that but we wanted to grab some champagne, which btw….look how cool.
And some wine and snacks for the room.
Of which I didn’t get any pictures.
We then went back to the room to get the kids up and ready to go since we wanted to get over to Beaches early today. The plan, since we had all the people and all the luggage, was I was going to drive Nickie over first while the kids were still getting ready and then come back for the kids.
Also, I know I mentioned this back in the first post, but the Falzones (Tony, Larissa, and Mia) were already at Beaches so when I dropped Nickie off at the front, Larissa was there waiting for her, which was nice, so Nickie wouldn’t be alone when I went to go get Myles, Hannah, and Owen.
After dropping her off, I stopped off to get gas and then picked up the kids and we drove back to Beaches. The nice thing about renting the car at the airport was that we could park it at Beaches and they would come pick it up. Which was nice. On account of I had to start drinking being with my family y’all!
Nickie had already grabbed a table with the Falzones at Barefoot by the Sea so the kids and I headed in through the Caribbean lobby and got our first look at all this.
Right? Exciting.
Barefoot by the Sea is over in the Italian Village section of the report and…oh, right. Real quick, here’s a map.
We were staying In the Seaside Village this trip, but our room wasn’t quite ready. Which yeah…this was why we were going to breakfast first.
Sorry, I’m not so good. With the whole linear timeline thing.
OK back to breakfast. At Barefoot by the Sea. Right.
Which is a cool location for sure. As you can see its right on the sand so like you can sit there with your shoes off in the sand.
Hence…?
…
…
Barefoot.
Get it now?
And look at who all was there waiting for us. It’s the Falzones you guys!!
Noooooo. The calzo…I mean, the Falzones!
But I mean. I do like a good calzone.
Ahem. Look, coffee!
But like, it was 10AM already. So had to go with a Bloody Mary as well.
I mean, I had been up for like 2 ½ hours already.
I started things off at Barefoot with a Bliss Smoothie Bowl (Banana, blueberry yogurt, toasted coconut, slivered almonds, pineapple, kiwi).
Which was good for sure, if not a little warm for a dish of yogurt. But I get it. Honestly? It was all kinds of hawwtttttt today. It was so hot, even yogurt be like, “man its hot.” Still though, good to get some fruit in there in between all the alcohol.
For my main, I went in for the Caribbean Shrimp & Crab Omelette (Crabmeat, onions, peppers, mushrooms, pepper Jack cheese, Creole sauce, potato & bell pepper hash).
Yeah, I know. How does someone not order something with that ingredient list?
And this thing lived up to my expectations and then some. Shrimp. And crab. And eggs. And pepper jack cheese? I mean, come on man.
I also snapped a picture of Nickie’s All-American Breakfast (Scrambled or fried eggs, bacon, sausage, crispy hash browns)…
…and some French Toast Fingers (Salted caramel, toasted walnuts, cinnamon-sugar) we got for the table.
All real good. And we didn’t have to wear shoes.
Winning on all the counts.
Oh and. AND?
The Michigan Goodys (Scott, Carrie, Gwen, and Matilda) were also on their way….
Pretty soon we will ALL be together.
We gonna burn this place down to the ground.
Wait.
No.
I mean like…we are just gonna have a good time.
Sorry. That escalated quickly.
Since the rest of us were already on the sand and what not, we took a walk down to the beach to go for a quick dip.
It was hot but it was a beautiful day out there. I mean, look.
The coconut doesn’t lie.
While the beach was lovely, we have made sort of a tradition out of doing some pool hopping on our first day at Beaches so we decided to spit in the face of nature and opt for more man-made, chlorinated wettening options.
Our first stop? The Key West pool!
I mean, our actual first stop was the bar at Bayside, the buffet restaurant in Key West. But then? The pool.
I know. We ARE cool.
After we spent some time in Key West, the plan was to take a dip in the Italian Village pool. As you can see here, the bar was also the pre-pool stop (for a Tito’s and soda ofc).
But eh. Honestly, the Italian Village pool water was kind of cloudy and dirty-looking the entire time we were at Beaches. I actually never ended up even setting foot in it.
It kind of fits though. The Italian Village pool always has sort of a “I dunno what’s going in that pool” vibe. I’m sure nothing shady but of all the pools at Beaches, this pool is the most likely shenanigans candidate. Like, if I had to choose.
So yah, the Italian Village was just a bar stop.
“Just” a bar stop. Pfft.
The French Village was the next stop on our list. Which is super fun because not only does the French Village have one of my favorite pools but it also has the Pirate’s Island Waterpark. So it’s like bonus pool territory.
We were saving the full-on waterpark experience for later on in the trip, but we did take a quick ride down that blue situation there.
Which, like….don’t let its appearance fool you. That thing is like kind of terrifying. It’s a quick, fast drop and you come shooting out of that thing like…I don’t know. Faster than Augustus Gloop after he fell in the chocolate river and then got sucked up into the pipe and then all the chocolate built up behind him and then he shot up the pipe?
You know what I’m talking about. We were totally Gloop’ed right out of that slide.
I think Tony even ended up hurting his shoulder from hitting the bottom of the pool so hard. Thankfully, we had made those previous bar stops. You know. For the pain numbing.
After that whole harrowing experience, we made our way over to the actual French Village pool. Which I contend is the prettiest pool in the entire resort.
Ooo-la-la. Amirite?
I do love that pool. We ended up spending about an hour or so here and it was like…real nice. I’ve mentioned this already but IT. WAS. HOT. So chilling in the pool with some of our favorite people was a pretty nice way to spend an hour.
And OF COURSE we made use of the swim-up bar. While we were there, I enjoyed both a Long Island Iced Tea…
…and another Tito’s and Soda.
At around 1:30, we figured it was time for lunch. Man cannot live on Tito’s alone.
Right?
No. Yeah. Man can’t.
And for lunch today, we were going to what I think may be the best lunch spot at Beaches – Neptune’s!
Neptune’s is a pretty perfect little lunch spot. Set beach side, you have this awesome panoramic view of the ocean while you dine.
And the lunch menu is incredibulous.
I got pictures of some other dishes, like this Greek Salad (Fresh garden greens, diced tomatoes, cucumber, onion, olives, feta cheese, pita bread with garlic-herb drizzle).
And this Cheeseburger.
But the real star of Neptune’s lunch is this little bit of delightful.
The Saffron Fish Basket – Fried white fish in saffron batter with lemon tzatziki, served with a side of fries.
I know. It doesn’t sound all that special. But that fish is intensely fresh and the saffron plus the citrus-y taste of the tzatziki to dip. I dunno. It’s a really special dish. Everyone that ordered it felt the same.
And that wasn’t all the awesome Neptune’s had in store for us. On account of we got some desserts to share.
We ordered the Sugared Doughnut with Strawberry jam, vanilla syrup, and whipped cream
Which. Yeah. This thing is all kinds of great. I mentioned this all the way back when we visited Beaches in 2021 regarding this here doughnut that the desserts at Beaches aren’t always at the same level as the rest of the food offerings, but this doughnut is deffo an exception.
We also ordered the Churros with Banana Cream and Chocolate Sauce.
I said this in my last post but churros at a restaurant are kind of hit-or-miss for me. I mean. These were…fine. But nothing spectacular or anything.
They weren’t like “Churr-OMG THOSE ARE SO GOOD!!!”
They were more like “Churr-ok.”
But overall? Such a good lunch, Neptune’s. Well played.
BTW – did you know Neptune is a gas planet?
I mean it makes sense, I guess. Being next to Uranus and all.
And now it was FINALLY time to go see our room you guys.
So exciting.
So over to the main lobby we went. And we were told to wait in this little room off the lobby. Which, like, had this situation.
Yeah, like, I honestly didn’t know if I was supposed to serve myself or what. But how am I supposed to resist this siren’s song.
It was scotch o’clock, friends.
Which, like, is 3:00 I guess. 3:00 is scotch o’clock.
Soon enough, a Beaches employee met up with us to take us to our room. As I mentioned before, we were in Seaside and as we were walking over, the dude taking us there told us this was one of his favorite rooms on the whole property.
And I mean. Yah you guys. Lookit.
That up there was obviously the main hangout area but it also had a pullout couch and a pulldown Murphy bed, which was where the kids set up camp.
Nickie and I were in the master bedroom, which was off to the left when you walk in.
And as you might have noticed in the above pictures, we had a balcony off the living room and a balcony off the master bedroom. And like, our balcony felt basically like it was right on the water.
Ah. May. Zing.
Couple other little things to note. Here was a tub we never used.
And I should also mention they stock your fridge and room with beer and wine AND I also asked if they could bring a bottle of whiskey, which they totally did.
On account of this was paradise.
But for now, they hadn’t fully stocked us just yet so we had a few sodas, juices, etc. in the fridge.
And while we were being all kinds of stunned with our room, the Falzones also came over with EVEN MORE SWAG.
So nice, right? Nickie is hella-loved.
And like, get excited everybody!
Because by this point? The Pittmans (Steph, Mikey, Sophia, and Scarlett) AND the Michigan Goodys (Scott, Carrie, Gwen, and Matilda) had arrived. Soooooez we all made a plan to meet down at the Caribbean pool.
Which Caribbean pool? This Caribbean pool.
Look. It’s the Michigan Goodys!
And weirdly, that was the only picture I took down at the pool. Was I having too much fun? Was I starting to feel that 3:00 Scotch and all those other all the drinks I had drunk?
Little from column A, little from column B.
In my defense, I don’t think we spent all that much time down there as we were back in our room, ready and showered for dinner, and enjoying the sunset by like 6:30.
Amazeface.
Nickie and I popped open the champagne to do the whole sunset thing properly.
The plan tonight was for everyone to meet at our room before dinner. And as we were sitting there, watching the day end and enjoying our champagne, we did see the Michigan Goodys walking over.
And finally….the Pittmans!!!
It’s all happening.
OK let’s get dinner right?
Dinner tonight was at Arizona’s, which was a place we didn’t love on our first trip to Beaches Turks & Caicos but really liked on our second trip.
Let’s see what tonight brings.
This picture right here? Makes me very happy.
Oh and also? When we sat down? MORE SWAG!!!
Carrie brought some Nickie tattoos for all of us!
Which is so sweet.
I know, right?
Larissa went full Tyson with hers.
My meal started with a dirty? martini.
Eh whatever. It was vodka. And olives. So it worked well enough.
We started with…well we started with starters. Which you know. It’s in the name.
And know that everything I am going to show you now? We got multiple orders of all these situations.
On account of all-inclusive.
We ordered the Pork Taquitos with Pico de gallo, crème fraîche, and guacamole.
The Red Chili Tuna Tartare (Yellowfin tuna, Sriracha, shaved jalapeño, cilantro, chipotle crème fraiche).
And the Grilled Shrimp with Smoked Chile Cocktail Sauce.
All of these were pretty fantastic, honestly. I mean, gun to my head? I think I am gonna go with the shrimp as the winner. But all of it was great. I would get all three of these again for sure.
But ok, lets get to the entrees. When I was ordering, I was having a tough time deciding between the steak and the ribs. I told our waiter about my predicament and he said to get both. He was such a great waiter btw. But eh….
I got the steak – a Honey-Chipotle Grilled Ribeye Steak (served with Grilled corn with paprika-lime butter, parmesan cheese, baked potato, and sour cream).
…
…
Annnnd I got the ribs – Bourbon Baby Back Ribs (served with a Bourbon-Glazed Corn on the Cob, Cole Slaw, and Baked Beans).
I got the steak and ribs.
I just wanted double corn.
And yeah, again, both of these were phenomenal. I think if we end up back at Arizona’s, I’ll do the exact same thing.
The ribs were delicious stuff. Don’t let Matilda’s face fool you.
And yah, we got ALL the desserts.
None of which I think are on the menu right now?
We got this chocolate thing.
And then also this chocolate thing.
And this blurry thing.
Such a nice first-night dinner at Arizona’s. Great food and great people.
Dinner ended at around 9:00 and well, that was kind of it for us that night. It was a travel day for a lot of people and a long day for all of us so we all decided to call it an early night tonight. I mean, I was drinking Scotch in the afternoon. So my mind thought it was nighttime like 6 hours ago.
But don’t fret.
Are you fretting?
Don’t.
Because we will def take part in some nighttime fun on our other nights.
Stop. Stop fretting.
And yeah – that was Day 3 y’all. Such a fun day and so much fun ahead.
See you all soon!
Last post – Day 2!
Next Post – Day 4!
WeHeartDisney 