Conched out

Y’all know what this is, right?

It’s a conch.  Also known as the thing that they would blow on in Lord of the Flies when shit was about to go down.  Also known as the thing you can stick against your ear and hear the ocean.  Also known as a mollusk that is delicious when deep-fried and dipped in mayonnaise.

I would know, as that’s basically all I ate on vacation last week.

Official Vacation Calorie Breakdown:

Or thereabouts.  I don’t know, I was too busy enjoying myself to really pay attention.

The occasion was a wedding: two of the hubs’ friends from business school.  I’ve been to a few of these types of events now and they’re always an absolute blast: whirlwind reunions featuring friends and fun and food and of course copious amounts of booze.

On this particular trip, our days typically started around noon, like so:

And progressed to…who knows what.  Shenanigans.

For those who may be wondering, I’ll share a few details about the trip!

The location of this rendezvous was Grace Bay, on the island of Providenciales, Turks & Caicos.  T&C is about a three hour flight from NYC, and Grace Bay is consistently ranked among the world’s best beaches.

And deservedly so.  With sand like powdered sugar and that impossibly turquoise water, this was definitely one of the nicest beaches I’ve ever seen!  (Topped only by the pink sands of Harbour Island in the Bahamas, where we honeymooned.)

We stayed at a little motel across from the beach called Grace Bay Suites.  It certainly wasn’t fancy, but it was clean and functional and centrally located – and it fit in our budget better than the fancier beach resorts.  Honestly, for the price, I think we got a steal!

The wedding and most of the wedding events were held at The Somerset.  This was where we ended up hanging out most of the time, clearly, as many of our friends were staying there.  It was gorgeous.

Things on the island, in general, were pretty expensive – which makes sense, as everything is imported.  But that said, I thought it was a very easy and fun place to travel:

• Standard currency is USD.
• There’s no language barrier.
• Things felt very safe.  (Their tourism board claims that Provo, as Providenciales is commonly known, has the lowest crime rate in the Caribbean.)
• There was a large gourmet grocery store that stocked every type of Greek Yogurt and organic vegetable you could possibly want (for a steep price, of course).

Compared to other parts of the Caribbean where I’ve traveled, T&C certainly had an abundance of the comforts of home – and not so much of the spring-break-style nightlife.  If you’re looking for a gorgeous, low-stress beach vacation and don’t mind paying a little more to avoid some of the challenges endemic to other island destinations, T&C is for you!

And the wedding?  Of course, it was absolutely amazing. The hubs and I worked up a serious glisten on the dance floor:

Sweat is sexy.

Congrats, Jer and Alli!  Thanks so much for putting on a spectacular string of wedding events, and for including us in all of it!

With that, I’m off to detox for a few days.

And run off all of those fruity-nonsense drinks and conch fritters.