The first tip I received in Turks and Caicos stuck in my jet-lagged brain. A man in line for smoothies with us struck up a conversation about grocery shopping and said:
“The way to know if the red snapper is fresh is to look them in the eyes. If their eyes are clear, they’re fresh.”
Two days later, standing in the aisle of the Graceway IGA, I looked at dozens of fish eyes. Some foggy, some crystal clear. Prior to this kind stranger in line for a post-work smoothie, I would not have had the confidence to pick out a fresh fish. I couldn’t remember if I’d ever picked out a fish that wasn’t already a glistening slab of meat. They scared me a bit. How on earth did you know if they were fresh? Now I knew. Armed with this newfound confidence, I helped pick out three fresh red snapper.
My family drove back to our pale lemon villa by the beach, doused the red snapper in olive oil, and my dad tried to light the outdoor grill. He was having a tough time. Being the engineer he is, he decided to take a look under the hood. Later, he relayed his findings animatedly as the fish went into the oven.
When he tipped the grill up, he realized who ever built the outdoor grill had taken a regular grill off its legs, plunked the top down into the countertop, and replaced the removable grill pan with a plate of metal screwed into the grill. When my dad tipped up the grill, he saw a growing rusted hole in the bottom of this pan. As we’d learned at home when Dad forgets to clean the grill occasionally, the grease pan will light on fire. Exciting when you have a propane tank next to it. Much more exciting when it’s screwed in and you can’t clean it.
This particular grease pan not only had a hole over half the pan, but it had gotten so hot in the Turks and Caicos heat, the plastic around the gas line close by was melting. We called the rental office. The next day, people streamed through the backyard to assess. By the afternoon, we were presented with a new grill.
Fresh grilled snapper was even better.
It was windy most of the week we were there, which made our one short trip to Grace Bay feel like a scene out of Dune. The sand whipped our legs, with gusts up to 30 mph.
On our way out, my RxBar wrapper was taken by the wind. Confident this was a sign I needed to get a workout in, I sprinted after that little blueberry piece of plastic…in a strapless bathing suit, no less. Partway through, I thought about giving up. But there would be nowhere to hide my defeat on this sand-swept beach. So I pressed on, and felt the sweet sense of victory as I grabbed it 400 meters later. I turned around and started the long long jog back. I had seen enough of Grace Bay.
That same wind meant we found our favorite beach – Sapodilla Bay. To get there from where we were staying on the east side of Provo, we took about eleven hundred round abouts and a long road through an industrial part of town. Tate loved seeing red and white spinning cement trucks. He loved even more seeing a whole fleet of them on our way to Sapodilla Bay.
As a family, we love finding a spot & dialing in a routine. The first day at Sapodilla Bay, we sat close to the bar between some for-rent chairs. Mom negotiated for a pitcher of margaritas. The next day, we walked a bit further down the beach and brought our own drinks.
The day after that, we scouted out an alternative entrance which shortened our walk considerably. Owen DJed his favorite house music on Tate’s speaker, I bought a kid’s hula hoop and unsuccessfully tried to keep it up. We pulled beach chairs into the crystal clear water. It was 85 degrees and full humidity. UV was 11. I got the best tan of my life.
Each day, I’d wake up do some work on my computer, then we’d have breakfast as a family – Mom made strawberry banana smoothies and scrambled eggs, then head out to the beach. We’d stop at the Graceway IGA on the way back, cook dinner, and maybe take a stroll to Pelican Bay. I swam with my dad at sunset in the warm water. Dad played guitar. I went to bed still feeling the sway of the ocean. For the first time in a very long time, I felt relaxed.
The later half of the week, the wind calmed down and we got to go snorkeling. Our first day was exciting – we went to bed early, woke up at 6am, and were in the water by 7am at Coral Gardens. Coral Gardens was a cordeden-off area where you could swim from a sandy beach around a snorkel trail. While we saw a stingray with four fish floating on top of his wings and many cool fish, we all agreed that was ridiculously early for a family that’s not usually out of the house before noon. To add insult to injury, a family spotted sea turtles just as we were leaving. We took a three hour nap to recover.
The next day, we got there at a more reasonable time (11am). I was excited to return to a coral that caught my eye the day before – a 4 foot diameter boulder coral that glowed green. Its patterns were mesmerizing, it looked like a huge brain. The tide was much lower, which made getting to the coral an almost claustrophobic exercise in a few feet of water. Well worth it to try to memorize the patterns again.
But my favorite snorkeling spot was Smith’s Reef.
After a questionable tip from a man at Coral Gardens that recommended we “swim across the marina opening” so we could “pet the turtles” at Smith’s Reef, we did some of our own research. It was a more advanced snorkeling spot due to its mostly rocky entrances. We parked at the end of a dirt road on the west side, and trekked out to a small sliver of sand.
We had Dad and Tate scope it out first. They ended up swimming a good half a mile east along the shore to the reef. They saw nothing but sea grass for that long swim, but they found a sandy entrance for us that was maybe 50 feet away from the reef. Mom, Owen, and I ended up walking there + swam out to the snorkel trail. Our family of five all had neon-colored noodles which made it easy to find each other in the water.
The first day, we saw a turtle together, which was so cool. The turtle was absolutely going to town on their lunch of sea grass.
But the next day – we saw a family of five turtles! One of my favorite snorkeling moments was the teenager in the group was zooming around and swam right under me. I’d never seen a sea turtle that close before, and the patterns on its shell were so striking. The colored details were much more complex than the hexagons I imagined in my head. It’s funny how your mind can abstract detail.
Our most memorable meal out was at Land + Sea, at the Wymara Villas. The restaurant itself floats out over the water, shaded by enormous sail umbrellas. While our table was being prepared, we checked out the bar for happy hour. I ordered a Painkiller, one of my favorite tropical drinks. The bartender AK started swirling bottles and tossing things in the air, and put on a performance worthy of Cirque Du Soleil. He even brought Owen’s drink out by balancing on top of a muddling spoon!
The dinner was incredible. I got a Sea Beef tenderloin, which is New Zealand cow that only apparently eat kelp and seaweed? The standout for me was the sauce: a Japanese style chimichurri, which I raved about to our waiter. He had the head chef Andrew come out and say hello and give me his card so I could ask for the recipe! Tate took on a two pound Barramundi as we looked on in awe, Owen got the rack of lamb, and my parents split the salmon. For dessert – a pavlova with lemon curd and raspberry drizzle with fresh cream.
I was sad to leave on our last day. We went out to say goodbye to our neighborhood beach Pelican Bay.
We dropped off our rental car. The airport line was notable. The security line winded around huge cement poles outside, brooded over by fans pushing the hot air around. Everyone looked very tan and very sweaty. It was a good 45 minutes until we hit air conditioning, during which my dad accidentally dropped a LaCroix that made it look like someone had an incident, someone almost did have an incident, and my fan was put to good use. I could not believe how many people were packed into that airport at once, milling around like minnows.
Our flight got delayed by 40 minutes into Charlotte, and my parents told us kids to run through the airport to make the plane. It had started boarding when we landed. They had checked bags, so they couldn’t make the connection. We sprinted through customs, security line, and terminals, before arriving to our plane with one minute before they closed the doors. Our parents got rebooked for the next plane back to San Diego.
We celebrated our return with a midnight Denny’s trip. The next day, Owen picked up Mom and Dad at the airport safely returned from Charlotte, and dropped me off at the same time to head back to SF.
I am so grateful for this time our family got to spend together, enjoying each other’s company, relaxing on the beach, celebrating big milestones, backseat driving, and getting to travel to Turks and Caicos. What a trip!
