Grand Turk was unfortunately our last port on the cruise. No sightseeing tours, big shopping areas, or other various places to explore. The main “activity” available to us was to lay by the beach under some palm trees. Considering we were absolutely pooped from attempting to explore the other ports as much as possible, some rest and relaxation was perfectly fine with us. I thoroughly enjoyed the few hours we spent on our lounge chairs soaking up the sun. [I’m sure it was possible to go into town since Grand Turk is the largest island of the Turks islands, but we chose not to even look.] The ship docked rather close to the beach where we set up camp, and we could see the rows among rows of blue beach lounge chairs on our way to the shore. The rest of the island looked so pristine- with palms and other greenery outlining the perimeter without much else besides a few small buildings on white sand. I love how the different colors of the water are so apparent in the first picture.
But that calm beach didn’t stay calm for long. As soon as the ship let it’s passengers disembark onto the island, people shoved their way off the dock in order to score good lounges under the palm trees. And another cruise ship shared our dock, so even more reason to run!!! [we later learned that those passengers were on a different schedule than us and were leaving as we arrived.] Thanks to my parents we were each able to lay under the gorgeous palms. 🙂 Absolute heaven. I never realized how relaxed I would feel laying on a lounge chair, feet in sand, looking up at the sky through the leaves of palm trees.
My dad and I decided to go snorkeling off a pier a short distance away, and after watching/following quite a few fish, I left my dad and headed back to my long-missed lounge chair. He came back a little while later holding what looked like a secret note in a little ceramic box. We opened the box and found a strip of paper (completely dry to my surprise) and read the contents of the note. Pretty amazing if you ask me. Read the note if you can- my dad put it in his pocket then continued to swim shredding the once-dry paper into pieces.
We were pretty fascinated by this, and ultimately decided we should follow the girl’s dreams and leave the ceramic box and its contents in the sea.
After a few hours of pure relaxation, we packed up and headed to Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville which was right behind the beach. This was a fun place- lots of “spring-breakers” partying and playing various and embarrassing pool games. [You know what I mean when I use the term “spring-breakers!!!] The pool was relaxing but obviously very loud. We unfortunately did not partake in the fun at the swim-up bar- next time I sure will.
We then gave in and got margaritas- how could we not? We were in Margaritaville for g-ds sake! They were very tasty and must-needed if you ask me. I’m not too certain which margarita we ordered, but I could have drank another one! Perfect way to end a perfect day.
As we walked back to our ship I noticed how clear and turquoise the water really was-
It’s always nice to have a set schedule of events on a particular day [especially if you only have ONE day there], but I really enjoyed the simplicity of just laying on the beach and watching the palm trees sway. Perfect way to enjoy the end of our not-so-relaxing-vacation (I guess by saying that I mean “trip”.)
a passion & a passport 
