Turks and Caicos

Turks and Caicos did not disappoint. We spent a few days on Providenciales, the main island that is mostly catered to tourism, and then a few on Grand Turk, a much smaller and quieter island that has great snorkeling and diving sites. On both islands the beaches were beautiful. In Provo we stayed at a hotel on Grace Bay, a very large white sand beach with turquoise waters.  We did a bunch of swimming and snorkeling, but in addition to that there was a lot to explore. There are a few abandoned shipwrecks around the islands, some even on the beach. And in Middle Caicos there are a few caves that the pirates used to use as hideouts. 

These are some shots of a place called Chalk Sound inside of Provo. The blue of the water was so bright, it was almost luminescent. 

While on Provo we did an excursion to see Iguana Island and go Conch diving. Iguana island is a small, uninhabited island that has mostly iguanas living on it. It reminded me a bit of the Galapagos.

Conch (pronounced conk) is a big part of the diet on Turks and Caicos, as it is plentiful. We went with a group diving for them, and later the people leading the excursion cut them up and prepared them for us to eat in a ceviche. The meat doesn't have to be cooked on a stove, simply putting it in lime juice cooks it. They were hard to spot on the ocean floor, as the back of their shells blend in well with the sand. We didn't find any live ones (Greg found a dead one), but the guides found plenty. The captain of the ship found about 5 in one go. I don't have any pictures of us diving for them, but I got some of them being prepared on the beach.

Here the guide is cutting the back of the shells so the conch meat could be removed. They were still alive at this point.

Greg was one of the brave volunteers to take the meat out.

Here the guide was cutting up the meat to get the good stuff. The leftovers fell to the sand in a pile, which we later fed to the birds.

They let us each pick a conch shell to take back home with us. Ours is now sitting in the living room. It was originally in a plastic bag, but that didn't last long - the kitties smelt the sea water through the plastic and ripped the bag off.

Here we are feeding the extra meat to the birds. The birds started gathering as soon as we started cutting up the meat, this must be a regular thing for them.

And this was the ceviche. We had it on the boat ride back to the hotel.

We took a day trip to see North and Middle Caicos, where most of the caves were. These islands weren't as populated as Provo and were much less developed, giving them more of an authentic Caribbean feel. This was one of the shipwrecks we passed while driving between the 2 islands.

There was one cave we saw that I don't have any pictures of, but it was about 3 miles long. We had a guide take us through part of it, and there was writing on the walls of it dating back to the early 1900s, when it used to be a pirate hideout. It had plenty of bats and such, and it used to be a nesting site to some of the larger birds before the tours started going through. The guide was telling us that it was a good source of fresh water, and that during violent storms some people would seek shelter in it.

This was one of the caves right by a beach on Middle Caicos. It was by a small resort that put the benches in it.

This small island at the tip of that point you could easily get to - you only have to wade in about 3 feet of water to get there. It reminded me of a similar beach we saw in Greece called Elafonisi, in Crete.

We spoke with the person who ran the resort and he told us about a "secret beach" on the premises. 

They carved a stairway through one of the caves to get to it.

This was a view of it from up top.

While we were driving back we came across a very small beach with an abandoned shipwreck on it. Greg said he thinks it may be from the 50's or 60's, as it had some Caterpillar machinery on it that was completely rusted over.

After Provo we took a tiny airplane over to Grand Turk for the rest of our trip. The airplane was so small it only fit 7 passengers.

The flight was actually quite pleasant. It only lasted 30 minutes, and since we didn't go very high we had some nice aerial views of the islands and water during the trip.

That dark spot in the ocean you see is something they call "the hole." It's a drop off in the ocean. 

I didn't get too many pictures of Grand Turk, but it is a very peaceful and pretty place. The whole island is about 7 miles long, and has a population of 3700 people. It used to be a salt mining town, and back in those days people used horses and donkeys to pull around the equipment. Once they decided to leave that industry, many people set their animals free and today there are a lot of wild donkeys and horses you'll see on the sides of the streets. The locals will ride these wild horses bareback for fun. 

This was a cute baby donkey we saw.

 Grand Turk didn't have the same tourism vibe that Provo had (with one exception that I won't go into). It is a huge diving and snorkeling destination so many people go there just for that. Greg and I don't dive but we did do a bunch of snorkeling. There was beautiful reef and lots of fish all around the island. At the end of the trip we took a diving lesson. The instructor went over some of the basic skills, like how to clear your mask under water, and what to do if you lose the mouthpiece, and then we went on a real dive! It was about 30 feet, and we saw a sting ray, sea cucumber, and a few other fish. Unfortunately I had to cut it short because I was freezing in the wetsuit I chose - I opted for the one that didn't cover your legs and arms all the way - but other than that it was a totally fun and different experience. You see a completely different side of the ocean when you're all the way down there. 

More Hiking in Sequoia National Park

Alyssa and I went to Sequoia National Park and saw some of the largest trees in the world.

This was inside a fallen sequoia. The trunks are usually hollowed out due to fires, so in this case it made a tunnel.

On the hike up to Moro Rock. It's at 6700 feet and offers clear 360 views of the park. The road to it was closed due to snow, but we could walk the way instead.

General Sherman is the largest tree in the world by volume. It's about 2000 years old and its base is 40 feet in diameter. It was a monster, and totally dwarfed the other sequoias around it.

There were plenty of other gems in the park, right off the side of the road.

Big Sur and Yurts

Alyssa and Robyn were in town a few weeks ago for a conference, and they came a few days early so we could go hiking around Big Sur. We spent a night in Carmel on the way, an adorable little town which unfortunately I don't have any pictures of. The houses in it looked like doll houses and the town was filled with art galleries, shopping boutiques, and pastry shops. We drove down to Big Sur on the 1, it was a beautiful drive.

We stopped by Julia Pfeiffer Burns State park do to some hiking. Our first hike was to see McWavy Falls.

This tree was right next to that view, and it reminded me of the tree from The Bird and the Squirrel.

After that was went on a longer hike, the Ewoldsen Trail. It was just under 5 miles and had a gain of 1600 feet, so our quads were complaining by the end. If offered some great views of the valley and ocean.

After that hike we made one more stop along the PCH before the day was over - Jade Cove. Jade Cove is a small beach right off the 1 where there are large chunks of jade lying on the beach. Technically you're not allowed to take anything with you, but many people do anyway, so long as it's small. The beach is off the side of a small cliff, so to get down to it you have to repel down the side. There is a rope to help you along the way.

It was tricky to tell what was jade and what wasn't but some of the locals helped us out and showed us what to look for.

Here's Robyn with a huge chunk of what we think was raw jade.

The place we stayed at that night was called Treebones, and it was a "glamping" resort. We stayed in large tents called Yurts - modeled after the Yurts the Mongolians used to live in. They had beds, running water, and lots of natural light. And they had great views of the mountains.

Treebones had a good restaurant on site and a delicious sushi bar. When we went it was too dark for us to see the view, but when it's lighter out you have an expansive view of the mountains while eating your sushi and drinking wine. A perfect way to end a day of hiking.

Thanksgiving in Ireland

Seven days wasn't anywhere near enough to fully discover the country, but we did what we could with our time there. I really enjoyed the scenery and tea shops, and Greg liked the whiskey and the castles. We stayed at a hotel in Powerscourt, a park about a half hour's drive from Dublin. It had a lot of nice bike trails and hiking trails, and had the biggest waterfall in the country.

We spent a lot of time in Dublin exploring the city. We did a tour of the Jameson Factory and the Guiness Factory, both of which were in the city. The Jameson Factory was much smaller and we learned a lot about whiskey and how it's made. They showed us how the grains were cooked and what their triple distilling process involved. An interesting thing about their whiskey is that a large part of the flavor comes from the barrels they store it in. They use "seasoned" barrels, meaning they have been used to store another type of alcohol previously, so that their whiskey takes on a small amount of the character from that alcohol. Some of their barrels come from a burbon factory in Kentucky, which makes it sweet. At the end we all got some Jameson whiskey, and I learned that it is totally delicious with ginger ale and lime. Here is Greg participating in a whiskey tasting at the factory. 

The Guiness Factory was huge, and more like an interactive museum. They showed the whole process of how Guiness is made, from harvesting the grains to adding the hops to the final product. Apparently hops are a type of plant, and they are used to preserve the beer.

This was water from the water source they use to make the beer.

They had a giant sculpture designed to look like a glass of Guiness, used in this advertisement.

At the end of the tour we went to the top to get a free pint of Guiness. We weren't too crazy about the beer, but there was a very nice view from the top over Dublin. The Guiness Factory is the tallest building in Dublin, and on the top floor at the bar you had a panoramic view of the city.

One thing I loved about Dublin was all of the tea shops. They were like coffee shops, but when you walk in there are many jars of loose leaf teas out, so you can smell them before ordering a cup. They had delicious teas like Oolong, Pu'ehr, and a new one that I discovered called Rooibos which comes from South Africa. 

We did a bit of exploring on the West side of the country with a tour of the Blarney Castle and Cork. It was a rail tour so we took the train out there, and it was an all day trip. This was the Blarney Castle.

People were much smaller back when this castle was built. There were some stairways we could only just fit into to climb. And the ceilings and entrances were very small.

The entire structure was made of stone.

The bottom 6 inches of this rock is the Blarney Stone. Legend has it that if you kiss it, you will receive the gift of eloquence. You have to lie on your back and hold onto the bars to kiss it backwards, which is the easiest way since there is a drop right before it. I was told by someone who used to live in Ireland that the locals pee on this stone so Greg and I passed on kissing it.

This was the highest budget church to build in Ireland. It is huge, and has beautiful stained glass windows on the inside.

Greg's phone took this picture - my camera didn't come close in quality.

We also saw the Book of Kells and the library at Trinity College. 

I was very impressed with the artwork in the ancient texts from the scribes. I wasn't able to get any pictures of them, but every page had detailed, intricate calligraphy and illustrations. I found some pictures of it online, just to give you an idea. Keep in mind how small these books were, they must have used a tool to get in all of that detail.