Our first trip to the Caribbean was to the island of Provodenciales (Provo) in the Turks and Caicos Islands. It is a small group of 40 islands (only 8 are inhabited) and it is home to some of the most beautiful beaches on Earth.

Most of the islands are quite literally desert and as recently as 1964, there were no motorized vehicles on Provo. My how the times have changed. A booming real estate development industry has construction of giant condos and timeshares going up everywhere. The breaking waves were often interrupted by the sounds of jackhammers. It is truly unfortunate that the people of Turks and Caicos are basically having their islands bought right out from under them. Starting at a cool half-million, you too can own .44 acres of oceanfront property.

A weekend trip and cool waters prevented us from doing anything off-shore but the water along the beach was very clear and warm once you got used to it. We spent our time relaxing in the breeze and reading with the occasional break to walk to one of the many oceanside restaurants. Turks and Caicos is the only place in the world where conch is farmed so we tried to sample a couple of the different ways to eat it.

Usually when we go places, we make an attempt to learn something about the culture of the local people. Granted, we were only there for two days, but I saw almost no indication that there was anything TO learn. English is the national language, the dollar is the currency. The little TV in our hotel room was hooked up to mainland cable with the same 80+ package we have at home! It did make the trip much easier but there was still something about it that kept it from feeling like a real getaway trip. I'm not one to judge though so we made the most of our January beach trip and actually do plan on going back once we get our SCUBA certification.

After a nice relaxing weekend, there's nothing like a day of non-revving to completely undo it. After 19 hours and stops in Miami and Nashville, we arrived back in a chilly Dallas wishing we had taken a few more days off.