The Travels of the Agnew Family

Ed and I invited Rob and Ellen and Anne and Victor for dinner to celebrate New Year's Eve.


The ladies in their tiaras.

Is it sign of old age if you turn on NTV to watch the New Year in Newfoundland so it won't matter if you don't make it to midnight to watch the ball drop in New York City?

My brother-in-law (Darryl), sister (Carol) and great niece (Sarah) flew up from Texas for a visit right after Christmas. After the fact they found out their flight delay out of Dallas was due to the tornadoes that hit the Dallas area.

Darryl's 98 year mother lives in an assisted living home in Toronto, so Darryl spent most of his time in Canada visiting him mother, but he did come to Burlington to join us for a visit.


My mother and her three children, David, Frances and Carol.


Sarah.

Sonya had suggested going to a movie Christmas Day and Ed thought that was a good idea.


Guess what we went to see. We ordered our tickets about 10 days before Christmas for a 10:45 showing of Star Wars in a VIP theatre. We were even able to reserve our seats.
Sonya said Ed looked like an alien with his 3D glasses on (we opted to not see the movie in 3D but were given the glasses when gave our tickets).


The inside of the VIP theatre. Very comfy stadium seating. You even get food and beverage service.


We had planned on having Dim Sum for lunch/dinner but the line up was very, very long. After waiting about ten minutes we decided to go else where. Eventually we found a middle eastern restaurant that was open and had lamb kabobs with humus and an eggplant dip.

Boxing Day morning we went back to the Dim Sum restaurant and managed to get in after only waiting a couple of minutes. By time we left there was a lineup.

Ed and I are still missing Zaph a lot and decided we didn't want to be home for Christmas. The last few years Ed and I haven't been exchanging gifts but we always gave Zaph lots of presents. Ed's sister, Sonya lives in downtown Toronto so we decided to go there this year.




Our theme for Christmas this year is "non-tradional", so we started it off with Sushi and Tempura for Christmas Eve dinner.

After dinner we went for a walk to look at Christmas lights.












One of the windows at the Hudson's Bay store.


Another window at the Hudson's Bay store.








You have to pause for a second when you see this window in the Royal Ontario Museum.

Then there's a shoe store window

December 19


It snowed again but it's not expected to last. The temperatures are expected to reach at least 10C (50F).


The local airport held a Christmas party and as Ed helps out, we were invited. Three fellows brought instruments and entertained us.

December 20

Ed and I went for a walk on the Bruce Track just north of Walkerton. A snowmobile trail runs through part of the park and they have built themselves a nice hut with an indoor and outdoor fire pit.

I haven't done any decorating inside the house, but the outside looks pretty good.

A couple of days before we left for Provo Ed got a call from the Princess Auto store in Owen Sound. He had won one of the door prizes from the grand opening. As we were going away, Ed arranged to pick up the prize upon our return. Today Ed and Victor drove to Owen Sound, bought a bunch of stuff at Princess Auto and picked up the door prize.


Ed was impressed with the items in his basket ---- the gloves and shirt are even the correct sizes.

It is going to be another beautiful day in Provo but we are going to miss it as it's time to fly home.


Goodbye Turtle Cove,


Goodbye Grace Bay. It's interesting to see the island from the air as it gives a different perspective to the places we drove and walked during our stay.


Hello Toronto. This is Rob's photos as his side of the plane got to see the CN tower.

Happily we only experienced a few minor burps in todays travel. Ed and my check-in agent asked about liquids in our carry-on which I quickly mentioned to Rob as I knew they had packed a bottle of rum in their carry-on (their check-in agent didn't mention it to them). Luckily his bag hadn't disappeared down the conveyor belt, so the bottle got packed. Hate to loose a good bottle of rum during the security check-in. And speaking of security check-in Ed's camera bag was thoroughly searched, so was the carry-on that had previously held the rum. I also had the pleasure of being frisked ---- maybe that was because my carry-on didn't get checked. It was good to see the security staff doing a thorough job.

I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the arrival process went. I remember when it took close to an hour to get through immigration and customs (last time we flew was 11 years ago). Today I think it was only about 15 minutes. The new immigration terminals really decrease the wait time.

It's hard to believe that it's our last full day on the island. It's also Ed and my 29th anniversary. Definitely a good spot to celebrate it.


Chris asked us to take some photos of another lot on the island. While we were walking around I saw this "air plant" in a tree. I've seen the "air plants" for sale at home but have never seen one in its natural habitat.


Ed had brought his small tripod with him so it needed to get used. The four of us in the gazebo at the house.

I think our favourite dining spot on the island was the back deck at the house and probably the best meal was barbecued hamburgers topped with cheese, fried mushrooms and onions, on fresh French Bakery buns. The second spot would be Da Conch Shack --- the ambiance won by leaps and bonds, the food was very good and the rum punch was amazing. The rum punch served on the back deck was also very good and if I could stay for the entire winter I might be able to perfect our punch to the standard of Da Conch Shacks rum punch. It shouldn't be hard to guess where we had our last lunch out.


The dining room at Da Conch Shack.


One of the other dining guests (I think he's an Oyster Catcher). The four of us enjoying a complimentary anniversary shot.


We spent the afternoon at Grace Bay beach enjoying the beautiful sand, warm water and hot sun.




Sapodilla Bay is known for it's sunsets so we had to go see for ourselves.


To help gets us back into the winter and Christmas spirit we drove around and looked at the Christmas decorations. Like a flip of a switch, the island went Christmas on December 1. We even saw a car that was decorated complete with a Santa on the roof.

There's been a little more than normal cloud and rain during our visit to Provo, but today is picture perfect.

Today we explored the Cooper Jack area, the only section of the island we haven't seen. The Cooper Jack area has a lot of inlets or canals, so lots of properties on the water and lots of spots to park boats.


This one seems to have a slight problem. It's still afloat but not sure that it's going to stay that way for long.

Being a "perfect day" meant mandatory time at the beach. Grace Bay beach was the beach of choose and not only dip we go for a swim but Ed and I also took a long walk.


These birds (maybe sandpipers) were also out for a stroll.


Lots of little catamarans were out on the water.




Most of the catamarans we saw belonged to the resorts. The blue one belongs the resort Beaches.


There were even a few yachts anchored off the shore. "Kiss the Sky" is 159 feet long and built in 2001.

One of the things on our "to do" list for Provo was kayaking and today we got to check it off. We picked "the eco trip" that took us through Mangrove Cay and over to Little Water Cay.


Ed and I opted for single man kayaks.


Starting through Mangrove Cay. During high tide this area is under water. The Mangrove roots are happy in salt water and provide a safe habitat for young sea life.


A "upside down" jelly fish. This particular jelly fish normally has the jelly side down and the tentacle side up as it has a symbiotic relationship with algae.


Little Water Cay has a beautiful beach where we cooled.


This cay is an iguana sanctuary and is home to 3 to 4 thousand iguanas. Scientists recently counted 3,000 of them and assume they may have missed up to a thousand of the iguanas. This one is a female.


This is a male iguana.

Every Thursday evening is the Fish Fry at the Bight Children's Park. A number of restaurants set up tents offering conch, grilled lobster, jerk chicken, fried fish (of course), etc. A number of local artisans are also there selling there wares.






A DJ was on stage keeping the crowd dancing.


A Jamaican band also performed.

If you ever come to the Turks and Caicos make sure you go to the Thursday night fish fry.

Chris and Tina had told us that you needed a full day to see North and Middle Caicos so we were up early and at the ferry dock shortly after 6am waiting for the 6:30am ferry.


Ed (not a morning person) kept asking why we were up in the middle of the night.

We had arrange for a rental vehicle on North Caicos. The "White Rhino", a 2001 Land Rover, was waiting for us when we arrive.


The car rental agencies should be call "Rent a Junk". The land rover was pretty enough except for the missing lights, broken bumper, filthy windshield and mostly bald tires. The fellow who delivered the land rover told Ed the key was a little tricky. When you put the key into the ignition you needed to wiggle and pull it out a little. With a gentle touch the land rover started. First stop, the gas station. There are no gas stations on Middle Caicos (with a population of 275 it would be hard to justify one) so you wanted to make sure you had enough fuel for the day. With 3/4 of a tank of fuel and a clean windshield we were good to go. Oooooops White Rhino won't start, the battery is dead. The adventure begins.


By luck we had the phone number of the fellow that had dropped off the land rover (he had used our phone to call his phone to get our phone number for his records). He came and jump started the car so we could drive it back to it's home where "dad" took the battery out of another land rover and put it in this one. Now we were good to go.


North and Middle Caicos gets more rain then Provo thus more vegetation. There were a lot of beautiful flowers growing by the side of the road.


There is a lot of low land on North Caicos as you near the causeway to middle caicos.


The causeway is a long narrow strip that joins the two islands. The road is an interesting mixture of pavement and dirt. I'm guessing this is caused by water rising and destroying the pavement.


Tiki huts at Bambarra Beach. The snorkeling is suppose to be good here.


It's good to know that the road is ending. It would be easy to drive off the boat ramp into the water at Lorimers Landing.

There is one geocache on Middle Caicos that Ed thought he might like to get. The first road that we thought might get us close to it was 1.8 km as the crow flies, we figured at least a 5 km round trip down the beach and over the rocks. The second road that we thought might get us close to the geocache was over 2km as the bird flies. No geocache for Ed today, as even Ed didn't feel like doing the hike.


The second road did take us to Haulover Point. Someone started construction on a house and a cistern here, the concrete shells still stand but otherwise it is totally deserted. The structures are on a rocky point with a 270 degree view of the ocean. Off to one side is a sand beach cove.




You can see the buildings on the upper left side of the photo. I can understand why someone wanted to build here.


We had driven to the end of the road in Middle Caicos and worked our way back towards the ferry. One spot we had missed was Mudjin Harbour. Literature on the Turks and Caicos all said Mudjin Harbour was a must see. Now that we've seen it we agree. Before we headed down to the beach we stopped for a refreshing beverage at the Mudjin Bar & Grill.


A path leads you down some steps through a cave out to a small beach.


The main beach is protected by some rocks so the water was calmer here than on the other beach.


A high school physics experiment in real life. The waves came into shore from two different direction meeting at a sandy point that led to the rocks. The waves crashed as they me and continued past the intersection point.

We pulled down a side road and into a church driveway to look at Bottle Creek. The driveway ended at the top of a hill and we joked to Ed that he better make sure he stopped in time so we didn't end up in the water.


Looks like someone didn't manage to stop in time.

The White Rhino faired not too bad today as it got us back to the ferry safe and sound. We didn't see much of North Caicos and missed the caves on South Caicos so we'll have to come back the next time we are in Provo.

It was sprinkling this morning, not hard rain, not drizzle, just sprinkles every 5 or 10 minutes for a few minutes. We thought this was a perfect day to visit the shops and pick up a few gifts and souvenirs. So did everyone else. When the shopping was done it was time for lunch and what better place than Pizza Pizza. This pizza restaurant is definitely not of the chain. It's an open air restaurant with a gas fired open oven.


The "kitchen sink" --- it was really good.

After lunch we drove down to the Turtle Tail area of the island. Another beautiful spot....


with some humongous houses. Many rich and famous people have humongous houses in the Turks and Caicos Islands but most of them are on Parrot Cay. Rumour has it that this house is owned by coca cola.


This house is owned by the musician Prince. The water at the bottom of the photo leads to a protected boat harbour.


There's a small marina in the Turtle Tail where we found this boat that has seen better days.


Provo use to be a desert island with a lot of cactus. As it is being developed the climate is changing and so is the plant life. This area still has a number of cacti.

It was late and we were lazy so we drove down to Grace Bay Beach. The parking area brought us in beside the Seven Star Resort.




Every time we get in the water someone comments on how wonderful it is.