Author: Jo

Our Honeymoon: Grand Turk

Our last stop on our Honeymoon Cruise was the islands of Turks & Caicos.  Grand Turk to be exact.  We had scheduled an excursion of swimming with the stingrays here, but after talking to some of the other passengers who had experienced this before, we decided to cancel the excursion and just explore the island on our own.

Well, it turns out that Grand Turk is probably the last island in the Caribbean that you’d want to explore.  I’ll explain in a minute.

 

When we docked, we pulled up right along side the Carnival Pride, one of the ships in the Carnival fleet.  I think our ship looks much bigger and prettier than Carnival’s cruise ship, but maybe I’m just a little biased.

 

Here we are as we exited the ship on a beautiful sunny day in the Caribbean.  Little did we know that the beautiful sunny day wouldn’t last.

 

A little home away from home.  I’ve only ever seen Margaritaville in Nashville, but here it was!  On Grand Turk!  And this Margaritaville was awesome…..minus how crowded it was.  They had a full restaurant, plus a gigantic pool with a swim up bar!  Since both our ship and Carnival’s ship were docked at the same time, that meant that there was barely even swimming room.  Side note: notice the beautiful blue sky above.

So since we canceled our excursion, we decided to rent a car and explore the island.

 

Yep that’s a cow…..and yep….that’s rain on our window.  It was sunny and beautiful not ten minutes earlier.  This was one of many cows, horses, and donkeys that apparently roam the island freely.

 

Some wild horses.

 

We finally found a gorgeous, not-as-crowded beach to hang out at, but five minutes after we arrived, it started pouring again.  So rather than lay out in the rain, we decided to explore some more.

 

On our drive we saw this big fella.  This was seriously the biggest horse on the island, and the only painted one.  All the others were a brownish red color or dark brown.

 

Well hello there!  Aren’t you a handsome boy!  And very happy to see us apparently.  Gross.

 

Don’t mind us.  We’re just sitting in our car staring at you while you eat.

 

This was the only school we saw on the entire island and it was completely deserted and run down.  Looks like the doings of one of the many hurricanes or tropical storms they get probably every year….maybe several times a year.

 

This cute little donkey family was right outside the school.  Daddy (in the front) was not too happy with some other donkeys that kept getting to close to his wife and baby.  He would chase them off while kicking and making that ridiculous honking sound that donkeys make.

 

Oh hi!  It’s you again!

 

That’s right!  Being the horse lover that I am, I got out and pet him.  Luckily he was a very friendly horse, and not skittish like all the others.

 

Nice horsey!  And look how big he is!!

 

Isn’t this little fluffy baby donkey the cutest thing?!  He ran away when I took another step, unfortunately.

 

This beach was on the unpopulated part of the island.  Well, the whole island is not very populated, but this part had no houses nearby, so I would say it’s unpopulated…..for a 7 mile long island.

 

This next beach was along side a little row of shops on the islands “main street”….which could only fit one car at a time.

 

Steve bought this local beer and thought, “What a good opportunity to take a picture of my e-cig in a beautiful setting!”  He said the beer was excellent!  I wouldn’t know.  I don’t like beer.

 

On our way back to the dock we saw this big fella.  You don’t want to hit this guy going 50 mph.  Pretty sure he would just stand still and our rental car would be totaled.

 

I mean look at the size of this guy!  His balls are practically hitting his knees as he walks.  That can’t be comfortable.  Oh, and notice the lovely blue sky that appeared as we were about to leave.  Wonderful timing.

 

We posed for one last picture on the island of Grand Turk before heading back to the ship.  I don’t think we needed to be back for another couple hours but we had pretty much seen all the island had to offer, and Steve wanted to get back to the casino.  Geez.

 

Here’s the view of Grand Turk from the dock.  Of course they have the beautiful touristy beach all beautiful with planted palm trees perfectly manicured and a wonderful shopping center just off the dock.  But don’t let that fool you, folks!  We know the real Grand Turk, and it is not all that pretty.  Yes the water is….but the island itself….not so bueno.

 

I do have to say that the water at Turks & Caicos was the prettiest water we saw on our cruise.  We were still docked in this picture, standing out on our balcony.  Steve bought that sweet necklace at one of the shops, and I got a dress.  We also bought a hand-carved, wooden sculpture of two dolphins dancing.  It was a great experience, but I think once in a lifetime is enough of a visit for this island.

Our Honeymoon: St. Thomas

I’m sorry it has taken so long to write another honeymoon post.  I guess I’ve just been focused on updating the website, among other things, that my little blog has taken a back seat…..again.  But don’t worry!  I’m back, and blessing you with more images from the lovely Caribbean!

As you probably remember from my previous honeymoon post, Steve and I went on a 9-day Caribbean cruise for our honeymoon, which stopped in 3 ports.  Our first port was Bermuda, and the second was St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.  This was by far our favorite port of call on the cruise.  Many of the passengers were saying how St. Thomas was the best place for shopping, but we weren’t really looking to buy a lot of jewelry and diamonds, which is mainly what you can get deals on in St. Thomas.  So we went on a snorkeling and sailing excursion where we were able to swim with lots of turtles and beautiful fish.

This was the view as we were pulling into the dock.

 

Here’s the tug boat that helped guide us in.  You can see how much sand our ship kicked up in those usually clear aqua water.

 

These big fellas were sitting on rocks all along the pier welcoming us to St. Thomas.

 

This was the beautiful catamaran we sailed on.  It was practically brand new and had only been taken out a couple times before we went on it.  There were about 40 people on our excursion.

 

First we stopped at Honeymoon Beach for lunch.  How fitting, since we were on our honeymoon!  We got to swim a little in the clear water, and then we had a delicious BBQ lunch.  This part of the trip had a bit of a damper to it though, because Steve sprayed sunscreen on my face and I couldn’t open one of my eyes for about an hour or so.  But luckily, after several times flushing it with water (and tears) it finally cleared up and I was able to see again!

 

Here we are on our way out to Turtle Bay, an island that’s protected by the government as a natural habitat.  We weren’t allowed to set foot on the island, but we had a lot of fun snorkeling in the water around the island.  We saw several turtles, and lots of colorful fish.  Steve had hurt his leg snorkeling in Bermuda, so after about 20 minutes he went back to the boat and I got to explore the rest of the water on my own (well, still in a big group, but without Steve).

 

Gotta love that sensitive Scandinavian skin!  An hour of snorkeling and I had this lovely face mask imprint for the next couple hours.

 

The catamaran had two cargo nets on either side that we were allowed to put our feet on while we sailed back to the dock.  It was fun to be able to see the water right under our legs.

 

The ride back was very relaxing and fun.  Instead of using the motor on the boat, they put up the sails and we leisurely sailed back to the dock while listening to music and drinking unlimited rum punch.

 

We saw this old school pirate ship on our way back.  Straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean!  How fitting.

It was our favorite excursion on the cruise, and I’m sure if we ever go back, we’d love to do it again!  Oh, and the best part?  A dolphin swam right up along side of the boat!  Unfortunately it dove down before I could take a picture, but that was the only dolphin we saw on the entire trip.  So it was pretty special.

 

 

Steak with Jack

It’s always fun to find new ways to make steak, and it’s even more fun when it involved a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Whiskey.  I found this recipe (where else?) in the Pioneer Woman’s Cookbook.  Since she has to make food for cowboys, she tends to cook a lot of steak and potatoes.  This recipe is a new favorite, and I think if you try it, you’ll love it too.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 2 of your favorite cuts of steak
  • 5 tbsp of butter, divided
  • Half a large onion, or one small onion
  • 1/4 cup Jack Daniel’s Whiskey (you can also use your favorite brand of whiskey)
  • 1/4 cup beef stock or broth
  • 1/4 cup cream (I used half & half)
  • Salt and Pepper

Start by melting 2 tbsp of butter in a medium skillet over medium heat.

 

Finely chop your onion and add it to the skillet.

 

Cook on medium heat until your onions start to turn brown (caramelize).

 

Next comes the main ingredient, Jack Daniel’s Whiskey!  Made in Lynchburg, TN, which just so happens to be a dry county.  Isn’t that ironic?  Steve and I went with his parents last year to the Jack Daniel’s Distillery and took a tour of the grounds and the whiskey making process.  You definitely need a strong stomach to go on that tour, because there is a very strong odor when you’re walking through the distillery where they have huge vats of brewing whiskey.

 

When your onions have caramelized a bit, it’s time to add the whiskey.  If you have a gas stove, I would recommend turning off your burners while you’re pouring the whiskey.  You don’t want your kitchen to catch on fire.

 

You’re pretty much going to let all of the whiskey evaporate so that only the flavor of whiskey is left.  And yes, you can serve this dish to children.  All the alcohol is cooked out of the whiskey.

 

Next, add the chicken stock.

 

Season with salt and pepper.

 

Add another tablespoon of butter to the sauce and stir it around until it melts.  Everything is better with butter.  Just keep telling yourself that.

 

Next it’s time to add the cream.  It makes the sauce……er……creamy.  My other name is Captain Obvious in case you were wondering.

 

Bring the sauce to a bubble and then turn the heat down to low and let simmer while you prepare the steaks.  Give it a little stir occasionally.

 

Melt your last 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet over medium high heat.

 

Generously season your steaks with salt and pepper and add them to the hot skillet.  We like our steaks cooked medium, so I cooked them for about 4 minutes on each side.

 

Once your steaks are cooked how you like them, transfer to a plate and generously spoon the whiskey cream sauce over the steaks.

 

 

Doesn’t that look gorgeous?  And let me tell you, it’s really tasty too!  This would be wonderful with some mashed potatoes.  I was trying to add a little bit of healthiness to my dinner, so I cooked some zucchini (in butter) to go along with my steak.

 

This recipe makes 2 servings of sauce, unless you don’t spoon as much sauce on your steaks.  If that’s the case, you could probably stretch it into 4 servings.  I hope you enjoy!  I know we certainly did.