20 Questions | Turks & Caicos Edition

I was inspired by a friend who posted this travel questionnaire to Facebook after a trip to Europe, so I thought I would be fun to answer a few questions about our most recent trip to Turks & Caicos.  So, let's jump right in (pun intended):    

Favorite photo: 

See above. We ventured out to Grace Bay on one of our last days and it was incredible. The bluest water I've ever seen (sorry Hawaii). 

Favorite quote: 

I read this quote the first day of our trip and I couldn't agree more --  "Live your life with intention and attention". Boom!  

Favorite city: 

Providenciales. Well, that's the only island we went to. So we're going with that.  

Favorite beach: 

Grace Bay (pictured above). 

Favorite aspect of Caribbean Travel: 

How simple everything is. There is one security line and only a few gates at the airport. 

Proudest moment as an American: 

Reading our guidebook to understand the tipping customs so we didn't totally miss the boat. I'm proud to say that we tipped 20% on our free breakfast each morning. 

Most shameful moment as an American: 

Not asking questions and trying to understand the locals and their culture better.  

Strangest custom: 

Driving on the left but in an American car. 

Best decision: 

Choosing the Gansevoort Turks and Caicos as our home away from home. I cannot recommend it enough. We booked a package through Orbitz and I'm sure that saved us several hundred dollars. 

Worst decision: 

Not bringing or using bugspray. See 'Not looking forward to' below. 

Best discovery: 

Conch (as in: trying a fresh conch salad on a boat ride that we took on Thanksgiving day). 

Most startling discovery: 

Turks and Caicos isn't actually in the Caribbean. It's in the Atlantic. Who knew? 

Best day: 

The day we visited Grace Bay. 

Worst day: 

On our first full day, there was a huge rainstorm and it basically poured all day. Per the guidebook, there are 350 sunny days per year. So we just drank our sorrows all day.  

Best meal: 

An unassuming restaurant called Magnolias wine bar where we ate Thanksgiving dinner. I had the lobster and Jake had the tuna steak. It was simple but very well done. They even had a Pumpkin Pie dessert for us. 

Worst meal: 

We didn't have a bad meal per se, but the food was a lot more expensive than we anticipated. So, keep that in mind if you decide to take a trip here. I would definitely go back, but maybe just adjust my budget accordingly. 

Still excited for:  

Doing my blog post recaps and editing my photos -- duh! 

Not looking forward to:  

Scratching my bug bites. They still haven't fully healed yet. 

Most looking forward to: 

Jake and I sitting down and going through all 479 of our photos together.  

Most thankful for: 

The ability to travel. I sometimes take it for granted, but it's pretty cool to go from wanting to visit a place, researching it and then actually making it happen. It's pretty magical in my eyes! 

xoxo,

Friday Five | Vol. 8

Well, in case you didn't notice I missed last week's Friday Five. Oh well. It was the day after Thanksgiving and I was on vacation. Anyway, I'm back now and it's December.  And by back now, I mean I'm writing this from Las Vegas.  December might actually be a busier travel month than October which I did not think was possible. Anywho....

(1) My new favorite song is Justin Bieber's Love Yourself.  I know. Nobody is more shocked than I am.

(2) I didn't actually buy anything on Cyber Monday or Black Friday. I'm pretty proud of myself for this. Did you score anything crazy good?

(3) Debating whether to stop getting gel manicures. They cannot be good for you.

(4) I know we just got back from a trip, but I'm seriously considering where I want to go for my birthday next year. Top contenders: Tulum, Mexico or Austin, Texas. #traveladdict, am I right?

(5) I just got my first pair of ear jackets -- thanks Amy! and I'm obsessed. So many fun earring trends this year. I wonder what they'll come up with next year?

Weekending | Chicago's Cloud Gate + Willis Tower

If you haven't already, be sure to check out this post which is essentally Part I of our Chicago Trip.   

One thing I was really excited to see in person was Cloud Gate aka the Chicago Bean.   I feel like I have seen a million photos of this thing. But, nothing does it justice like seeing it in person.  First of all, it's way bigger than I thought it was. It's ginormous. I really wanted to get there at 6 am so we could take photos without anyone else, but alas we were on vacation and the point is to SLEEP IN and not wake up earlier than you usually would. Haha.

I love this shot below because of the red trees. We visited in mid-October and the leaves were just starting to really change -- it was beautiful and warmer than I thought it would be. I was expecting it to be freezing, because, you know, Chicago. Well, you know how they call it the windy city? Well, when we first arrived, we noticed people were really bundled up and the weather said it was in the 60's so we were kind of confused, until the wind started to pick up.  I swear it seemed 10-15 degrees colder with the wind chill. The good news is that we did pack accordingly and I had my big winter coat.  

Another area we walked around a lot was Millennium Mile.  Uniqlo had just opened the day before we were there so it was madness, but of course we had to go check it out. The store had at least 5 floors and was it was insanely packed. We decided to pass on buying anything since, well... Charlotte. Essentially it doesn't snow or get super cold here very much. Once in a while (hello polar vortex), it'll get down to the single digits but for the most part, we don't really need to bundle up much here.  

We bought Willis (formerly Sears) Tower tickets on Travelzoo for $15 so I was pretty proud of myself that I saved us a little bit of money.  I was even prouder when I realized that we got to skip part of the line since we had said vouchers. When we arrived, they said it would be a 2 hour wait to the top (which sounded crazy to me, but when in Rome)... it ended up to be closer to an hour and a half-ish. 

Jake and I both stepped out on The Ledge which is 103 floors up, overlooking the city of Chicago with a GLASS FLOOR. It is not for the faint of heart as Jake and I both are afraid of heights. Confession: sometimes I am scared to go on the escalator when its 3+ floors up. But, I went out on the ledge long enough to take a few quick pics and that was it. I had to hold onto the glass at all times. My face looks pretty terrified in some of the photos. There is one picture of us kneeling down on Facebook, but it makes me scared just to look at it.  Not sure if I would ever do it again... but... I survived to tell about it.  

I love how the water really looks blue/green in these photos.  

All of the lights. 

I leave you with one more shot of the skyline because it's just so gorgeous.

Well, that's it folks. It was a pretty quick short and sweet trip. We came, we saw, we ate Pequoids deep dish pizza and a Chicago Dog so I think we should be set for a while. 

Weekending | W Chicago Lakeshore + Architecture Boat Tour

Jake and I visited Chicago for the first time together a few months ago. What a whirlwind! We only had a few days to explore the city so we tried to hit up a few things and remember that someday we will be back.  

We stayed at the W Lakeshore and I used my SPG points for the first time and it was glorious. It's the only hotel directly on the lake, so it's pretty secluded from everything else but it was nice to feel like we weren't in the hustle and bustle, but we could take a quick walk to it if we wanted to. 

I rented a DSLR camera for this trip which made all the difference.  After a quick lesson on how to use the thing, I was off. It's pretty easy and you can even use it in automatic mode which I basically did most of the time. I used a wide angle lens for most of these photos which is the best for landscape photography.  I was pretty happy with the entire camera renting experience... I'll do a post about that soon. 

View from our room: 

#selfie

Currently obsessed with these lace up flats. 

We grabbed coffee and a donut from this little coffee shop one morning. We also ate dinner at Girl and the Goat (must do, make reservations NOW) at the Chef's Table. One of my Top 5 Dinner experiences ever. But, I didn't want to lug around the DSLR to dinner, hence there are no photos of this. Oh well. Lesson learned. 

Our first order of business was an architecture boat ride. We did the Wendella Lake and River cruise which I highly recommend.  It was the perfect balance of River and Lake.

My favorite part was when we went out on the Lake. The water looked almost green! 

I'll be sharing more photos later this week from our trip including Cloud Gate aka the Giant Bean and Sears Tower. Stay tuned!