Turks and Caicos Christmas 2021 - Day 6: Spa, dining on the beach

Sunday commenced with an 8 AM(ish) trip to the grocery store, because we forgot that it closed early last night. 

After a light breakfast (on the veranda), we loaded up the car and drove over to the Grace Bay resort area. The ladies had booked some massage time at the spa at Seven Stars resort.

Rudy and I had kicked around the idea of dropping them off and heading to Turks Head Brewery, but it's closed on Sundays (possibly related to "no alcohol sales on Sunday" law).

Instead, we threaded our way through the resort area, out to the beach, and claimed a pair of lounge chairs under a straw hut thing.

We did our best to blend in, but eventually got harassed by their security, who suggested that we should buy "day passes" (at $100/person, plus tax). After the guy didn't like my mostly-true explanation about waiting for a spa appointment, I just said "okay" and went back to reading my book, and eventually he gave up and left. (It helped that the towels we had brought looked suspiciously like their resort towels, almost as if they might've come from there...)

After about two hours of relaxing in the shade with a book, mixed with a few dips in the water, we wound our way back through the maze of manicured gardens to the spa, regrouped, and decided where to go for the afternoon.

Just a few minutes down the road, we arrived at the public beach parking near Hemingway's.

There was a man offering various chairs, umbrellas, tents, etc., for rent, conveniently by the beach entrance.

Seeing very little competition for space, we set up for the afternoon adjacent to Hemingway's.

It turned out to be a quiet stretch of sand, between the busy resort area of the main Grace Bay Beach crescent, and the all-inclusive resort area where we had walked a few days ago (before giving up our quest for food and turning around).

I was able to find a spot in the shade, and splurged on a $5 chair rental.

Eventually, we saw a waitress from Hemingway's offering menus, which was all it took to convince us to have a late lunch on the beach. It helped that there were drinks available, too.

I think we're all in agreement that this was the perfect spot to spend an afternoon, as we stayed almost until sunset.

There was even a random encounter with some friendly strangers that Jeanne and Rudy had met yesterday, while Sabrina and I were beach-walking.

Around 4:15 or 4:30, we finally packed up and headed home, just in time for 5 o'clock daiquiri hour.

We ran out of mango purée, so some people got wild berry pomegranate.

Tomorrow, we might go watch the sunrise at a beach, and then we need to get COVID tests. Unclear what else is on the agenda.