The first day of our week-long vacation to Beaches Resort on Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands was an extremely long travel day filled with anticipation. The kids were on edge constantly with an energy that overcame their lack of sleep. Patrick slept on the plane, probably more than anybody. The adults slept when and where they could: Beth on the hard cement floor of the Atlanta terminal, I hunched over the tray-table of the seat in front of me on our connecting flight to the island.

At the end of the day, we were exhausted. We went to dinner at Giuseppe’s when we discovered the Sushi bar was closed on Monday nights. But all of the kids but Lauren were soon asleep at the dinner table providing plenty of entertainment for the surrounding tables. Patrick struggled to rest his head on the arm of his wrought-iron chair, and Emily gave us a show with an extended sleep walking session around the restaurant. The other tables laughed with delight.

Despite the swim-up bar and the instant access to rum-punches, our overall opinion of the resort is somewhat reserved at first. There’s been an extreme shortage of towels, and that makes for a chilly walk from pool to room in breezy weather. One thing that didn’t disappoint though was the beach. The sand is an amazingly fine white powder that seems laced with a slippery talcum. And the sunset on our first night was phenomenal.

In our efforts to meet up for dinner, we dragged the hungry tired kids from restaurant to restaurant looking for Mike and Jody and the girls. I fear there will be a lot of that since our rooms are as far apart as they could possibly be and we have no way of communicating once we leave the room. We never did find Les for dinner. “Hey Les, thanks for bringing us all on this incredible vacation. Hey don’t you go ahead and eat by yourself on the first night.”

The talky gal working at the restaurant crushed our short-lived joy at finally finding a place to eat (we were famished) by announcing loudly to all in line that the restaurant was only open for the Johnson family, “all 168 of them!” It was her idea of humor. She got me with her straight-faced witticism, then got me again when she told us that there was an hour wait for a table of 8 despite the fact that we could see an available table nearby. Jody relished it.

Emily has been on a sleepwalking binge, perhaps brought on by our sleep-deprived night of travel. She woke on the plane and had an extended conversation with me. She had her extended episode in the restaurant, and then woke me up on the way to the bathroom in our room later to tell me that she was going to, “dry it up.” I’ve learned to recognize the glassy-eyed stare as she somnambulates and chats up a storm.

My body clock’s all screwy. We were all asleep by 8:00 local which seemed normal to me after a sleepless night the night before. But then I awoke at 11:00 at night wondering why the sun had not come up yet.

Perhaps I too am filled with anticipation at what tomorrow will bring. Lisa and I are signed up for our scuba refreshment course so we can take our first dive on Wednesday. For now though I’d better force myself to get some sleep, because the kids will be ready to his the day bright and early.

Click the photo(s) here to see a larger version. We only took about 15 pic’s today, but I’m sure there will much more to come. Here are 8 of the best. (Click the video below to play or visit our Picasa page from the day.

Remember, you can click the thumbnails here to view a larger version of the photos.