The group chat had forty-seven unread messages and nobody had answered the one question that mattered: so where are we going? One friend wanted a pool and a nap. One wanted to be on a boat by 9 a.m. One wanted a dinner reservation she could brag about. One wanted all three, plus "somewhere easy." Same people, same week off, four different vacations. I ended up sending them the same answer I give almost everyone who asks what's actually good about Turks and Caicos: it bends. S

Three weeks after we got back from Turks and Caicos, a friend invited me to the beach. A nice one, she promised. Two hours away, great reviews, twenty bucks to park. I spread out my towel, looked at the water, and said "huh" out loud. It was brown. Not dirty brown, just regular brown, the exact water I had swum in my whole life without one complaint. My friend asked what was wrong, and the honest answer was nothing. That was the problem. Somewhere in a week of watching the oc