I've Been Baaaad!

Hello again, one and all! And much business to be dealt with in this post!

First off, a little clarification seems to be in order. The spinning I posted about a couple weeks ago was done thirty some years ago. It seems there was some confusion about that. The wool has gotten very stiff and hard in spots and I don't intend to do anything at all with it. There are only little bits, anyways. But I'm greatly encouraged by all your supportive comments and emails, and I'm going to get rid of the crappy spinning and try again, as soon as I can locate something to spin. I saw some carded and dyed wool in a Tucson shop quite a while back (not the shop I normally go to, though), and I will probably stop in on my next trip to town. There might also be a shop closer to home that may have something I could use, haven't had the time to stop in yet, though. I'm just concerned that I may not be successful in learning to spin just by reading about it on the net; I wish there were a bunch of knitters and spinners around here to get together with. I know that there have to be spinners, after all, there was handspun in the county fair. So I think I'll have to do a little searching.

Anyways, the trip was lovely, thank you so much. I'm going to be blogging about it for probably the rest of the week, so if you're not into travelogues, I won't mind if you skip! But this is where family members check in to find out what's going on in our neck of Arizona, so I'll be doing this especially for them. But I do promise to be entertaining while I'm doing it!

Today I'm going to post a few pictures of the ship itself. Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas is the largest ship we have cruised on to date. In fact, even after a week on board we still couldn't remember where everything was located! This photo is looking down from Deck 7, the same deck our cabin was located on, onto the multi-story metal sculpture in the "Centrum", the open area in the very center of the ship. Musicians usually played on the ground level during the afternoons and evenings. And all the different musicians and groups were excellent! All the sections of the ship branch off from the Centrum; it went from the fourth level to the eighth.









This was our fifth cruise with Royal Caribbean. I can't praise them highly enough. We have always thoroughly enjoyed everything about their cruises. And they are very good to us and to all their repeat cruisers; we regularly receive discounts, upgrades, special promotions, etc. Here we have some pics from around the ship: Barbara on deck at Cabo San Lucas, Barbara and Joe on the balcony, the outdoor swimming pool and hot tubs (there was an indoor pool, also, with hot tubs, just for adults), me and Mr. Good Looking on the balcony on the first of two formal nights. The "squid" made of towels is a nightly ritual; the cabin stewards make up different creatures out of bath towels and pose them in the room each night.

So why have I been bad? I didn't knit anywhere near as much as I intended to. There was too much hot tubbing, too many excellent shows, too much dancing, too much just doing stuff!! (And napping. Can't forget napping.) I did finish a garterlac dishcloth, and I came close to finishing the STR sock, but I panicked when I realized that I might have used too much yarn for the first sock and I decided to set it aside until I could get home and weigh the remaining yarn to see how much was actually left. And no, I haven't weighed it yet; I've been unpacking and washing clothes and paying bills today and, well, you know. And I only did a couple logs on the Log Cabin. So there went all the plans for getting a bunch of knitting accomplished. But the week was all about relaxing and enjoying, and that definitely did happen.

How else was I bad? Well, umm, you know how it is. All three of us came home a little more "ample" than when we left. There was far too much temptation in the food and wine department. I did do some deck walking, and did do one strenous workout in the gym, but on the whole the physical activity level wasn't as good as it could have been, mainly due to weather issues. The last couple days were quite cool and very windy, so deck walking was out, and the gym was frequently crowded at the times I could have gone. So I gave myself permission to be quite lazy and indolent. And there will be pictures later in the week, I promise. an entire post just about the chocolate aboard the ship!

Tomorrow, Cabo San Lucas, the southernmost tip of the Baja Peninsula. And here is a picture of sunrise over the Peninsula.