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This was a good week for knitting. I had lots of travel time and sitting time - The Bahamas, Wood Badge BSA training, and a trip to Iowa. All this sitting gave me a reason to sit and knit and knit. This is a good thing for my Finishing Friday post.
Here is my 10th Wonderful Wallaby - aka Pinky Tuscadero. It's a size 2 Wonderful Wallaby and will be packed and shipped to a brand new mother/baby in the Bronx. I hope it will bring the family much health, happiness, and joy.
I zipped off to Iowa for the past two days. I go regularly for two purposes: a) for the Jackson Recovery Center Board Meetings; and b) to visit family. I took two Wonderful Wallaby projects for airplane knitting. I finished one on the flight out. I only needed to finish the hood of the Pinky Tuscadero Size 2 Wallaby, so that was easy. The other Wallaby was my constant knitting companion during the trip.
Here I am at the local High School tennis meet with my SIL Priscilla, knitting industriously on the Wonderful Wallaby (adult small).
It was so wonderful to get to spend time with family - and do mean things like make my nieces and nephews stare into the glaring sun for a photo op.
I have a routine for every trip. I land mid-morning and then meet whoever can join us at Chili's for lunch. This time I chuckled as my sisters took time to catch up in person (as opposed to catching up on Facebook) and one casually mentioned "I haven't seen you or the kids since... (pause to recollect)... the last time Jennifer was in town!" I just love being a catalyst.
These quick trips home are some of my favorite getaways. They're brief but packed with family, fun and excitement. I can hardly wait until the next trip home.
I had barely unpacked from the Bahamas when I had to pack for a campout this past weekend In fact, I was home for less than 24 hours before I left again. Despite all the running around, I managed to make some decent progress on the Pinky Tuscadero Wonderful Wallaby during all my travels. That's good enough for me. I hope to finish it this week (maybe even today or tomorrow).
I just have the hood to finish knitting, so I believe this is an attainable goal. Almost makes me wish I had a little girl...
The best part of our Caribbean vacation was interacting with the wildlife. We swam with the dolphins. We observed all the aquatic life in the enormous open air aquariums. We snorkeled in a huge tank... with fish, stingrays and sharks! It was a thrill.
Tortuga. OK specialists. Is this a turtle, tortoise or terrapin? I can never remember the difference.
This hammerhead shark was in Predator Lagoon.
We actually snorkeled with these and many other stingrays. : O
This little lizard was climbing on the walls outside.
Big sharks! We did NOT swim with this puppy.
Secundogeniture and an enormous Black Grouper. Hmmm. Doesn't look so tasty like this, does he?
Well trained birds posing for pictures.
Here I am with an adorable dolphin (aka porpoise).
See what I mean? This was definitely one wet and wild vacation. Life is good
There are always so many things to see and do on vacation: activities, swimming, sun bathing, walking, dining, exploring, relaxing, reading, and being together. We tried to do as many as we could. We also took a lot of pictures. Here is a tour of the glass sculptures by artist Dale Chihuly at Atlantis.
The Crystal Gate at the entrance.
The Temple of the Sun
The Temple of the Moon
The Baccarat Lounge sculpture.
OK. You found me out. These were all in the casino. Unfortunately, the shortest way to walk from one side of the resort to the other was through the casino. Children were allowed to walk through the casino, but not to loiter, watch, or play games. That was a bit disturbing from my point of view. So except for a few dinners at Nobu, located inside the casino, we tried to avoid it all together. We did take a final trek through the casino our last day to take pictures of these works of art. They were truly magnificent creations.
Paradise Island, that is. This past week we were on our Spring Break vacation at The Atlantis in the Bahamas. It was divine. It was relaxing. It was glorious. But now, I'm back to reality.
Ah. This is the life.
The flora was stunningly spectacular.
The fauna was breathtakingly beautiful and mesmerizing.
This is the view from our window of the marina. By the way, these are the small yachts.
The colors of the sea and sky were unbelievable.
We took long walks taking it all in.
More pictures over the next few days. It was definitely a vacation that we'll never forget.
Or perhaps I should title this post "Avatar - The Three Hour Movie"
I think by now you all know what a three hour movie means to me: maximum knitting time. I really enjoyed the movie, and even had a hard time paying attention to my knitting during parts of the film, but I did manage to finish the second Wallaby sleeve, pick up the sts for the pouch (very challenging to do this while paying attention to the action on the screen), knit the pouch, and knit the body to the point where I fuse the pouch to the body. Baby - that was a lot of knitting.
I'll fuse the pouch today and continue knitting the body of the sweater to the point where the sleeves and body join. It's truly a magical world where your knitting just seems to grow together and form synapses with the pouch and sleeves with little to no effort on the part of the knitter. It's truly a whole new world.
Last night we ate at Carmine's legendary restaurant where the food is served in enormous portions. It really doesn't make sense to eat at this restaurant unless you have at least four people in your party as the quantity of food per dish is just mind-boggling.
Our pasta dish could have fed 6-8 people easily. After dinner, Secundogeniture was interested in some dessert. The menu features The Titanic - an ice cream sundae that serves 10-12 people. That sounded a bit overwhelming for our small group, so the waiter quietly offered us the smaller option (not on the menu) called The Dinghy which was a mere 4-6 servings.
Good thing Secundogeniture was hungry.
There was also some knitting accomplished yesterday. I finished 1 1/2 sleeves of Pinky Tuscadero (aka The Wonderful Wallaby size 2)
Good food with family and the added bonus of some knitting progress. That's a pretty good day in my book.
Do you remember Happy Days? It was the TV show of my youth. I can never see a sea of pink without thinking of Pinky Tuscadero - Fonzie's love interest and female equal.
So my pink Wonderful Wallaby is hereby renamed Pinky Tuscadero. Aaaaaaaayyyyy!
Change is Good
Atomic Orange
I just love picking out colors for a pedicure. The names make me smile.
Atomic Orange won out over Kinky in Helsinki, but just barely. Hehehe. That's a job I want in my next career - naming the polish colors for nail polish companies.
How about you? What's your favorite funny named color?
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