Mediterranean Cruise ~ Sea Days

We spent eight days at sea total - six to cross the Atlantic Ocean, two en route to ports of call. They were days of relaxation. At first I was a little nervous about being out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean but knowing that there was a mini hospital on board helped alot. I really did not get antsy for land until the fifth day at sea. On the sixth day I was more than ready to get off the ship and walk on land. There are many things to do on board a ship this size. The Emerald Princess is definitely one of my favorite ships so far - it's beautiful! We ended up doing the same old things we always do - exercise, read, knit (me) and go to the musical productions and other shows. We saw several movies and one was at the Theater Under the Stars. It was pretty nippy so we only did that one night.

I exercised every day in the enormous spa/gym. There were no less than 24 treadmills equipped with televisions so I timed my exercising to the 'movies' I wanted to watch. I tried to do 5K each session and the movies made it go faster. It was great!

I took my knitting with me to all the shows and knit while waiting for them to start. I also took it on the bus tours in Italy because Rome and Florence were 1.5 hours from port. Don and I also found a special place on the ship that we liked to go sit and listen to our downloaded books so I had knitting in tow for those occasions. I'm really glad that I ended up taking socks to knit on. They were very portable.

If you want to take a closer look at the pictures you will need to click the links below the mosaic.

1. Navigation Deck, 2. Cascading Leaves Socks, 3. Piazza Elevator, 4. Piazza Stairs, 5. Botticelli Dining, 6. Listening to Books, 7. Chameleon Socks, 8. Tucked In, 9. Patter News, 10. Self Photo, 11. Knitting in the Piazza, 12. Got yarn. Ready for Italy., 13. Enjoying the Piazza, 14. My Italian Yarn, 15. Exercise, A Must, 16. Any land out there?

Memorial Day Weekend - YMCA

My visiting graduates wanted to spend Memorial Day Weekend at one of our favorite family spots, Estes Park, gateway to the Rocky Mountain National Park. When I was their age I cut my backpacking teeth in this Park. Years later I taught their Daddy to backpack and we would leave them with grandparents whilst we explored the backcountry trails. We have camped many times here and the love of hiking the Rockies has been passed on to our daughters.No camping this time - we stayed at the YMCA of the Rockies which, by the way, is a VERY FUN place to vacation with your family. It is very reasonably priced and offers many activities for children of all ages. The main lodge is a nice place to hang out and play cards, games or read. The lodge deck has awesome views and the many comfortable chairs make a very nice place to sit and knit! I did get quite a bit of knitting done this weekend....and I did get quite a bit of frogging done, too.This lovely bronze statue captures the family atmosphere here AND it just so happened to have one of my favorite Bible verses engraved on it! I asked DH many years ago to put this on my tombstone and bury me in the mountains should I die before he. If you click on the picture you will be able to read it better.

Made it to Auburn

This is the stone my girls sat on four years ago when we drove down to look at Auburn University for Jennifer. The purpose of the picture was to convince their Daddy to let them go out-of-state and across the nation to attend college. He was skeptical and they were "defending their rights" and making a pretty good defense. Of course, back then, it never dawned on me that by doing so it would decrease the likelihood of them coming back home to Colorado to work! There is part of me that now wishes I had been as skeptical as DH was! I made it to Auburn................it took eleven lonely hours. The worst part was that I could not KNIT! (Shhhh.....don't tell the family.....it would have only taken ten hours if I hadn't stopped to knit a few rows at every rest stop). The grandparents and the husband arrive tomorrow and the following day my girls will be standing beside this sign in caps and gowns!

Question to self: "Why isn't it HUMID in Auburn? Please don't be HUMID on Thursday when both of my girls have ceremonies at the exact time and I have to walk/run from one end of campus to the other! Please?"