kyarns: Back to the cold weather

So I know it was in the 70's in Vermont the entire time I was in Florida... and I arrived back to see everyone else had been out in the sun just as I had... well, maybe not as much! Now today it is in the 40's and I am frozen to the bone.

It was a super vacation, and once I kicked my awful 2 week cold, I was really able to shut down. For many of you, a vacation means lots of extra knitting time. Sometimes it means that for me too, but my work is ALL ABOUT knitting. So when things get hectic and I am consumed by work, a vacation can mean NO KNITTING, and that can be a really good thing. I did a bit of crochet during the trip down, and off and on during a couple of the car rides. And then I did NO knitting or crocheting until the night before I left, when I picked up my Flat Feet sock.

It felt really good, just to turn everything off.

We had fun at Discovery Cove - the girls loved it. I fed some tropical birds - they landed on us and ate from our hands - it was kind of freaky for me. I saw the movie "The Birds" at a very impressionable age and I'm just not really fond of flying creatures when they get that close to me. But I did manage to hide my fear (for the girls' sakes) and Helen was certainly brave! she had a kookaburra (?) on her head for about 10 minutes and she loved it.

Like me, Marc was not thrilled with birds landing on him.

So I guess the bird gave him a little gift, to make him feel more (or less) comfortable. They say it's good luck...

I tried snorkeling for the second time in my life, and the last. I realized that it's just not for me. Am I scared of fish? Possibly. Claustrophobic? Probably. After two attempts to snorkel, I was hyperventilating, so I gave up. But that's okay! Marc took some great pictures with his waterproof camera, so I don't feel like I missed a thing.

So if I am scared of little fishies, how can I be completely comfortable swimming out in the middle of a lagoon all by myself with a HUGE dolphin? That's the big question. But that was super fun, and definitely a memory.

We did the dolphin swim with the girls and my parents and it was really great. We met four dolphins: Jenny, Yoko, Rose and Daisy. Pictured with me is Daisy - very sweet.

My "purse" if you will, for the vacation, was the new Lexie Barnes Jinx Hobo bag. It was great to have a bag I could sling over my shoulder. I also LOVE the fact that I could reverse it to a solid... you know sometimes when you are wearing a print, you don't want your bag to compete too much with the clothes. It was perfect as a beach bag - it kept all the sand out, and water... it's waterproof! It held my book, lotions and sun hat. The two zippered pockets were perfect for my camera and wallet.

It was also great on the plane - just the right size for a bottle of water, some paperwork, my wallet and my knitting... which I'm glad I had! I was in shorts and the air was blowing something FIERCE on the plane. Poor Helen was freezing, so she used my Flat Feet as a little lap blanket. She would give me about 1 yard of yarn to use at a time - she loved unravelling the flat.