Sunday, April 3, 2016

Two Spring Breaks

Drew the college student's Spring Break happened first, and he and some friends stayed at the beach a few days (with loose supervision by Dean, who was repairing wood decking...certainly not spying or anything...but when you've got college students at the beach, somebody needs to keep a bit of an eye, in my opinion), then spent a couple of days in Mobile. To overcome any boredom, I took them downtown to eat and wander around the waterfront. And WHO KNEW we had a waterfront, what with all the industrial-ness and trains and such?! Behold the Austal plant where they make the famous Littoral ship. There are 2 on the other side there.


And here's the corner of the lovely Convention Center, which blocks the view of the river, thus my lack of knowledge of our waterway until I attended an event where they actually let you walk out the back and enjoy the water views. Trust me, watching a huge cargo ship get turned around by tugboats is fascinating stuff!


I believe this is Bienville, who had something to do with the founding Mobile, but as I'm not a native Mobilian, I'm not sure terribly sure about that. Drew did do a little research on all this fascinating port-business, and I believe we're the 9th largest port in the nation, and the largest one handling coal exports.


I didn't get a pic of GulfQuest, which is our new maritime museum, but it was quite lovely inside, though we didn't fork over the $18 per person to tour anything but the gift shop and lobby. Well-appointed gift shop, though!

While we were doing this, Dean was wrapping up repairs at the beach, and as a reward for his supervisory time there, God granted him a full rainbow, from one end...


to the other, and note the double rainbow on this side - amazing!


So then Drew's break was over, and Lucas's started a couple of weeks later. We went to Cabo San Lucas (sorry, Drew!). This is an excellent restaurant named Toro, and if you look just to the right of the lady behind Dean, those lights are a cruise ship heading out. Neat!


I had asked Drew to ask his girlfriend what a good contemporary nail color was, since I'm nail polish-challenged, and she recommended either pink or mint blue, which I'd never heard of, but the lady in CVS had. (Brief aside: did you know that on Saturdays if you shop in the Beauty section, they give you some free goodies like bubble bath, etc., in a nice gift bag?!) These are mint blue toesies in the rocky sand of the Pacific Ocean.


And these are the same toesies at the pool near the swim-up bar - oh, garcon!


This was a wacky piece of art that I would love to recreate in actual fabric. These are tiles in a mosaic pattern to make a dress. I guess you could buy it, but you certainly couldn't wear it.


So we did a little dune-buggying through the desert and out to the ocean, though you had to pay for any pictures with that outfit - boo. Lucas kindly photo-shopped Drew into our ocean pic. This looks like a good Christmas card photo candidate...



And the next day we went zip-lining, though they also made you leave your camera, so the only pics I have are the ride there...


and prior to catching a line.


Now one thing that was cool about Cabo are all the types of cacti there are, so I took some pics of the purple cactus...


the bushy cactus...


and the wormy cactus. Sorry I don't have official names. I did learn from our dune-buggy guide that only one species of cactus has water that's safe to drink. The rest have toxins and what-not, so no drinky!


Something else I learned that was quite devastating is that knitting needles are not allowed on flights from Mexico! WHAT??? Also no nail clippers or tiny scissors....and no golf balls! What are people thinking?!


OH, and so we make it safely back to the US, and we land in Houston to catch our connection to Mobile, and who should walk up but my sewing buddy, Becky! Her family was coming back from a West Coast spring break, and one of Lucas's classmates was also returning from a Grand Canyon spring break. Made the rest of the trip go by much faster.

Next post, I hope to have some pics of my knitted mesh sweater which I finally did get around to working on when I got my needles back, and also a Tough Mudder update, since that's next Saturday - yikes!!! Back to training....

5 comments:

Pam said...

Great to hear from you! I am glad Spring Break went well and you are enjoying Cabo. You know succulents (cactus) are the big thing out here. Peeps go to Joshua Tree and the desert to see the blooms in the Spring. Of course, I keep missing it. Just got my sew-jo back with a Spring skirt and I'm cutting two more skirts and perhaps 4 shirts out. All TNT. Cause easy is how I roll. Hope the rest of your break goes well.

Anonymous said...

Oh my -- Old home week at the Houston airport! I realized looking at the pix of the three of you (and Drew's spirit) dune buggying (is that a word?) that Lucas is as tall as you and almost eye to eye with Dean! (The mint blue toes look very vacationy.)

I agree with you on the "adult eye on spring breakers" opinion and your belief is exactly why your kids will probably never need it. Laurie came to spend half of her spring break with me and we did get a couple of sunny days. Fortunately she is easy to keep an eye on these days, if she wasn't sitting out in the sun, she was in bed asleep. Of course, she is 33!

I finished the striped top I cut out at the sewing weekend and all the stripes matched! That fired me up and I went into the stash and made a simple pull over dress with a contrasting tie jacket for Easter. I was styling.

I expect a full report on the Tough Mudder. Robbie

Dr. Fun (AKA Sister) said...

Ooh, you ladies are making me feel under-productive with all your sewing! Pam, GREAT to hear from you again - missing your posts, since you're the only one who routinely posts knitting projects too. Can't wait to show you my mesh sweater - I think it'll be awesome...after I redo that inside-out sleeve, that is...but I may go ahead and wear it first, tee-hee...

Robbie, I bet you wish more Spring Breakers had supervision, God bless you and your locale! Glad Laurie had a "restful" spring break with you. I really think I enjoy adult children more than little children...at 48...which may say more about my energy level now...

And yes, pray for me next Saturday, because our start time got bumped to 12:30 - high noon, and I'm prone to heat prostration...what have I gotten myself into?!

BeckyW said...

It was so great running into you at the airport and chatting with you on the flight back. It was a nice ending to a great trip. If you Instagram, I am "beckynbart" on Instagram and posted a pic of my fabric purchase at Britex.

Dr. Fun (AKA Sister) said...

Beautiful fabric!!! I don't have an account but it let me look - cool Yosemite pics too! I'd love to see the finished product...