Sí Muy Vodka

  We hung out in the pool and I learned about a Dirty Monkey, or Dirty Banana drink.  They are a banana and chocolate flavor and I think I found my new favorite drink.

  It rained while we were at lunch, but it only lasted a little bit.  We took our time walking to where the catamaran ride was going to be.  Saw a bunch of iguanas lounging about, the larger ones are less worried about people.

We wondered around the marina because we left time before we had to meet everyone for the boat ride. The dolphin enclosure is by the restaurant in the marina.  The resort has the option to pay to swim with them, or you can watch them for free.

  Before the boat trip there was more rain and some lightening.  Luckily the storm passed pretty quickly and the trip was still on.  It was technically a snorkeling trip, but I just wanted to ride the boat.

  The one we were on was a 75ft boat named Pacific Breeze.  It's interesting how the different styles of boats have different amount of space.  A catamaran has both more and and less space than a monohulled boat.  There is more space if you measure it, but it's split in two and each one is more narrow than if you just had one open space below deck.

  There were two bathrooms on the one side of the boat.  This was the big one, which was the "ladies room" and was also a lot fancier.  The other bathroom was smaller and more plain.  They explained to us how to flush the toilet and it sounded complicated, but was really easy when I went to go do it.  You have the switch to the right and pump to flush the bowl, then you just have to flip the switch to the left and pump a few times to fill it back up with new water.

  While the people were out I did some snooping around.  Only one of the two sides were open for us to go down to because it was the side with the bathrooms.  There were also two bedrooms.  It was a bit too muggy down there to take a nap, but I thought about it.  Both rooms had what looked like either full or queen sized mattress.

  On the way back we saw Hannibal in the second slot from the end.  I wasn't quick enough to get a good picture of the stern, but I was able to get one of the bow.  I was glad we got to see it, though I think it was docked for the day.

  At the end of the trip we had a champagne toast to the couple and they ran out of small cups, so I got a bigger share than some of the others.  The crew had also been making us stronger drinks because they were bored while the others were out.  I definitely felt these drinks.  I will need to go to H*Mart and see if I can find the mango Jumex juice they used.  It tasted like an actual mango and not like most of the mango juices I have tried.

  I was hoping we were going to sail, since we've seen some catamarans sail by while looking out from the pool, but we just motored there and back.  I had a great time anyway.

  Ended up at the French place again.   I feel like we are going to make our way through the menu.

 There was more live music after and then we crashed.

Blue Hawaiian Day

  Wondered around after breakfast and found people we knew by the "party pool.".  At one point there were colored smoke sticks and a bubble cannon happening on one end.  We just hung out and swam up to the bar until lunch where we ended up putting three tables together to fit everyone who showed up.

  Spent a few hours eating or chatting at Mercado de Dolores because we were near the door and people just kept filtering in.  After that it was a lot of hanging out with people while in the pool.  That drink is a Blue Hawaiian, which I learned about because I saw one of the drink servers with it on their tray and I asked what it was.

  Some people got to go deep sea fishing in the morning and showed us pictures of the fish they caught.  Bill and I didn't manage to make it onto that boat reservation.

  Every night there were various shows going on in various parts of the resort.  There was live music outside, live music inside, live music with dancing, and recorded music with more complex dancing.  There was even an Elvis!

  This dance troupe had a lot of different numbers and a lot of costume changes.  They had to use the tiny bathroom off to the side of this open area to get changed. 

  The restaurants get full really quickly, so we ended up at the French place again.  The food is really good though, so I don't mind.  This time I got the traditional French onion soup, the beef fillet prepared with mushrooms sauce and foie gras with truffle polenta, and my usual crème brulee.

  I discovered a resort hack.  This one gives you a towel card and charges you $40 if you can't produce the card or a towel.  There are sometimes lost towels left after hours, so if you lose your card you can find a way to get a new one.

  I was joking it would be a good side hustle to gather a bunch of abandoned towels, get the cards, and then offer them to people for $20 who need to check out.

  Hung out near the live music bar, it was somehow louder than the other night.  I didn't even go in this time and people came out so we could actually talk without having to yell into each other's ears.  The music was still fairly loud in the lobby.

  Got turn down service for the first time.  Bill and I find it funny that we might now be getting things we were supposed to have since day one.   It didn't hurt us to not have the pillow menu so we don't mind.

The SV Star Ship

  Turns out that if you aren't awake or don't hear the knock from the guy, they will call you to tell you that your room service has arrived.  There are also many birds who will have yelling matches near your door early in the morning.
 

  Spent a good chunk of the day being lazy.  I have realized that my wardrobe is unprepared for tropical vacations.  My t-shirts feel too thick, I don't own many shorter leg covering options, and I don't own a swimsuit cover.  I'm going to have to look on Ravelry to find some patterns to crochet one.  I'm also going to be in the market for some linen or rayon items.  Maybe they will make it more comfortable to go outside during summer normally.

  We went on a short walk to go to the end of one of the covered piers.  The open one and the other covered one were close because hurricanes damaged them.  While out there I spotted this boat. I don't know a lot about boats and their maintenance, but I'm pretty sure this isn't ideal.  I feel bad for it because it hasn't done anything to anyone.  Other than the fact that I can't see how much water is inside it or know how long it's been like this, it doesn't seem to be in too bad of a shape.  So if anyone wants to adopt the Star Ship you just have to figure out how to get her upright and get someplace to do repairs.

  We also passed by this enclosure.  I love that they are still trying to protect the wildlife while also being able to let me hang out in a pool or on the beach and give me endless drinks.  The drinks are pretty watered down so you can stay out all day drinking and they don't have to deal with a ton of drunk people.  If you knew how to order it, you could get something stronger, but the general drinks were light.

  We hung out in the room while we dried off and then eventually went to get drinks and listen to the water.  Once it started to get dark the mosquitoes came out and headed straight for me.  They gave us some mosquito repellent lotion, but that doesn't help when it is in the room and you aren't.  It does smell nice and absorb quickly when you put it on.

  We had dinner at Ile de France Bistro with a few other people.  It was supposed to be the hardest one to get a reservation for and I wanted to try it.  The table got crusty bread with homemade garlic aioli and unsalted butter.  I started with the creamy salmon soup with garlic and cheese croutons.  For my meal I got the duck confit ravioli with foie gras and poultry broth, and honestly it tasted like fancy chicken noodle soup.  Being me I had to get the crème brulee for dessert, it came with a few different fruits and some solid sugar on top.  It was nice that the portions are pretty small because you can order all three courses and even try more than one from any without stuffing yourself or wasting food.

  I looked up when high tide was and had to go back to visit the boat.  Bill said he thought it floated more at high tide.  It might not be the right time of the year because I went out for the day's high tide and it wasn't high enough.  The boat was still very tilted.  I think the loud small brown/black birds have nests in the seaweed out there because I got yelled at by a lot of birds.  I didn't go down the pier again, but I was surprised that the spheres lit up.

I am Willing and Able?

  Bill got us more leg room because we were in the exit rows.  I also got some Biscoff cookies.  The airport was a bit overwhelming, there were people trying to sell you things, actual taxi companies, people playing at being taxi companies, and the resort people.  The guy from the van company we booked to get us to the resort told us to keep an eye out for his father's fishing boat.  It's called Hannibal and I wasn't sure how we were supposed to try a spot it, but he showed us a picture of what it looks like.  The road into the resort, off the highway, had many speed bumps and two guard shacks.  One to get onto the road with the resorts and one at the resort.  The driver of the van has a brother in Maryland.

  Since neither of us have been to a resort before, we got some of the fancy extras.  We got a butler, her name is Caroline and her fiancé lives in Ohio.  She can take care of lots of stuff for us, like if we want more towels or to make reservations for dinner, we just have to text her.  She tried to call Bill, but he had no signal, so it didn't go through.

  She was really excited to get the mini golf cart because it goes faster.  She had problems saying Bill's name, but found mine to be much easier.

  We were supposed to have wine and fruit waiting for us, but she had to go get it.  She also got us a lot more bottles of water for our mini fridge.  I was excited about the apple soda that was already there.

  It was a bit late to make any dinner reservations, so we decided to go to the place that had a few mini-restaurants and was kind of buffet style.  You could get Asian, seafood, Italian, sandwiches/salads, or Mexican.  I have been hearing about how good the tacos are supposed to be, so I went to the Mexican to see what I could get.  I ate many tacos.  I started with the pork and then got the steak.

  We relaxed the rest of the evening and saw people we know coming in and listened to some live music.

  If you put the breakfast order sheet on the outside of your door before 3am, they leave you breakfast at the time you check off on the sheet.  There weren't many options, but there were two places open for breakfast, so that wasn't a bit deal.

I've Been Busy

 Pattern: 2x2 Brioche Rib(not written yet) - Yarn: Lion Brand Mandala Sparkle in Aquila

  This is the cowl I was working on during the last bit of the Glacier Park trip.  I like how the beginning only has a touch of the purple showing and the top has a touch of the blue showing, though that's hard to see in this picture.  Because of the brioche ribbing, I didn't think it was going to pull together, like standard 2x2 ribbing, but I got a fun surprise.  The yarn is really nice to work with and I didn't feel any scratchiness from the sparkle.  It is on my list to get more of it once I get some of the stash down.

Pattern: Purl Brioche Hat(not written yet) - Yarn: some blue cotton DK weight

  If you click on the picture you can see the texture a bit better.  I still plan on trying to make this hat again with different yarn to see if it stands out more.  I'm also thinking of trying it with only four plain rows between increases and a multi-colored yarn.

Pattern: Waves of Hope Hat by LJM Designs - Yarn: Red Heart Soft in Lilac

  I was talking to some random person online and he wanted me to knit him a hat.  I told him that it'll cost a lot because it takes a while to make and all that.  He sounded like he still wanted to go through with it, so I told him to look for patterns.  He found this one for free and it turns out I had already added it to my Ravelry favorites.

  He told me a color and it turns out I don't have the right color in the right weight of yarn in my stash.  I told him that I would need the full payment before I got started on his hat.  Time went by and he said he doesn't want it right now because it is summer and hot out.  I don't know if that is just an excuse or not, but I was excited to knit the pattern.  I went into The Stash and found a single skein of this pretty purple.  The yarn was a bit heavy for what the pattern called for, but I like it.  It works up pretty quickly and it isn't a long repeat, it is fun and easy to tell where you are once you get the hang of it.

  Time will tell if I ever make the hat for the random internet person who wanted one.  I'm guessing that he will probably not get it because of the price, but that's okay.  I didn't buy any special yarn for him and got reminded of a pattern that I have wanted to do for a while.

Pattern: Scallop Lace Hat by Leah Coccari-Swift - Yarn: Red Heart Soft in Lilac

  I remember this pattern being a lot of fun to make, and I wasn't wrong.  Though I did manage to mess up one section when I decided to move the decrease over by one.  It works up really quickly, though I did make my own fifth row of eyelets because I thought the decrease section was too solid looking.

  I guess this is a good thing?  I've been really liking the idea of having two colors for my FitBit band.  Well, I replaced the one side with the teal band because it was cracking in half a few days ago, and just yesterday I noticed that the other side is also ripping.  So it seems the FitBit bands wear evenly, which would be a good thing.  Though I feel like these wore out quicker than my first band, which is the purple half.  That one got replaced because I managed to crack the connector where the band holds onto the watch.

Brioche and a Commissioned Pattern

  The test hat grows.  One thing I wasn't anticipating was the fact that when knitting this style of brioche in the round you will have two knit-below stitches next to each other every other row.  For the most part that was leaving a bar of yarn across the gap.  I wasn't a fan of this and so I tried to see if adding a plain row between the brioche rows would fix the problem.

  Here is the quick swatch I did using the yarn farther down from the hat.  Yes, the hat is pushed down these needles, I just don't want to take it all out to find out I don't like this version either.  While it is a fun stitch, it doesn't have the same look as the one on the top.  Another note to make is that I'm knitting the hat inside out, so the top picture just shows the inside.

  I have figured out a fix though, an odd number of stitches.  That way I just keep repeating the two pattern stitches and it automatically offsets itself and no bar.  I have a plan to decrease one right before I start the ribbing without interrupting the pattern too much.

  The stitch pattern shows up the way I would like, but it is a bit hard to see it unless you are looking at it closely.  I'm wondering if that is because I'm working with cotton yarn, so I might end-up making another hat like this anyway.  It might also work itself out once I block it.  Cotton does have a tendency to grow.

  As you can see from the picture, I'm left with almost a full wrap around after my sewn bind off.  This could be for a few reasons.  It could be that I just allocated too much and have extra.  It could also be that since you have to pull all of the yarn through each step that between binding off the first time, taking it out, and binding off again I was just stretching the yarn more and more.  I don't feel like taking it out again, so this is how it is going to stay.  The yarn was already starting to get a bit fuzzy and frayed looking.

  I was looking through older posts and I thought I had mentioned it on here, but I somehow forgot!  It is also a pretty funny story.  I was watching random TikToks when a video showing someone making a granny square sweater popped up.  I watched the other parts of Topknot's Trunk video series on it and on the last one they mentioned that they were looking for someone to help them write a pattern for the sweater.  I decided to comment that I've written patterns before, even though I didn't think anything would come from it.  They commented back for me to email them and after sending a few examples they hired me!

  It was a bit tricky for me because I usually write knitting patterns, but they seemed to like what I did.  If you like the look of it, you can buy you own copy of the pattern on their website under Crochet Pattern - Make Your Own Granny Square Sweater.

Geocaching

  Since I got so many more states for my Geocaching souvenirs during the long road-trip, I decided to take a quick trip to Harper's Ferry so I could get West Virginia as well.  I had to try and navigate and drive, so when I was stopped at 7-11 I looked at the map and it looked like Church Street would lead to somewhere I could find parking at.  Turns out it is a road that goes sharply up and had signs saying that parking was just for residents.  I drove very close to someone's back porch at one point.  I ended up parked at a Church parking lot, which I probably wasn't supposed to, and hiked some of the Appalachian Trail in flip flops.  I drove off before I got a ticket or my car was towed, but because the street took a sharp climb at the beginning I had to deal with a downhill.  My GPS told me to turn right and I ended up trying not run into a Coca Cola truck and scrapped my front bumper a little.  I would have been fine if I had gone left.

  While I took my short hike in inappropriate shoes I got to see the ruins of St. John's Episcopal Church.  Someone I passed said it was in ruins because they must not have prayed hard enough.

  I was also too late to go to a breakfast place I passed on my way in.  I also spotted a seafood food-truck but didn't react in enough time to go there either.  I'll have to make another trip out to visit those before too long.  I think I'll also want to go back at some point, earlier in the day and when it's less hot out, to just wander around the area.

  There's a little heart in my yarn.  I'm almost done with the cowl.  I started binding off, then thought to myself that I should have a project to see if I really use all of the 2x circumference that I use for the sewn bind off.  I then realized that this could be that project and had to take the bind off out and knit some more.  Luckily I got to do this while sitting with some knitters on a warm (but not hot) Saturday afternoon.