I'm home!

So, I've just gotten back from a wonderful weekend trip over to Cocoa Beach, Florida and thought I'd sit down to say "hi" to everyone. I know I've been a piss-poor blogger.

To start out with a little business: Robyn, you are going to be the recipient of the cross-stitch towels and pot-holders. I'm glad they will go to a home where they will be used instead of sitting in a storage box like they have at mine.

I should have another give-away later this week. Yes, I am using the internet to clean out my closet, but I'm hoping that I'm giving away things that you guys might like. I also have a big pile of stuff that's going to Goodwill. (And an even bigger one that's staying here!)

Back to the trip, which was so much fun. We headed out on Thursday afternoon to Cocoa Beach to spend the weekend playing in the surf and sand, and also to catch the shuttle launch that was scheduled for Saturday night. We stayed at one of our favorite little hotels, the Inn at Cocoa Beach. It's an old 1960's hotel that has been renovated by its owners to have the feel of a B&B. The lobby is more like a living room, they have dogs and parrots. In the evening, there is a wine and cheese hour and in the morning you get the most delicious breakfast including homemade muffins and bread, fruit salad, and boil-your-own egg station as well as bagels, toast and english muffins. The whole place has a really great "retreat" vibe to it. In fact, they were a little leary when we told them we were bringing our little Bean. She charmed the socks off of all of them while we were there, though.

Friday, Wes had a meeting in the morning, so Lilly and I tried to occupy ourselves in the room and then ventured out to find a local yarn shop that I had found online. Unfortunately, the place was closed, the owner has apparently been in a really bad car accident and has been unable to run the place. It really is a shame, the store looked very cute and I'm sure it's creating quite a financial burden for her.

Anyhow, that afternoon, we promised Lilly that we would take her out to the beach after her nap time. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and five minutes after we got down there a big storm blew up and we had to abandon the sand. She was less than pleased, but we made up for it the next day and spent the greater part of the day building castles and frolicking in the surf. She had a blast and we had to drag her away to get her to take her nap that afternoon.

As for me, I took advatage of the naps to sit on the very large deck our room had, knit and listen to a Jane Austen novel on my iPod. I got a lot of work done on my Spiral Sweater and will hopefully get some pictures of my progress up for you soon.

The shuttle launch for Saturday was delayed because of lightning strikes from the big storm the day before (the one that messed up Lilly's beach time), so we decided to delay our return home to try and catch it on Sunday. We were assured that the possibility of launch was really good and the day was beautiful. We played a lot in the pool and one of my dear friends from high school came and met up with us for lunch and to wait for the launch with her husband. We had a really fun afternoon on the deck, drinking beer and yucking it up, sure we would soon witness the shuttle rocketing into the sky. Alas, it was not to be. Twenty minutes before launch time a storm blew into the area and the launch was delayed yet again. Boo! (Just checked the news, it was delayed again today, glad we didn't try and wait it out)

All in all, it was a really fun trip. Lilly was a really good girl and such a good traveller. She's pretty used to planes and enjoys getting to be around all the people, so that makes life for us a lot easier when we decide to go places. I am glad to be home though and looking forward to catching up on everyone's blogs to see what I missed while I was gone.