Camping Adventures

 We went camping last week and had a great time.

I visited one of my favorite quilt shops while I was there.

It is called Bittersweet Quilt shop in Pinconing, MI

I saw this sign and thought it was SO appropriate.

Something we quilters should remember

"Beautiful things are never perfect".

SO TRUE!

Some of our friends were in Oscota which is pretty close to where we were.

We met them for lunch in Tawas and fond a new friend, LOL.

I could have stayed at his exact spot for a LOT longer.

On the way home our truck was shaking a bit so we stopped at a rest area to check the tires.

There was a bulge in the rear tire.

The lock to get the spare out was corroded and it probably took Chris about 45 minutes to get it open.

I got the boys out and put them in their pet tent.

It was SO hot in the truck,but very noisy at the rest area.

The boys were not happy.

They would have been more unhappy in the truck though.

Never a dull moment around here!

~XOP~

Our Trip Continues

The vacation in Florida was a lot of fun.  

If you know anything about me at all it is that I have no idea how to relax. 

 I'm totally serious here. 

 Sitting around doing nothing is next to impossible for me. 

 I was actually forced to do this on this trip. 

 I don't mean it in a bad way but it was not easy for me to do. 

I actually sat by this pool for several hours one day, all alone, nothing to do. LOL

 It was not actually very sunny while we were there nor particularly warm 

(for Florida) being in the upper 60's to low 70's.  

We did determine that from the day we left Mi to the day we got to FL 

there was a 90 degree temperature difference!  

Anytime my in-laws mentioned that they were sorry for the bad weather we would respond with, "Well, at least it's not - 17!!"

I did get some pool time.  

One day I actually swam in the pool and the other just sat by the pool as it was misty

 and kind of chilly.  

My view of the pool.  

My In-laws live directly across from the pool so all I had to do was walk across the street to get here.  

Well, hello everyone!  Here is my terrible attempt at a selfie!  

This was my view of the sky when I finally decided to pack it in and go inside!

We took this day to go to Mote Marine Laboratory.  

It is an aquarium but also a research facility. 

 I LOVE this place and the things they are doing to rescue animals and re-populate the coral reefs, just to mention a few things.  

As you go inside there is this giant quilt.  It was pretty amazing.

One of the most beautiful exhibits were these Jellyfish.  So beautiful, but so painful if you get stung!

They have a Jelly Fish Reproduction Lab and you can see it here.  

I had to shoot through a Jelly fish tank to get the photo!

I found a clear spot so you could see the baby jellies.  

They look like Dandelion seeds floating as you blow them off of the puff.  

Very small and very delicate.

This Lion fish looked like a grumpy old man to me.  Hahaha.

I love Sea Horses and this little guy did not disappoint.  He looked like seaweed!!

For real, seaweed.  It was so cool!

This was a Stingray in a giant take full of other fish, Stingrays and sharks.  

They look so gentle but watch out for that barbed tail!!

Upon entrance to the rescue facility is a mural painted by Wyland.  

We have pictures of our kids standing in front of this. 

 It is GIGANTIC! 

 It takes up an entire building, but so beautiful!

There were some Sea Turtles in the facility and I am always amazed by them.

This is one of the 2 Manatees they had here. 

 It is difficult to describe how enormous these animals actually are.  

This was the smaller of the two and it was HUGE.

This exhibit was very interesting to me as a scientist.  

We watched the movie presentation on how they grow coral 

and are repopulating the reefs then saw this.  

You can see on the left little chunks of coral attached.  

That's how it begins.  

They string it on that "tree" looking thing and it branches out and grows more.  

Eventually it looks like small trees as you can see on the right. 

 They can repopulate a reef much more quickly then they had thought doing this and study how coral grows, what effects it all while rebuilding the reefs.  

The presentation was amazing!  It's probably on their website too.  

After our tour was complete we walked to The Old Salty Dog and had lunch.  

This was our view from our lunch table!

A lady sitting behind me was drinking a Key Lime Pie drink that was as big as my head.

It had graham cracker crumbs around the rim too.

I wanted one but knew it would be too much for me to drink so I admired from afar.

We ate so much good seafood while we were there.

I found that I love Mahi-Mahi.

As much as I loved Florida I really missed my sewing room and the cats!

I will continue with my travels in the near future and then on to quilty related content.

So if you are looking for quilt related things you may want to skip a day or two.

~XOP~

A Few Odds and Ends

That's what I have to share with you today, bits and bobs.  

I was trying to get the binding on a quilt recently and had a little help.  

She was in such a state of bliss I could not bear to move her!

She just kept rolling around on the quilt and purring and purring. 

 There is some good vibrations (literally) going on with this quilt!

Over Labor Day weekend we went to my BIL and SIL house for a pool party.  

They just put this pool in a few weeks ago. 

 Isn't this a pretty shot?

You know that my son moved out the beginning of August.  

We have been working to get his room cleaned up (still working) 

but we did manage to get it cleaned enough to put in a guest bed. 

 A LONG time ago we bought this antique bed.  

It is made out of wrought iron.  

It had some paint on it and it really needed to have to paint taken off and rust removed then painted.  We did not get so far as to get it painted but it got sanded and ready for a new mattress. 

 I took the quilt off of my own bed and put it on this one.

DD2 came up from NC to stay last weekend and she now had a beautiful new bed to sleep in!

New sheets, new pillows and a homemade quilt. 

 Life is good!!

She also put us to work cleaning up the yard, trimming bushes and cleaning off the deck.  

Dang that girl is a force to be reckoned with!!  

I wonder where she gets that from?!

My hubby's sister and her husband could not use their tickets for the MSU football game on Sat 

and offered them to us.  

Well, thank you very much!  

We went and had a great time. 

 The seats were awesome and we parked about this close to Spartan stadium!

Hubby's other brother and family also have season tickets so we found them and did a little tailgating.  Look who joined us.  

It was a beautiful Red Tail Hawk and when it flew away it was breathtaking.

So there you have it. 

 Not much in the sewing department to report but life is busy and full.

~XOP~