Socks on the Beach

I knit socks on the beach in Aruba last week. I mostly worked on G's sock made from C*EYE*BER Fiber handdyed yarn in "Ocean mist" that I bought from the Cloverhill booth at Stitches East. Matches the background nicely, doesn't it?





I also worked on this sock in a DK weight on size 3s. Cause, I love G, but his feet are BIG (well, to be fair they're not that much bigger than mine) and it took me a month to finish one sock. I am loving the sock on size 3s. It's like "speed socks."



Aruba was lovely. The water was amazingly turquoise and warm. The sand was soft. We got sit under these beach huts called "palapas." We got to see beautiful sunsets and had some amazing dinners. In fact, the main restaurant at our hotel (Raddison) was recently named the "best restaurant in the Caribean." But G and found that it wasn't even the best restaurant in Aruba! It was a very good restaurant, but we had much better service and much, much better food at three other places. We ate lots of good fish, some fried yuca and plantains (I could have had a whole meal of these! Wish I knew someplace in Baltimore to get them) and some yummy island drinks. But I only had one mojito (my favorite drink); somehow our hotel was out of mint that week.

We didn't really explore the island. Since I was working every morning and early afternoon until Thursday, I just wanted to relax on the beach after work. We did explore the area restaurants though, which made me happy. When I travel alone I don't always have the energy to venture far from the hotel and consequently end up eating in the same boring hotel restaurants or room service. I like when G can come along on work trips. He plans out our meals.

Oh and he got us a couples massage. It was wonderful, well mostly. It was the kind of massage where they do the quick, pounding with their hands on your legs and arms for part of the massage. And I have a bruise on my leg! And I had to pee for the last 30 mintutes (including the stomach massage part!) so I had to concentrate on holding it and not enjoying the last bit of the massage. But afterwards, I did feel so relaxed and loose. G loved his too.

The other big thing about Aruba was the iguanas and lizards. G was obssessed with them. They were everywhere (G even saw some swimming in the pool on our first day!). He had fun tracking them with the camera and he got some good shots.





They got a little too close for (my) comfort during lunch. I seriously thought this guy was going to jump on our table.



The first night there were two cats begging at dinner (the hotel adopts any feral cats that adopt it and has them fixed and feeds them, but like any cat anywhere they were trying to scam more food) and later in the week we dined with iguanas.

The other wild life that G was obssessed with were the comerants. He tried to photograph them just as they dove into the water.

(I must say we have good wild life sighting luck on beach trips: we saw tons of dolphins in Delaware, whales in Maui, seals in Cape Cod and now iguanas!)

I have lots more photos, but for now, I'll leave you with a shot I call "Water, ahh..."