Home again, home again jiggetty jig

I can't recall what nursery rhyme the title is from but that's what I kept singing in my head when I finally got back home after a week long vacation in Chitown with King Thing. Not that I didn't have an absolute blast but considering we've been gone so much this summer, there really is no place like home.



King Thing was in Chicago for a two week long training session. His company kindly offered to send me up to visit him and we chomped on the opportunity. My dear friends in Raleigh kept Thing 1 and 2 while I was gone and we were able to spend several days alone for the first time in probably 10 years!



I had a couple of days on my own while DH attended classes on the campus of McDonalds University (no, he doesn't work for Mickey D's, they were using their training center) so I made the most of those days by visiting Oakbrook Center Mall. In the process, I made three new retail friends - Lush, Lucy and Lululemon Athletica. Everyone working in the stores were so nice and helpful. I don't think I met a single unfriendly person while shopping. I even found these wire sheep at Anthropologie.

I spy wire sheep and friendly peeps

People in Chicago seemed to be very eager to help no matter what the problem was. The weather was picture perfect so we decided to spend our time tooling around downtown Chicago. We rode the train and several water taxis.

We rode on trains, water taxis and watched planes

We watched the air and water show while sipping drinks in the lounge on the 96th floor of the Hancock Center.



We shopped the Miracle Mile (thank goodness I'd bought new walking shoes or my feet would have fallen off by the end of the weekend). Visited American Girl Place and the Lego Store even though we didnt have kids with us.



Saw some pretty cool street performers.



Ate a Chicago style pizza at Giordanos.



Had incredible meals at Wildfire and Fultons by The River.




Gnoshed on fish and chips and beer at Elephant and Castle near the Union Station train stop. Visited the Field Museum and saw lots of cool mummies in the Egypt exhibit and of course, Sue the T-Rex.



Visited the Navy Pier. Saw a castle in the middle of downtown Chicago. Looked up at the Sears Tower.



In all, we had several fabulous days together and reconnected in way that we haven't in ages. We're already planning our next trip - woot woot.

Viva Playa del Carmen Mexico

Since May, we've not only been blessed with the opportunity to spend a good percentage of weekends on the beach in Norfolk but to spend tons of time with our best buds from college.



We took our first family vacation together (all eight of us) to Costa Rica two years ago and decided to tempt fate again with a trip to Playa del Carmen, Mexico in June.







It couldn't have gone any smoother. The flight in and out of Cancun was almost too easy. Playa del Carmen was a 30 minute scenic drive from the airport on some of the best paved roads I've been on in years (rivals most of those in the states or at least in the VA/DC area). Every driver we had during our stay went out of his way to make our trip enjoyable. We stayed at the Mayan Palace resort which boasts the largest pool in Latin America (it was ginormus).



Courtesy of Travelhero.com




The rooms were huge and included a well appointed kitchen so we cooked several meals during our week stay (a great cost saving when you have to feed eight people). We spent a good amount of our time on the beach and by the pool doing absolutely NOTHING.





After frying to a crisp at the beginning of the week (that sun was brutal), we finally reserved a Palapa (cabana) to lounge under, perfect for naps after a hard day of doing nothing.











The guys played golf and hit the beach, I hit the spa, the kids swam for hours and hours, Thing 1 hit the gym and we all ate yummy food. Our big adventure was to the ancient ruins of Tulum and downtown Playa del Carmen.


















The ruins and the view were breathtaking. And yes, there was some knitting. I made quite a bit of progress on my Morning Surf wrap that has officially visited three beaches and two countries in its short life.




I highly recommend that if you get a chance, visit the Mayan Riviera. Its easy enough to travel to (less than a two hour flight from Charlotte, NC), is clean and beautiful, the water is really THAT color blue, the roads and taxis are excellent, its easy to spend US dollars in most places and you can get by if you don't speak Spanish though it is most helpful if you do (poor King Thing was odd man out with the espanol and was occasionally challenged in communicating with the locals). The only downsides were the mosquitos at night (Autan saved us in a major way), the high humidity (didn't bother to curl my hair all week), having to take shuttles from our room to the pool and having to take taxis to get anywhere off premises. We're already planning another trip to perhaps Cancun or Acapulco if we can find more great deals on airline tickets. Viva Mexico!

Clicky for more pictures of our trip...

Bored with my blog design

I'm sure you're probably more bored with it than I am. I actually loathe it at this point. I had a cool layout for a couple of years with autumn trees and leaves. And then when Blogger upgraded, it would no longer work with their new layout. I could fiddle with it but then I get sucked into the blog vortex and I just don't have that kind of time or energy these days. Anyone up for trading some handspun yarn, a handknit or a custom knit design for a blog redesign? PM me on Ravelry or send me an email at indigomuse AT verizon dot net (replace the "at" and "dot") and we'll chat. I don't need anything fancy just not so boring.

I have much to post about but not until the remnants of two near migraines subside (caught both of them with four ibuprofin before they had a chance to go full blown). My head is sore, my eyesight is off and for some reason caffeine triggered the second migraine on Sunday so I've had no coffee or anything caffinated for the last two days. Needless to say, Momma is NOT happy. I'm just thankful that the migraines didn't happen until the very end of almost two weeks of vacationing in Mexico and the beach in Norfolk with our best buds and our kids.