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What I've Been Up To: Part One. The Spa

It's been forever since I updated this blog, so I'll start with my adventures over the past three weeks.  They involved a little bit of knitting and quite a bit of travel and lots of fun.  My sister and I left Seattle on April 22nd en route to Las Vegas.  There, we picked up a rental car, had lunch with the Princess, and headed out to St. George, Utah.  There's a destination spa there, called Green Valley Spa, where we have been going off and on for the past 10 years.  I'll just say that we started going there when I passed a milestone birthday, and now, 10 years later, I had another one.  Though things have changed a bit since we first went, the hiking, spa treatments, accommodations, and staff remain top notch.  We hiked every day for a week, had nutritious meals, enjoyed exercise classes, and relaxed with wonderful spa treatments.  They are known for the fabulous roses all around the grounds and they were in their full glory.








We went on hikes that differed from ones we had taken before, and were really fun and scenic.  I'm not an outdoorsperson, and don't do much if any hiking.  But we hiked, climbed up some relatively tame rocks, negotiated slightly rugged terrain, and one day crossed a couple of streams (in the desert!) that were beautiful to see.  The guides are great about pointing out flora and fauna and we always enjoy basking in the sights that are so different from those we see in our native Pacific Northwest.








I celebrated my birthday visiting a cave high above the desert floor, and admiring a rock formation known as "Castle Rock".  We met a nice couple; the wife was 10 years older than I am and hiked and did all of the exercise classes with me - even kickboxing.  Inspirational!  We made a deal to meet back there in 10 more years when she'll be 80.  I hope I can keep up with her then!





Knitting accomplished:  Work on plain vanilla self-striping socks, GothSocks Laudanum in the Your Zombie Ex-Girlfriend colorway.  I finished the first sock.



Crochet attempted:  I decided to finish my cotton Mitred Square Blanket for my niece's new baby, so thought I should make something for the older girl, too.  They live in Hawaii, so a cotton sunhat seemed like a good idea.  Well, not so much.  I tried to make this about three or four times and somehow it just keeps looking like a wavy round pancake and not a hat at all.  I know the old saying about "try, try, again" but I'm about at my limit of trying and failing.



Continued in the next post........







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