About 99.9% of all my blogs are about quilting. This blog is not. It’s about where I went on my early summer vacation.
For most of our years together, Bill and I have rented a house at the beach for a week and took the family down to the coast for seven days of ocean, sand, and great North Carolina seafood. Every three to five years, we’d toss the suitcases in the back of our largest SUV and head down to Orlando for seven days of Mouse Immersion at Disney. This year, we did neither.
My son, Matthew, and his wife, Anna, booked us a trip to St. Thomas. Now that was a change-up. Matt and Anna had been several times and as soon as they came home, they were talking about going back. I figured it had to be a great place to visit. The only down side? No quilt shops on the island. Not one.
But not that I would have had time to shop if there was one. For a girl that has spent most of her years in the state of North Carolina, I was captivated by the blue of the water…
Wouldn’t those blues work well in a quilt?
The sunrises….
The sunsets…
The people…
The fishing…
And I managed to mark another item off my bucket list. Matt arranged for a swim with some sea lions. These were not the small California sea lions, but the Southern Sea Lion – the really big ones. The one I got to spend some quality time with weighed over 400 pounds. And he wasn’t the biggest sea lion in the bunch. The largest guy weighed over 800 pounds. That’s a lot of sea lion!
However, the guy that swam with me was a sweetheart.
I write quite a bit about getting out of your comfort zone with quilting. I discuss at length the benefits of this for you as a quilter. It was so nice to get out of my comfort zone on this vacation. I saw things I had never seen before but had wanted to for a long time. Due to the distance, my 9-to-5 job really had to be left at the office. It was a great break from reality for seven wonderful days.
And I can’t wait to go back.
So, while we are parked here on my vacation blog, let me tell you about the folks that pushed and prodded us to make this vacation leap.
This is my son, Jonathan Matthew – Matt for short – and his wife Anna. They’re the ones that arranged the trip and pretty much planned the itinerary. I know while my regular readers are very familiar with my daughter, Meagan, I haven’t talked a great deal about Matt.
Matt is my youngest, who will be tipping the big 3-0 in September. It’s hard for me to believe my “baby” will be thirty. An avid Star Wars fan, we spend a bit of time watching those movies and looking at collectible memorabilia. He’s the one always pushing Bill and me to try new things and visit new places.
And he’s a creator. While I work with needles, thread, and fabric, Matt works with metal, grinders, and a welder. He’s an artist at heart and is so detail-oriented.
After this past year, my Virgin Island adventure was exactly what I needed. I am very thankful to have had it. The only down side to the whole thing is that I enjoyed my time off so much, now I’m not worth anything!
Until next week, Quilt with Passion (and vacation with passion, too)!
Love and Stitches,
Sherri and Sam (who did not go to the Virgin Islands, but had a wonderful pet sitter named Mary)
