All of life is a chance: 03/01/2015

In the beginning of February, I was going on a trip to Mexico (I will blog about the actual trip separately). I decided I need something easy to knit to bring along on the trip. A project that was easy enough to memorize so I could knit on the plane, in the airport, or anywhere else. After a lot of stash diving, I decided it was appropriate to use yarn that I bought a few years back for my birthday considering the trip to Mexico was a birthday trip for me. The yarn is called Aquarius by Wollmeise. Fitting for a February birthday and a February vacation by the beach, no? It is a gorgeous teal green blue color and knitting it up is so easy. The pattern I picked is Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West. This is a great pattern because although it is a simple pattern, it really allows for the great color saturation to show off and with this specific yarn it is coming out very squishy and comfy. I have quite a bit of yarn, 2 skeins worth of the DK weight, so I plan to make it a large shawl (or until I run out of patience). While I am not done with the shawl yet, I have been Instagramming the progress in various stages and in various settings. So I wanted to show off a bit and let you all know that I am being crafty in 2015, albeit a slow crafter.

Decided to do some knitting by the pool in Mexico while waiting for my room to be ready

Knitting on the beach in Mexico

Knitting is a good waiting room activity

Knitting is also a good coffee shop activity

Some knitting at lunch with a knitter friend

Knitting while binge watching House of Cards

Knitting at my Sunday Morning Knitting Group

One of the more exciting things I did last Fall was go to Mountain view, CA for the Bridge School Benefit. The benefit is a two day concert hosted by Neil Young to raise funds for Bridge School. Bridge School is a school that focuses on children with various disabilities so the money is going to a good cause. It's all acoustic and had a great line up including Norah Jones, Band of Horses, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Tom Jones, Florence and the Machine, Brian Wilson and Neil Young. This benefit has been going on for over 20 years now and has a huge following, selling out most years. If you get a chance, I highly recommend making the effort to check out at least one of the nights. All the musicians were fantastic but the two that really blew me away were Florence and the Machine and Tom Jones. They both just killed it and the crowd got so into it - so made for a great time.

Unfortunately my time in California was short. I flew in on Friday evening and flew out on Monday morning. Since the concerts were both on Saturday and Sunday, most of my time was spent at the Amphitheater. But I did get a chance to see a little of Mountain view. I have decided if I ever have to live in California, it would be in Mountain view and only because I got a job with Google. Google's presence in the town is literally everywhere. And just what little I saw of the office buildings and Google amenities for employees (parks, soccer fields, bicycles to get around, etc), I would love to work there.

If you get some time, check out Shoreline park. It has amazing views of the bay with a lot of great walking trails. Unfortunately it was a bit hard to get to without a car but thank goodness for Uber. The weather was beautiful so it was nice being outside enjoying the fresh air and sunshine for a bit. I could have spent all afternoon there just watching all the birds and ducks in the water.

We had breakfast one morning at Olympus cafe and it was so yummy. I love a good breakfast and this place really hit the spot after a late night at the concert. Plus they knew how to make a good cup of tea which always adds extra points in my book. The waiters were friendly and while it was busy we managed to get a nice table outside and enjoyed the morning air. I loved the fact that they had a variety of Turkish and Greek pastries. So after breakfast, we got some goodies to munch on while at the concert.

For dinner one night, we stopped at Blue Line Pizza. Pizza is one of my favorite foods and this place was yummy. The bartender allowed up to sample different beers before we picked what we wanted to drink which was awesome. I hate spending money on an unknown beer and then end up hating it. The portions were big and we ended up taking a lot of pizza back to the hotel for a midnight snack later on. We got the caesar salad, cheesebread, barbeque chicken thin crust and make your own veggie thin crust to share.