Miss Pearl would like to thank everyone who voted for her in the 2006 Midterm Button Elections. It wasn’t even a close race, and she graciously concedes to the jubilant winner, Ms. Rosie, who never quite got around to getting a good campaign photo taken.
The Roses will be stitched on very soon, and the Inaugural Ball will be photographed shortly thereafter. Miss Pearl promises to run for reelection in the near future.
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And now, what you really came for, more travelogue photos. After Barcelona, we had a short (half-day) stop in Valencia. I was feeling the severe effects of jetlag, and didn’t even bother to get off the ship that day. After another night at sea, we arrived in Malaga, on the southern coast of Spain. Although we had been to Granada, and the Alhambra, on our last Spain trip, we couldn’t pass up a bus tour that was offered by the cruise line. Here are just a couple of photos. The Alhambra, a 13th-14th century fortress and palace built by the Moorish rulers of Spain, is just exquisite, and well-worth a second trip.
The long bus ride home provided ample opportunity for sock knitting.
More on those socks in a future post. I promised a bear tale a few posts ago. Sweetpea is a rather unadventurous bear, at least up until now. Generally, she’s been satisfied to hang out in hotel rooms and ship cabins. Occasionally we get a room/cabin attendant with a sense of humor, and we find her perched in different places in our room when we get “home” at the end of the day. But that’s about as much fun as she usually has.
Until now. One day on the cruise we came back to our cabin after being out and around the ship, and found our room all cleaned up, as usual. Don’t ask me how, but the cabin attendants unerringly know when you’ve left the room, and whiz right in to tidy up and make the bed. This particular day I was rummaging around to find my knitting, and noticed that Sweetpea was gone. She was nowhere to be found. I rather frantically called the number listed on the card that our attendant had left. I found that she was on a break, and I had reached room service. They listened quite patiently to my rather lunatic-sounding story of the missing teddy bear, and I could almost hear the eye-rolling and snickering in the background, though the man on the phone was well-trained enough to not laugh out loud. He said he would look into it.
Not five minutes later there was a knock on the door. A young woman had rescued Sweetpea from the laundry, where she had apparently arrived wrapped up in our sheets. She was very happy to be home, and did not even think about having any more adventures for the entire rest of the trip.
Next stop:
My oldest daughter has always slept with a puffalump, a stuffed “thing” from back in the 70’s when she was a baby. We went to RI this past summer for her Grandmother’s funeral and she left it in our hotel room. Didn’t realize “Puffy” was missing until that night at bedtime when we were already in RI (the hotel was in PA). We weren’t as fortunate as you were with Bear, they hadn’t seen it. Took that “kid” awhile to get over losing something she’s had for almost 29 years. You’re very lucky you got your Bear back.
Love the pictures of your trip. Thanks for sharing.
Sheri in GA
You are really making me miss cruising with these posts…….not much longer though, our girls will be graduating from college in May and beginning their prospective careers. Woohoo! DH and I will, hopefully, resume a life of normalacy when our pocketbook goes back to normal. I’ve got my eye on a Mediterranean cruise…
And I agree, it is amazing how those stewards that WE rarely see appear to be watching our every move 🙂 So happy Sweetpea didn’t drown in the washing machine!
What a frightening experience for Sweetpea! I’m so glad she was found safe and sound.
Oh, poor Sweetpea, that was almost too much of an adventure! Your trip photos are so beautiful. Makes me want to get on a ship to anywhere today!!
The alhambra photos are fabulous–and hardly any tourists in your shots!!! We visited the Alhambra in early January and froze!! I forgot that southern Spain could have chilly temps in higher elevations. Nevertheless, we also felt we could go back for numerous second trips.–particularly one where flowers in the gardens were blooming. Any flowers when you were there?? Poor Sweatpea. I’m sure she was traumatized. My daughter’s Beverly Bunny once got wrapped in a sleeping bag and was trapped for two weeks of trauma–for both the daughter and Beverly. Beverly never recovered–she won’t go near a sleeping bag. Hope your Sweatpea is not traumatized by bed sheets.
Poor Sweetpea! That was a close call.
Thanks for all the travel photos. I’m having a ball traveling vicariously through you. What fun!
Lovely intro to the Alhambra. I hope Sweetpea was barely bruised by the ordeal.
Adventure Bear! She was just probably jealous of all your adventures and watned one of her own.
Sweetpea had an unscheduled bath, poor bearby. They sure knew how to build a structure before machinery was invented, didn’t they? You take fabulous photos!
I am so happy that SweetPea didn’t slip overboard or have a bubbly experience. However, if the harrowing near death experience has overwhelmed her I would be happy to treat her Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, at no monitary cost at all…now, about that knitting advice…
Hugs to you both,
Dr Karen
http://www.mystrandofpurls.typepad.com
ok..poor Sweetpea..when I was reading your story at first I instantly thought your brave to even leave the bear out (what if someone took it?) then I just gasped at the fact she had been hauled off to laundry….WHEW…really-I’m not sure I’d leave her out! Great Spain pics and buttons! I love rose buttons!
The Alhambra photos are beautiful. I used to travel with a stuffed cat because there was a time when the cats slept in my arms and I couldn’t sleep without one in my arms. Then I meet my hubby who is very allergic and our compromise is I have two cats but they don’t sleep in the bed anymore (the cats kinda enforce this by having a habit of loudly announcing when they have managed to sneak into the room….Teddy my previous cat would just creep into my arms and hubby would be none the wiser as long as his pillow was not slept on).