The cruise was fun - there were 17 of us altogether - but not something I would do alone. You really need someone with you. And I guess it's not my greatest thrill but, yes, it was fun and relaxing.

At the first port, Nassau, I got off the ship in the afternoon and my son and I took a quick walk around. It's very touristy and overpriced. I found a shop, The Linen Store, and spent some time in there as my son made a walk around the block. He decided to come in and be bored with me instead after being repeatedly approached by characters wanting to sell him drugs. They never approached him when he was with me.

I bought one small shell that I particularly liked and 2 hankies, which I'm pretty sure I could get anywhere, but they were affordable and something I appreciate and will enjoy calling a souvenir. I found a rack of girl's pinafores and zeroed right in on this one with the tatting on the hem. I thought the camera focused better than it did and I'm disappointed that they are blurry.

There was only one with tatting but all had some kind of lacework - crochet, bobbinlace, drawn-thread work, needlelace, and battenburg lace. I think this one was priced at $65.00. Maybe less - I can't really remember now. The price $35.00 comes to mind too. I think you can tell it is a larger thread and crochet connecting the long picots - a feature I see in a lot of tatting that originates in China. It was really a very pretty pinafore but I couldn't justify buying it since I have no one to give it to and I really didn't have a lot of money to burn. I was hoping to find beads or something along that line but never did. Lots of diamonds for sale but I wasn't in the market for that either.

I did tat a little. I finished the spinning wheel coaster but I only had a copy of the diagram with me, not the book, so ended up making a mistake somehow at the end. I didn't start in the right place and maybe that was where I messed up. I didn't even know how many repeats to make!

I also tatted a teapot and another unusual motif but need to hide ends and block them so they'll show up later.

I felt pretty sick Thursday night which I think was a combination of the sweltering heat on Grand Turk island and some seasickness. It really didn't bother me before but that day we'd only been anchored for 6-7 hours out of 24 and the ocean was choppy. About mid-morning on Friday though, I was much better. Anyway, I did most of my tatting on Thursday night and Friday, since we were at sea all day and I wasn't interested in anything else going on onboard.