It's Beginning to Feel A Lot Like Summer

I still haven't completely finished my garnstudio sweater, but I'm close. I saw some darling gingham buttons at Posy Gets Cozy, but I couldn't find if she said where she found them.

I ended up ordering some pretty cute, plastic buttons from ebay, but now I can't decide on what color to use. The green definitely doesn't look good, but I think the yellow or the purple have possibilities. I'd appreciate any input I can get since family is no help whatsoever!

So, the temperature are finally starting to feel like Central California in the summer. We had such a nice June that I almost thought we'd skip the 100 degree temps this year--Not! The beagles can't think of much to do except lie around sighing periodically, but we've been thinking that a short trip to the beach was in order. We took along our bikes and had a great little vacation for two days. One of the highlights was taking the Bob Jones' Bike Trail to Avila Beach for the first time on bikes. I've run it several times before in the City to the Sea Half Marathon when it used to go to Avila, but I much preferred riding it.

After spending a big part of the evening at the San Luis Obispo Farmer's Market, we took a little drive around Morro Bay before heading back to our campground at the state park.

This picture doesn't do justice to how pretty it was. We drove over by Morro Rock and looked back at the town with  all of the lights  twinkling. If we hadn't had an impatient teenager in the backseat, we would have sat there until it was completely dark.

I guess a lot of people would consider the "stacks" an unsightly addition to the skyline, but maybe cause they've been there all of my life, they don't bother me. It was always exciting to see the stacks as we were driving in on the freeway and to know that we were almost to Morro Bay when I was a kid.

We didn't sleep great in our tent. Fortunately, Paige wasn't with us. She spent the night with some friends who have a beach house about five miles from where we were staying. Otherwise, we would have hardly fit in the tent. I guess we'd forgotten how small it is...or how big the kids have gotten. Even though we have a blow-up mattress, it was still pretty uncomfortable. So, we got up early and took a little walk on the beach. I only found one sand dollar, to add to my forty other sand dollars I have spread around on display in the house.

 It must have been the cool weather, but I felt like knitting a lot for the past two day too. I've been working on these Paraphernalia Socks for a while. I'm knitting them for one of my ex-students who plans to go to college in New York in the fall. I jokingly told her that she was going to need wool socks when we told me where she was going, and then I thought it would be fun to actually give her some. I really like the pattern, but the wool is just O.K. I think it's Lorna's Lacis, which I usually love, but it just isn't smooth enough for this pattern. I'm not sure if that's what I mean exactly. I just don't like how the stitches are so...separate.