So little time....so many yarn shops.....

.....and cup cake bakeries, but we managed to hit 5 yarn shops and at least that many bakeries plus taking the ferry to Port Orchard, eating at a Tom Douglas restaurant, meeting each of Gayle's 4 children and her grandchildren (even babysitting one of them), attending the Coffee Fest Trade Show, enjoying a gourmet meal Martha Stewart style on Gayle and John's beautiful deck, basking in the generosity and hospitality of a very dear and long-time friend.....and just plain enjoying a couple of days in beautiful Seattle, wondering why I don't live there.....but I fall in love with every place I visit and have fantasies of what it would be like to live in each of them.....and in the end, it's always good to be home until the travel bug hits me again in a couple of weeks.

We shared a duplex while our husbands attended Washington State University in Pullman, Washington in the late '70's....I had Kyle and Spencer and she had Christopher. I've always learned so much from Gayle. She is an amazingly talented and very wise person.....and an impeccable decorator and homemaker rivaling Martha Stewart....(I need a little more convincing to get rid of my wall paper, Gayle).....and haven't seen her for 10 years and haven't been to Seattle for 20......so I jumped at the chance when the invite came.

"I'll just whip us up a little something to eat", she says.....we had just gotten some beautiful cup-cakes and they provided the center piece for our meal out on the deck (wow....that's all I could say).

My first time on a ferry boat....I was SHOCKED that you actually drive your car onto the ferry....but I just wasn't thinking that people need their car when they get across the water, duh....but we went on top so I could be the "queen of the world" and float through the water on the front row.

A Mormon girl at the Coffee Fest Trade Show.....Gayle's daughter Lizanne in the background laughing at me.

One can never have too many cup cakes.....it was about as much fun picking out the perfect cake as it was the perfect skein of yarn....I said "about" but not "more".......you can eat the cupcakes though.....(but you can knit with the yarn).

I learned so much from my wise friend and her husband (he's pretty smart too and taught me a lot about Seattle and horticulture). We had a good time with this book as we discussed together where we want to be in 5 years. I hope I will take the time to plan and set goals so that I can make some progress.......I love learning new things and I hope I can incorporate some great ideas and stay inspired from this wonderful week-end. Thanks Gayle for such a great time. You are so awesome and I'm so glad I got to see you and John and all the kids and their kids. Come see me soon.......we don't have water (Gayle loves her water) but we have really colorful mountains.

Just a little collage of the joy I found visiting the many yarn shops, especially Debbie Macomber's "A Good Yarn Shop" in Port Orchard.