I'm back......

What an amazing 2 weeks I have just had! Colleen and I took off the 25th loaded to the tippy top. Had a beautiful drive with some rain. After a stop at Paco's in Woodland for great Mexican food, we made it to Yreka Motel 6 next and the best coleslaw at the Black Bear. Next day we made it to the amazing Morning Glory Restaurant in Ashland for beakfast and did some major shopping damage in that town.
Only bummer was The Prize is closed on Mon...note to self...We stopped at my high school buddy Roberta's, Broadway Bookstore in Portland and drove on to a motel at the base of Mt. St. Helen for the night. Tues we made it to Seattle with a stop in Issaquah for a great lunch at Koho's and some more fabric shopping.
Got to LE's and made a beeline to Maxine's...that place never disappoints....LE and Jon joined us for our Snappy Dragon fix...Thank you Jon again. Next day off to Port Townsend. We got a great view from the ferry and found a great place with drive thru coffee behind a gas station....just what we needed. So we hit a few shops...my favs: Summer House and Edge to Edge...before meeting up with Susan and her college buddy with family in tow for a great lunch at Finn's....We strapped Susan to the roof with her suitcases, made one more stop at the art store/health food market, that we LOVED and made it to the fort to check in and start our long awaited and beloevd ArtFest.....OK take a breath.
I really can't explain how wonderful ArtFest is to anyone who has not gone. I first went 4 years ago and I remember thinking I had found my "tribe"....If you see someone with blue paint all over them, multi painted shoes, a hat with an antenea and an apron of many fabrics you just think..."cool".
I had 3 great classes. I worked with resin, collage and new favorite tool a pizza cutter.

The other great thing out this retreat is I get to be with LE. It is so fun for me to get to have her with me for those fast paced 4 days. She is also a great help on vendor night! But now of course I miss her like mad....So I think LE and I both liked the camp fire the best this year. I have missed it every year, but this one was amazing because the 1000 journals project founder was there! We actually did work in a couple of the journals! Another thing that is hard to explain....but I never thought I would see one let alone work in one!

So I will fast forward to the end. We did a canon ball run home stopping in Redding the first night. We stopped in Walnut Creek for really good Vietnamese food and got home about 6.

This is why I dragged Colleen home so fast....I dumped my bags, had tacos with Jill and Earl and headed for the beach!. 3 high school buddies and I rented a beach house on the Rincon for the week. We had a really good time eating junk food mostly and laughing alot. We had visits from various school mates with a get together of about 20 on Fri. We definately want to repeat this next year. It was a great way to recharge our "batteries". I saw classmate I had not seen since graduation.

Now it is back to "work"...Carol and I have lots a new plans for the ART CLINIC and shows to prepare for....but I am all pumped up now to throw myself into it all.