Before and After

Remember this photo from way back 2 weeks ago? It was taken at the Charleston airport as we were waiting to board our first flight. Everyone looks so fresh and excited about the upcoming trip.



This photo was taken at the San Francisco airport last Friday evening as we waited to board the red-eye back home.


Obviously our nearly 2 weeks of sightseeing and sewing caught up with us. We were all exhausted.

It was a wonderful trip but it sure was good to get home!

Wednesday and Thursday in San Francisco

On Wednesday we decided to rent bicycles for a ride over the Golden Gate Bridge and into Sausalito. It seemed like a good idea at the time!

For 4 women that don't do much biking it was a real workout. We spent so much time walking our bikes up hills that we decided we had invented a new sport called Bike Walking. (click photos for larger view)



Don't we look a little cold? (l-r - Joanne, Frances, Karen, me)




Once in Sausalito we took the ferry back into San Francisco and enjoyed cruising by Alcatraz and seeing the Bay Bridge close up.

On Thursday we took a full day tour of the city and Muir Woods. We actually wanted to take the tour the first day we were there but that didn't work out. We saw some sites we'd already seen, but it was still good. We even got to go inside one of the famed Victorian homes.


I never visited Muir Woods when we lived in the Bay area so it was a treat to see. The redwoods are amazing.



Here are Joanne and Frances enjoying the beauty.




While walking through the woods we met 2 couples from Iowa that were really a hoot. They kindly took a photo of the 4 of us standing in this tree.




We then took a photo of them. I promised that I'd post the photo on my blog of the Iowa Winos (as they called themselves) and I also promised I wouldn't mention that one of their group had arranged for the rental car to be waiting in San Diego, instead of San Francisco!


One of the last stops on our all day tour was an overlook between Muir Woods and San Francisco. It was windy but beautiful.

San Francisco

We arrived in San Francisco safely late on Monday. Both of our flights were delayed because of bad weather in Atlanta, so it was a very long day.

Here are Karen, Frances and Joanne in the Charleston airport. Everyone looks so happy because we hadn't learned about the flight delays yet!



We were major tourists today. It was very windy and chilly - especially along the waterfront. No trip to San Francisco is complete without spending time at Fisherman's Wharf.






We also took the required cable car ride to Union Square and bought chocolate at Ghirardelli square. Through out the day we saw our share of the unique people that make up San Francisco. I think my favorite was the man earnestly playing his violin - but it had no strings. The only sound coming from his instrument was that of the bow rubbing against the bare wood of the violin. The panhandlers are getting more honest. One fellow's sign said "please donate to alcohol research." Ahh...San Francisco...there's nothing like it.

California here I come...

Tomorrow I leave for California with Karen, Joanne and Frances. We will be spending 4 nights in San Francisco and then 2 nights in Monterey before checking in at the Asilomar Conference Center for 5 days of classes at Empty Spools Seminars.

My class is Fabric Collage with Susan Carlson. Karen is taking a class with Janet Fogg and Frances and Joanne are taking a machine quilting class with Jill Schmuacher.

It was really hard to pack my supplies for this trip because I wanted to bring my ENTIRE fabric stash. I would have had to charter my own private plane to do that. I'm sure I'll get there and realize I have all the wrong fabric for my project, but I'll just have to make do.

Yesterday some of the TTT gang went on an outing.



It's sometimes like herding cats to get the group together for a photo. In the back (l to r) are Frances, Virginia, and Betsy. In front are Maureen, Joanne, Sheila, and Karen. Missing from this photo are Janice, Cindy, me, Judy and Jolene. Someday we'll get the entire group together for a photo!

Birthday Boy

Today is Craig's 36th birthday. I have no idea how he got to be that old!

In honor of the day I thought I'd share some photos of his early days in Scotland. He was born in Dunoon Scotland and we lived there until he was 18 months old.

This was his first professional photo. His hair looks like it had a red tinge in this photo but it was just the way the color was adjusted.


I knitted this blue bunting while I was pregnant. I sure was taking a chance making it blue because back in the old days we had to wait until the baby arrived to find out if it was a boy or girl. We brought him home from the hospital in this bunting.


We had a traditional British pram for him and it got used on a daily basis. Because our fridge wasn't much bigger than a dorm sized fridge I would have to grocery shop nearly every day. In the pram Craig would go and we'd walk to the shops in town. Most of the shops were quite small so prams would not fit inside. The prams would be left outside the shop (with the baby still inside) while patrons were inside shopping. Often you'd see someone leave the baby outside but bring the dog in.


Happy Birthday Craig!

Lax blogger

The QuiltArt list has been talking about blogging and whether most bloggers end up quitting after a short time. The conversation made me feel guilty because I know I've been slacking off on my blog lately.

I'm always of the belief that without photos nobody is interested in a blog, but I haven't done any new work lately so don't have any quilting photos.

Instead, I'm posting a photo I came across as I was cleaning out some files. This is Mark, the best man at our wedding in 1972. Isn't that 'suit' just too much? the jacket was that heavy double knit polyester. I'm especially grateful that the pants were not of the same print! (click on photo for larger view - if you dare!)




We had an open bar at our wedding and it looks like Mark is taking full advantage of the situation. He probably was trying to drink away his shame at wearing that outfit!