We had waaaay too much fun!

I have been home for only about an hour, but wanted to post and let everyone know what a wonderful time we had at our Northwest Stitcher's get together in Bellevue, Washington, this weekend. I joined Von, Thea, Nancy, Jo-Celle and Kathryn for a weekend of stash shopping, eating, talking, shopping, visiting, eating, shopping, oh, and did I mention talking???? I have come home with three new friends, (having already known Von and Thea for many years), and an empty wallet, but boy did we have fun!!! Here is a picture of us having dinner at the Red Robin in downtown Bellevue.... left to right is Nancy, Von, me, Thea, Jo-Celle, and Kathryn. We are all cyberstitchers from Thea's cyberclasses, which is where most of us (except for Von and I and Thea) met. What a special time we had sharing each other's lives and truly becoming friends. We have already decided we need to do it again, soon!!!

I drove up to Bellevue on Friday evening after work. Von had arrived earlier in the day from Kennewick, so was able to pick up Thea at the Victoria Clipper pier in downtown Seattle. We met up at the motel, and since Thea needed some food, we headed out for a grocery store..and found the biggest organic food store I have ever seen. It was huge! We spent a long time wandering the aisles looking at all the new brands and prepared foods!!! It was incredible!!! We then headed back to the motel, and Von and I stayed up very late visiting and catching up with our lives!!! Saturday morning Thea and I got up very early and at 7 AM headed out for breakfast at the Marriot Courtyard, a yummy breakfast buffet, and visited for over two hours. When we got back to the motel, Von was up and dressed and waiting for us, and we headed over to Cross Stitch Corner, the LNS, where we met up with Jo-Celle, Nancy and Kathryn, who had all arrived in town that morning. After a round of hellos and hugs, we got down to some serious stash shopping, having a wonderful time. I think we spent over an hour shopping there. We then all loaded into Von's Expedition and headed out to Issaquah for more shopping at Thread Needle Street. Another hour of serious stash shopping!!! By then we were all famished, so we had a wonderful lunch at a local seafood restaurant. We visited a fabric store and a chocolate factory before heading back to Bellevue and the motel. We all landed in Von's and my room for more visiting. After several hours, we realized we were hungry again, so once again we loaded into Von's car and headed for the mall to eat. We ended up at Red Robin, picture above. After dinner, we all headed for our own rooms and bed. I don't know about the others, but Von and I stayed up until nearly midnight again talking! Then this morning I was up early again, and had the pleasure of driving Thea back down to catch the 7:30 AM clipper back to Victoria! And then I came back to the room, and the 5 remaining of us went to breakfast at the Marriott again. Then Jo-Celle, Kathryn and Nancy headed for home, and Von and I went back to near the mall for more shopping!!! We found a couple of incredible stores and spent a very pleasurable 3 hours shopping and visiting. Then it was time for me to head for the airport to pick up my parents, who were flying home from Arizona. Whew, busy weekend, but what a great time we had!!! Tomorrow I will try and get a couple pictures together of some of the treasures I found...like all the yards of silk ribbon I found at the paper store!!!!