It's Scrapbooking Time!

This past weekend my friend, Margaret, & I headed to Portland for the Creating Keepsakes Scrapbooking Convention. I LOVE conventions like this & I remember how happy I was after moving to the Pacific Northwest to find that people in this part of the US were crafters too. lol We arrived on Thursday, checked into our hotel, & then headed to the convention center. We volunteered from 4-7PM at the registration desk. For about 2 hours it was s-l-o-w and then everyone showed up at once. Eeekkk! Stress!

Then we got back up early on Friday to do it all again! This time we volunteered at the Door Prize booth. Handing out prizes to folks is much more fun that dealing with registration issues. lol As a perk of this "job," we got into the exhibit hall before it was open to anyone else and we managed to plan our shopping ahead of time.

This year was particularly busy at the convention. It was crowded, but everyone was so happy to be there so most attendees were polite and friendly despite long lines.

  
We took a quick nap back at the hotel before going back Friday night for the crop. I actually completed EIGHT pages! I've never finished that many in one night. In the past, I usually only get one page done because I'm too busy talking & snacking & shopping. I'm so proud of me. lol 

I had a great time & can't wait to do it all again next year!

3 Weeks in Review

It's so nice to be home and to get back to a normal routine again. This will be my last post on this blog for a while. I only update it when something newsworthy happens. I'm pretty sure no one wants to read about my adventures cleaning the toilets or walking the dog. hehe Although, I was greeted with a summons to jury duty when I got home. That actually could make for some interesting news. (I report on January 15th, so if anything of interest happens, I'll add it here!) Thanks for following along on our cross-country journey. I have to say I think it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience because I don't plan to drive that many miles ever again. The car is now resting comfortably in the garage and wants to stay there for at least a little while longer. I pressed the trip counter on the way out of my mom's neighborhood in Orange Park, Florida, and I thought it would be fun to show a photo of it now. We traveled 3500 miles! Actually we traveled about 150 more than that from Orlando to my mom's house, but that mileage isn't included.

And here's a photo of Scott & I by the Pacific Coast. (I wish I had taken one of us at the Atlantic Coast, but the day we went there the wind was blowing so hard I don't think I could have held the camera steady.)

The photos posted during our trip were taken with the tablet, but now that I'm home I can post some from the camera. Here's a recap of some of the fun we had along the way.

Till Next Time....

Merry Christmas!

It's great to be home! We picked up our dog, Baron, from the Pet Hotel a little while ago and he is very excited to see us. He said we were the best Christmas present ever! We had such a great trip. We're watching the Disney Parks Christmas parade and reliving all the things we did there. Of all the experiences of the trip, however, we most enjoyed spending time with my parents. It's hard to be so far away from family, but that means you make the most of the time you do get to spend together. Here we are on a holiday sleigh ride through Ft. Wilderness to see the holiday decorations.

Merry Christmas everyone!

From The Redwood Forest...

To the gulf stream waters (or backwards in our case,) ... I still can't believe we traveled from coast to coast! We saw so many parts of our country. Today the redwood forest really was spectacular, as was the Pacific coast. But as they say, "there's no place like home" and I'm ready.

What We Really Did In San Francisco

Despite all the wonderful things to see and do in San Francisco, we had our own agenda. Our stay here has revolved around food. We literally ate our way through Chinatown today. I ate things I've never seen before and Scott revisited things he had not eaten for years. Our tummies are full, we have big smiles on our faces, and we have some snacks for the road. This was my first taste of fresh lychee. They were expensive, but oh so good. These sesame cookies are crisp and flavorful and I'm not even a fan of sesame seeds. Mmmmm....bakery buns. This assortment includes scallion, red bean, and coconut varieties. We're eating those egg tarts tonight. Hope they are yummy. Tomorrow we'll be traveling North up the coast of California. If we have wifi at the hotel I'll post an update tomorrow night. Meanwhile say a prayer for me driving up these hills to get out of town.

The 13 Hour Tour

I think the downside of being in San Francisco for only 3 days is that we feel like we have to do and see as much as possible in a short time. We were out of the hotel by 8AM and we dragged our tired feet back at 9PM. It was a great day of sightseeing with mostly dry weather. More rain is expected tomorrow, but that won't put a damper on our day. More to see tomorow... Scott at Fort Point The wind was blowing hard when Scott took this photo of me at South Vista Point.

If You're Going To San Francisco...

Oops... I forgot to wear flowers in my hair. San Francisco was a welcome sight after traveling thru Los Angeles yesterday. We spent the night in Stevenson Ranch and left there at 5AM to avoid rush hour traffic. The drive was fairly uneventful until we got to the Oakland Bay Bridge with hundreds of other travelers. Then the AAA trip planner failed to get us to the hotel, so we had to rely on the Garmin which seemed to forget we were traveling in a stick and wanted to avoid hills. I actually cried as I rolled backwards on a hill at a traffic light and then the tires skid on the wet road. We did eventually made it to our hotel, which is fairly nice to be an old motorlodge with free parking. I can even see the Coit Tower from our room. Now we're off to Chinatown for some lunch.