Road trip to Atfest 2008...part one.

Castle in the Air, Berkeley,CA
Katherine with her fairy drawing at Morning Glory in Ashland, Or.
Shop in Multnomah Village, Or.
Colleen shopping..
Inside Flutter on Mississippi St. Portland, Or.
Flutter...
Flutter...
cool hooked owl pillow at Flutter...
cool store...closed
Our dinner spot...Por Que no? on Mississippi St.
Fabric store in Tumwater, Wa
window of Artisans on Taylor, PT
Colleen with funny painted glasses on in Artisans on Taylor.
cool art car at the Fort!
dInside the dining common...dinner and the trading frenzy...


Had such a great trip up to Port Townsend and an equally wonderful time at Artfest and back again! Still processing it all while taking care of the family, reading email, unpacking and settling in.
Taking a road trip with an art friend your same age and with the same interests is one of the best things in life! Colleen and I had such a good time traveling together.We shared stories and adventures all the way up and back! And we had the companionship of her sister, Susan, her daughter, Mielie, and her 2 girls, Melissa and Katherine on the road as they traveled to Seattle in another car. We managed to have a few meals together on the road and the girls gave me some awesome art which I will share here. Colleen and I made a stop at "Castle in the Air" in Berkeley and got to meet Ulla who was teaching a Sunday workshop upstairs. She is such a sweetheart! We got to peek at all the very cool alphabet books that the women were making in the 2 day workshop. Would love to gather a group together to take a workshop there some weekend. The store is so inspiring! Lots of goodies from Europe that you don't see elsewhere. More fun shops in the neighborhood too....plus some cute restaurants. We found a great place and had brunch and then we were on our way. Next fun stop: Ashland, Oregon where we had breakfast with Susan and family at the Morning Glory Restaurant. Soo Good! The girls drew with crayons while our food was prepared and I made such a fuss over Katherine's fairy drawing that she gave it to me.
After breakfast we headed into Ashland to check out some of our favorite shops. Webster's has amazing wool fleece, roving, yarns, wearables and jewelry. The Prize was closed on Monday so Colleen missed her chance once again to step inside...(also closed on the way home!) but the fabric store was open and we managed to find some fun fat quarters to add to our fabric stash and then we were on our way again.
We made it to Portland, had a nice dinner at CPK and got ready to explore a bit of Portland the next day. We had breakfast at Marcos Restaurant in Multnomah Village and found another yarn store and a great little fabric store called, Fibers In Motion. Also found cool shoe store called Switch, and ended up with a fun artsy pair of shoes from elnaturalista! We finally made it to Powell's bookstore where Colleen met up with an old friend and we browsed the books and met up with Susan and girls again. We spent a few hours there and then headed off to Alberta St. for stops at Collage, Bolt and the yarn store. Getting hungry we hopped over to Mississippi St., checked out a cool shop called Flutter (vintage and fun new stuff) and then found our dinner spot, "Por Que no"..a sweet little Mexican food place with hand made tortillas and great food. The manager was a friend of Colleen's and didn't know we were coming and wasn't supposed to be working that day but there she was! She gave us free drinks and an excellent meal served outside as the sun went down. We felt refreshed and decided to drive on until we felt tired. We made it to Tumwater , Washington for the night and the next morning found a nice little fabric store behind the Starbuck's and just had to take a peek. It is called Ruby St. Quiltworks...a fresh new store with lots of fabric and some great little felted doggies from a workshop they taught there.
On to Olympia for breakfast and our next destination: Shipwreck Beads. We gave ourselves a time limit so we wouldn't stay too long. Found some fun beads and supplies for Nina's class and on to Port Townsend!
We made a grand entrance as the Landrover's alarm system went off loudly until we were saved by a sympathetic bystander who had suffered the same problem....take the key out and unlock the doors from the outside. Whew! Then off to visit Edge to Edge and Artisans on Taylor and to look for new socks.
Registration beckoned so off to the Fort for a hug with Teesha and her mother, Darlene. Fun things in the Gallery....I put in my owl and gnome and off to our Officer's house and meet up with roommates Sukey, Susan H. and girls, and LE, Syd's daughter. We settled in, then off to dinner and the trading frenzy began until the kick off meeting.
More tomorrow!