On the way to Artfest..

Colleen and I headed off early Sunday morning on our way to Artfest. First stop, Fourth Street in Berkeley, CA. We checked out several shops and then had fun shopping and looking for new things at the "Castle in the Air". We were so lucky to have Shari as our guide. We got to meet at Artfiberfest when she and her friend, Caron were in my hooking and nuno felt classes. Shari took us upstairs where a wonderful beeswax collage class was going on and helped us with the wonderful felt cording that I wanted for an upcoming class at Artfiberfest in June. We also got to see the needle felted creations of Caron Dunn, who teaches at the Castle...just wonderful...the best needle felting I have ever seen. I'd love to take a class from her! The picture above shows some of the fun things I found at the Castle.
After shopping we were hungry and so we went next door to Bette's Oceanview Diner. We had a delicious lunch there from their great menu and after a quick stop at The Paper Source we were on our way.
We slept in Redding and headed off to Ashland for breakfast-lunch at one of our favorite stops~ the Morning Glory. I had to take a photo of the wonderful tree house that had been built in the neighborhood where we parked our car and walked to the restaurant. I've always loved tree houses, my brothers built one with a trap door in our big old oak tree when I was growing up.
Best breakfast spot in town!
Once fed, we were ready to visit "Websters" one of the best yarn, roving, and wearable art places on our trip. We spent at least an hour looking at all the beautiful yarns and wool. I bought a new crochet hook and a bag of colorful yarn to play with and use at Artfiberfest.
The top skeins of yarn had beads in the wool so you could make a sparkly scarf with them....
Just some of the many buttons available...
Noro yarns from Japan...some of my favs.....
Colleen doing a little damage at Websters....
After Websters we walked on down the street to Mix to get a mocha and cookie for the road...they had these cute tissue flowers in the window.....
and look how sweet my mocha arrived!
Next stop was to Arch Cape near Cannon Beach in Oregon where my brother built a beach house. We drove over to Hwy. 101 and finally got there by 10 pm, a little late for dinner. We got to visit with my brother, Larry until midnight and then got up and took a walk on the foggy coast before a nice breakfast in Cannon Beach. Larry led us back towards Portland where we had some nice visits to Fibers In Motion, Northwest Wools and Switch, a cool shoe store in Multnomah Village.
Our beach walk...
My brother built his house in the forest a few years ago and he and his sons go down to surf and relax whenever possible.
The forest behind his house.
Heart shaped stepping stone near the beach.
After Portland we decided to drive all the way to PortTownsend and get there a day before the festivities. We found a nice place to stay for the night and went into town to check out some of our favorite places. We were sad to see that "Edge to Edge" was gone but still had fun visiting all the cool stores and restaurants in Port Townsend.