Our Anniversary Trip

Our anniversary was actually in July but we didn't have a chance to go out of town until this week.  Glenn & I took off Thursday & Friday.  We planned to go up north of the city in the Napa/Sonoma county area.  Glenn likes to bike up there & there's plenty of antiquing in the area to keep me busy while he rides.  We ended up staying in Santa Rosa with day trips out to Petaluma, Healdsburg, Sebastopol, Bodega Bay, & we drove back through Sonoma & Napa today.  I had read online that the Salvation Army in Healdsburg was huge so I just had to drive out & see it.  I was shocked.  Here's what it looked like when I drove up:

I think the huge building in the center is the office & residence, but it was still amazing.  There were 5-6 houses scattered around the campus and each had a different theme.  This big barn was full of nothing but clothes.  The smaller one next to it had small appliances & household items.

One of the houses below had furniture and the other had all the good stuff -- nicer things that they pulled out and charged much more for.  I didn't buy anything 'cause all the stuff I liked was in there & they were selling it for more than I would have in my shop.  :-(   All those tents that were set up had furniture and boxes and boxes of stuff lined up.  Nothing was sorted & it was a mad-house - people everywhere sorting through boxes.  Lots of people there back to school shopping.  

Friday we drove out to Bodega Bay to look around & do some hiking.  It was cold, windy, & foggy, but beautiful.  As soon as we got there someone told us that the whales were right off the coast.  

See him spouting above?  It was really hard to get a picture of them.  I'll write more about the antique shops I went to later.... gotta go move files over to our new external hard drive.

Our Trip to Mt. Shasta

Glenn rode in the Mount Shasta Summit Century on Sunday.  He did the metric century, 58 miles.  He's taking his vacation this year in small parts so he had off Thursday - Sunday.  We left Friday after I got off work and made it to Ukiah.  We took the long way -- Highway 101.  Saturday we had time to look around as we made our way north.  Glenn & Lauren drove through this tree on their trip a few years ago so we went looking for it again.  Roxanne since told me that there are at least 2 other trees in CA that you can drive through.  Are there more?  Can you see Glenn in the photo below?

This was on the Avenue of the Giants.  HUGE trees!  I'll have a story to tell later about our hotel situation, but today is only the good stuff.  :-)  While Glenn was riding Sunday morning I drove out to the Mt. Shasta Lavender Farm.  Made it just in time.  August 1 was the last day of the season!  Wow, this place was great!

An online friend, Deborah, told me about this place.  What's funny is that she & her family were there on Saturday.  We probably passed each other on the freeway!  I didn't see photos on her blog yet, but she did feature some of my tags on a recent post.  Thanks, Deborah!!!  Here's some of the lavender I picked. It's upstairs drying right now.  Think I'll make some sachets soon.

Lauren's Graduation & My Visit to Michigan

Last Friday I flew out to Michigan to see Mark & Lauren graduate.  Hard to believe this time has gone by so fast!  My dad met me there.  We did a little sightseeing while we were there.  I really noticed how much I like old stuff while we were there.  And everything in Michigan seemed so much older than here in California!  Look at their downtown theatre:

A church built in 1859:

We waited for Mark in the library.  I'd never seen a handle like this in a bathroom so I took a picture of it, too.  :-)

And this was the floor in the library:

After a walk through downtown Jackson, we drove to Ann Arbor.  I read Flea Market Style on the airplane on the way there & saw this shop advertised.  So we made a stop at Red Shoes Home Goods. They had this tiny little front door.  It reminded me of The Borrowers  book series that the girls read when they were younger.  Notice the little blue chair in the planter, too.

On the way back to Jackson we drove through Chelsea to see the home of Jiffy Mix!

Reminder:  You still have time to enter my Cottage Charm Giveaway.  I'll be drawing a name on May 29.  To enter leave a comment on my original giveaway post, here.

Washington, D.C. - Day 2 Photos

Jeff said a lot of our photos yesterday looked like the ones they took last year on their trip.  I'll bet this day was a little different than what they did... seeing that I was with two art-loving girls all day.   We had a list of things we wanted to see at each museum and we moved fast.

We started out at the National Archives.  Wow!  What am impressive place to display the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights!  It was like walking into a cathedral -- felt like a holy place.  :-)  I like how they only let a certain number of people in at a time and gave us a few minutes, then moved everyone out to let a new group in.  Didn't get too crowded that day.  We also saw the only copy of the Magna Carta in the US and the Emancipation Proclamation.  LOVED this place!

Here we separated for a little while.  Lauren had seen a researchers entrance at the back and wanted to see if they would let a family historian in.  She didn't have all her info with her or she could have done some really good research.  Hey, Grandpa -- This conference meets again in 2 years.  Wanna meet us there for some research?  And Grandma can go hang out with us and the next museum we went to -- The National Art Gallery - West Wing.  

This museum was like walking through an art history book.  Jordann was really excited about this one.  She had it all planned out.  We walked through EVERY room in chronological order.  We walked into almost every room and said, "I can't believe we're looking at something that _____ painted!" or "I can't believe that this was painted _____ years ago!"

Because we walked through so fast Jo took lots of photos to look at later.  So we can remember everything we saw - da Vinci, Rembrandt, Degas, Renoir, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Gaughin (these are just a few of my favorites, the girls' were a little different).  I was impressed by how much Jo knew.  She was explaining the art to me using real artistic terms!  At one point we just had to sit down, in a room filled with 12 Monet paintings, and try to soak in that we were really here.  Here's one of L's faves:

Next stop, the Museum of Natural History.  This place is huge & we were running out of time.  So we kept repeating to ourselves, "Diamond & dinosaurs..." It was very tempting, but we saw the Hope Diamond, walked through the room with dinosaurs, and left.   It's on our list of things to do next time.  Along with the American History Museum which was closed for restoration.

From there we walked by the Department of Agriculture (Lauren REALLY wanted a tour, but we didn't stop.) and went to the Holocaust Museum.  No photos from there, but it was an amazing tour.  I highly recommend it.  Very crowded, though.

Next door was the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.  The tours for the day were all full so we just went in to the visitor's center.  Jordann bought some money.  $150 for only $2.00.  (It was shredded!)  

After that we stopped for a soda break.  Lauren went to the Dept of Ag but their tours ended at 3 -- we were too late.  Next time...  Then we walked back to the American Art Museum/Portrait Gallery.  Here I am pointing the way:

There was ALL kinds of American art here.  I've mentioned several times on our trips over to Oakland that some of these gang members would be pretty good artists.  Well, look at this:

Lauren with one of her heros:

This was an interesting "fountain" in the atrium.  It was only about 1/2" deep so you could walk through it.  Jo took some other good photos here, too.  I may post more later.  She also found the painting of George Washington that she wanted to see, and some of Glenn's relatives, John Adams and John Quincy Adams.

To be continued...

Washington, D.C. - Day 1B Photos

So, we *started* visiting the monuments at around 5 on our first full day of sightseeing in D.C.  I wouldn't recommend this with young children.  We already had blisters by this time but the air was cooler so we wanted to take advantage of that.  And miss the rush hour crowds on the Metro.  

From the Washington Monument we took off -- west, I think -- to walk a loop around the other half of the mall.  First, the WWII Memorial:

Very friendly squirrels:

Jefferson - This was taken from across the pool.  We didn't walk to it.

Korean War:

Lincoln - I think it's size surprised us all.

Looking back:

Vietnam War:

And a message to remember:

Washington, D.C. - Day 1A Photos

I've spent the last hour going through our photos.  It's going to take me a few days to share them all.  Last Wednesday was our first full day in D.C.  We rode the Metro in and went to the Air & Space Museum first.  Then we took the capitol tour.  At the end of the tour they showed us the star above in the center of the room right under the rotunda.  This is the center of the building, which is in the center of the city.  So, we're each standing in a different ZIP code in the photo.

After that we went to the Library of Congress, walked by the Supreme Court, then went to the art museum.   This was L's favorite art museum.

Jo found a few paintings she liked, too.

I found a whole room of small French paintings which were much more my style, but I did like the Picasso's, too.

That's when we got really tired & thought about going back to the hotel.  But it had rained a little and was much cooler.  So, instead, we got drinks at McD's and looked at a map to see how far the monuments were.  Leopold went with us & helped plan our tours. 

Me & Jo walking down the mall:

It doesn't look very big, does it?  But as we got closer, it got bigger & bigger!!!

See L down at the bottom?  Here we are walking again.  We walked a LOT that day!

To be continued....

CSST Christmas in July is here!

It's really warm today and doesn't feel much like Christmas.  But I finally got most of my items listed in my Etsy shop.  There are a few I haven't photographed yet but I don't think they'll make it in by tomorrow.  I actually started listing last week because I knew I would be working this week & not have much time to list on Friday.  The vintage Christmas crafting supplies have been selling well.  I've already sold most of the lots I made up.  The one above was left and I just listed these:

Most are little goodies we collected through the year at estate sales and craft stores.  Then I've been making these little trim packets for those who just need a little bit.  Isn't this fabric great???  I love it!  I'll have more of these later in the year.  Gotta start packing for vacation now.

And, of course, TAGS!!!  I love tags.

We're leaving Tuesday for our family vacation in DC.  I was telling Glenn it's been a LONG time since we went on a vacation where we were staying in a hotel instead of with family or someone we know.  He's going because of a conference but he'll get a little sightseeing in.  The girls and I have THREE WHOLE DAYS of sightseeing.  Let me know if you think there's something we absolutely have to see.  Our plan is to spend a whole day in the Smithsonian museums, one day visiting all the monuments, and another going to the Library of Congress, White House, Capitol, and National Archives.  A lot, huh?  We probably won't actually go inside anywhere -- except we all really, really want to see the library!  And of course, the museums.  Anything else we missed?

Then I'll be working overtime the week after filling in for someone at work - no Tuesday off.  Tuesday, August 19 is CVHS registration.  I volunteered.  Gotta start the high school years off right!  And the 26th is Jordi's first day in high school.  Lauren will already be away at college by then.  Maybe we should celebrate with a craft day at my house?  And someone should bring their Zutter?  lol...