Long Beach, Calif-2012

Day 4 and It Keeps Getting Better

Once again, exhausted, but up early because we are excited to face the new day.  Today is an inkle weaving class for me, and socializing and going to the harbor for Michael.

My inkle weaving teacher is from the Miami area, and I’ve heard rumors that she may be doing a Tally workshop in December.  I hope, I hope.  It was a nice group of students and the teacher was awesome.  She is knowledgeable, gentle spoken, and good natured, so we had a great day in class.  I think inkle weaving will be something I will continue to enjoy.

Irene Monroe & Sharon

One of the highlights of the conference is the special dinner and movie this evening.  We started out with a delicious balsamic chicken meal, and then proceeded to a hall to watch the film.  This movie is called A Weaverly Life, and is about an 86 year old tapestry weaver and a year of her life.  She received inspiration from a river in North Carolina where she was able to see shapes in the water from rocks, growth, ripples, reflections, and incorporate these visuals into beautiful tapestries.  She weaves very large tapestries and often warps two at a time on a large loom.  She is energetic, humorous, touched my heart with her creativity.  She stayed after the film for about 45 minutes to answer questions and was the recipient of two standing ovations.

Sylvia Heyden Speaks on Creativity

I knew she would inspire those of us who are weavers, but I had no idea, that my husband is isn’t that interested in my weaving, would still be talking about her movie the next morning.

Sylvia Heyden & Sharon

A day so well spent.

Long Beach, Calif-2012

Day 3 is Great

I may be tired, but I woke up early with excitement as I was scheduled for class that was sure to be a favorite.  Two years ago, I had gone to the Folk School in the North Carolina mountains to take a class on rigid heddle weaving with a teacher  who had inspired me through her website  since I started weaving.  We were settled in our cabin the day before the workshop, but during the night, I became ill, and ended up the the emergency room.  We returned to Tallahassee with an opportunity lost, to study under this teacher.  So this morning,  I couldn’t wait for the class, and it did not disappoint me as it was informative, fun, and inspiring.

I completed this scarf and am very pleased with it.

At the end of class I told her about the class of hers that I had missed, and she remembered the incident and commented on how bad the class had felt for me, when they heard.  It just goes to show that when you miss something good, patience may bring you another opportunity.

Syne Mitchell & Sharon

While I was in class, Michael walked down to the harbor, and visited a retirement home on the water, because he wanted to see if they had a nice pool table.  Some people have a one track mind.

After dinner, we both went to the vender hall and I had a great time looking at all the goodies.  The surprise for me, was how interested Michael was in the supplies, especially the computerized looms.  I could hardly keep track of him.

My friend Ramona had suggested I look up Kelly Martin, from Minneapolis, who does fabulous rep weaving.  She is an interior designer who has a 3000 square foot studio, and multi looms, so she designs custom home accessories for customers.  She weaves rugs, table accessories, wall hangings and more.  Her work is amazing, and some of her products can be seen in the following pictures.

Kelly Martain & Sharon

We also ran into Robyn Spady, who had done a weaving workshop in Tallahassee.  We had a great visit and enjoyed seeing her goodies in her vender booth.

Robyn Spady & Sharon

Of course we had to visit the best yarn suppliers in world, Lunatic Fringe, and there booth and display reflected an amazing array of color, and it was noted that that booth stayed consistently busy.  I guess I’m not the only one that thinks their yarn is awesome.

We finally hiked our way back to the hotel, and we both can say, it was a good day.

Long Beach, Calif-2012

We are Off, and the Sun is Shining

Things were looking much better this day, with good weather, and a more sizable plane.  We flew to Salt Lake City, then finally made it to Long Beach.  This city is the third largest in California, so we were surprised at a rather small airport with outside accessibility to the planes, and I don’t think there was any shopping or food at the airport.

long beach air port

We easily caught a cab and finally arrived at the hotel.

westin hotel

The Westin Hotel is very nice, and we had a mini view of the bay, and beautiful flowers and palm trees surrounding the area.

Lobby of Westin Hotel

We were exhausted, but I wanted to get my conference registration completed, so I hiked the four blocks to the convention center, and then the miles through the vender hall.  Wow, all kinds of looms I had never seen before, and beautiful yarns that I would love to have had, but didn’t have room in my suitcase so had to for go.

We had a nice dinner, reassembled the loom that I brought with me, got everything unpacked and put away, and we were ready to face the next day.

Long Beach, Calif-2012

Finally our Trip Begins

We have been so excited about our trip this year, to Long Beach, California for my first weaving interaction with Convergence, and to meet up with my cousin, Joanne.  We didn’t want any delays in our trip so we promptly arrived at the Tallahassee Regional Airport about 2 hours early.

tallahassee regional airport

Unfortunately our incoming plane was about 15 minutes late, but we finally boarded.  Then we were told there would be a 45 minute delay, because bad weather in Atlanta had caused a backup for incoming flights.  An hour later we were about to leave, when a severe alert came in and grounded us.  Yes, the storm was close behind and soon the plane was rocking with wind gusts and rain was beating hard on the windows.  We sat through the storm for an hour and were then told we could leave but we would have to go out the runway to the west because the tail winds were too strong on the east side.  But as we started up the engines again, a surprise storm came & sat on the west side of the runway and we were again trapped in the midst of a storm.  Finally the weather cleared, and we took off for Atlanta several hours late.

airplane in rain

I have been very vocal about my dislike of plane trips from Tally to Atlanta, because the planes rattle and shake and it feels like the bolts aren’t tight and the plane may fall apart.  I think when we finally took off, our plane looked pretty much just like this one.

antique plane

Well,  we finally arrived in Atlanta, and were told we had grossly missed our connecting flight and could not get a flight out until morning.  This was not a good start to our wonderful trip

Alaska Bound 2011

Reflections of the trip

Alaska is probably the most beautiful place we have ever been. It is a natural beauty, sparkling with a full array of Gods creations that showcase a natural envirement of beauty in an unspoiled natural state. Alaska is a place everyone should experience. No one leaves Alaska thinking they have wasted time being there.

Airplanes are scary, but helicopters are fun.

The scary animals we encountered became our friends.

One should bundle twice as warm as we did if they are to walk on a glacier

. The cruise ship lines own Weight Watchers, so they overfeed us for a week so that we will be forced to go to weight watchers 7 days a week for the next year.

Travelers to Alaska should bring back a husky dog as their souvenier.

When it was time to leave the ship, we tried to hide so we could do another round to Alaska, but they caught us and made us debark.

Seattle is a wonderful city to visit. The weatherman lies, because we did see sunshine both days we were there. We love Seattle because we have a nephew and cousins there, and they are wonderful.

We plan to go home and rest for a week, and then we want to do the trip all over again. That is if we win the lottery. We really do have to go back, because we both left a part of our hearts in Alaska. This has been a most amazing journey and we are so greatful to have been able to make the adventure.

Alaska Bound 2011

Back in Seattle

We sailed through customs upon leaving the ship, and found our hotel, to spend our last day in the beautiful northwest.  I am so happy to report that during the entire trip, including the rough waters on the sea day coming back, I didn’t have any sign of sea sickness.  Thank you Brian, for encouraging me to get the patches. 

 After a little bit of rest, our handsome nephew, Todd, came to visit us at the hotel.

Todd is such a good guy.  He visited us for nearly 5 hours on a Friday night, without yawning one time.  He is such a pleasure to visit with, because he really enjoys the area where he lives and visits surrounding areas with a focus of the nature of the land.  We really enjoyed our time with him. 

Later that evening we had dinner with my cousing Nancy, her husband Phil, and Todd.  Nancy and Phil drove for several hours for the visit, and they can’t imagine what that meant to me.  I haven’t seen Nancy since I was a child, yet we were able to remember visits and situations from way back.  One of the highlights for me was sharing memories of our Grandma Gillette.  It was great to talk to someone who loved her like I did.  Her husband is delightful, and Phil and I share an appreciation of the enjoyment of watercolor. Todd indicated that he enjoyed hearing about his grandmother, my mother.  This was a very memorable visit with 3 people that I love. 

I think today in Seattle, was like the icing on the cake to this wonderful  trip.

Alaska Bound 2011

Beautiful Victoria

We have had to say goodbuy to beautiful Alaska, but have one last gem on our trip, called Victoria, BC.  It is a quaint little tourist town, and captal of BC, located on the coast.

There is a perfect way to travel through Victoria, so we did the perfect thing.

This city is filled with beautiful flowers, hanging baskets, and the name of the city is written with flowers near the harbor.

There is a beautiful, old, vine covered hotel in downtown Victoria, that our family stayed at when I was a child.  My brothers might remember our trip to Victoria.

And we headed back to the ship for our last night of the cruise.

Alaska Bound 2011

Sea Day

Super, we have 1 1/2 days at sea, so we can rest up from our Alaskan adventures.  There are many fun things to do.  First of all we have learned well, how to eat three times the needed amount of food.  We have practiced all week, and are pros.  So  we will be sure to do that during sea time.  We loved the comedian on board, and the arealists so will make sure we go to their entertainments.  We have the best naturalist in the world on board, and will still be able to learn about sea lions. and seals.  It is amazing to make this cruise with a balcony outside our suite.  Much of the time we can see beautiful mountain ranges from the balcony. 

We are finally safe, as I don’t think there are anymore dangerous animals around.

Alaska Bound 2011

Brrrrrrrrrr It’s Cold Outside

Oh my gosh,  Did I really agree to get on that helicopter?  Yes I did, and I’m going to do it.   OK,  those of you who know about my flying anxiety, please sit down.  They placed me in  the front seat of the helicopter, AND,  I loved the trip. 

 I actually enjoyed the travel over the mountain peaks by helicopter and it just helped to further my belief of how beautiful Alaska is. They prepped us with a video, vest, and galosses, and led us to the helicopter. 

 
We landed on this beautiful glacier, Meade, and walked around for a while, looking at the striations in the ice, as well as some very deep crevices.  I loved the beautiful clorations in the layers of ice, with blues, lavender, and white.  It was sooooooooo cold on the glacier. But it is an amazing experience to stand on that beautiful glaceir.

  But all good things come to an end, So we boarded the helicopter and took off for back, to the ship.

I hate to admit to being such a whimp about the cold, but once back in the cabin I covered up with a heavy blanket to warm up again.  We are relaxing/resting and will attend a comedian show before dinner.  

One last scary experience before we left Skagway.  We know that a Moose can be vicious, and definitely could have booted us to tim buck too.  But when we encountered one, we decided to treat it with kindness, and made a new moose friend.  See for yourself.

Alaska Bound 2011

Definitely for the Dogs

Here we go again.  Up before 6am.  and off we go.  We joined the musher group and took a bus up to the Musher camp.  This is a summer training center for the dogs.  Once at the Musher camp, we were loaded on a Mercedes 4 wheel vehicle that had ais a  canapy covered vehicle.  It seemed like they took us straight up the side of a  mountain, and also did a lot of winding.  Finally we arrived at the sledding place, and boarded the vehicle attached to the dogs.

  They are beautiful dogs, with high energy.  They jumped and yelped when they saw their individual drivers, because they love to run, and didn’t want to wait for us to fiddle around.  It was a little bit of a bumpy ride, but so much fun to participate in.  They had a couple of young dogs on our sled, who were learning to run with the harnes in, and in sync with the other dogs.  They were so funny, because they wanted to stop and explore frequently, as well as relieve themselves. They are friendly dogs, and loved to be petted.  Some of the adult dogs run in winter comptition and have taken many ribbons.  We got back on the una thing and went back to the camp where we had hot chocolate, learned more about the dogs, and got to play with the beautiful puppies.

 The puppy’s have already learned to love running, and are working the pupple wheel, (which operates like a hamster wheel,) It was so comical to watch the puppies jumping on the wheel and running as it turned.  A puppy would fall off, then jump back on, pushing another puppy off.

  The puppy that Michael & I both held was 20 days old. 

I have made arrangements to have 7 puppies shipped home, which is one for each member of the family.  I will deliver them to you soon after I get home. 

 This excursion is high on the list of our most fun adventures.