Category Archives: Travel

homeward Bound

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Deciding that not much was going to be gained by hanging out on the ship till the very last minute, we had breakfast, double checked the room, and disembarked before 0900.

If you ever need to find it – there is a good designated share location at Pier 2 which was well signed with multiple passenger waiting areas, and less than 100 meters from the terminal. We caught a Lyft to the airport and hung out. Found iced coffee and hung out some more. As soon as we could, we cleared agricultural controls and dropped off our bags. The main portion of the terminal is/isn’t located inside. 

Unlike on the way out, this flight was direct but was still going to get us in close to midnight. Five hours of flying time + three hours of time zone change ….. you get the idea. The good thing about a late Saturday arrival is that any activities scheduled for Sunday are personal choice and not driven by employment….

Na Pali Coastline

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Apparently what grows in many of the location is ferns (not the bushes and scrub that I expect from home)

 

and watching the low lying clouds kept me entertained this morning. I chose not to go anywhere with the ship heading out at 1330.

 

 

Reminiscent of Alaska cruises, where cruising the coast line for the scenery is an important part of the cruise, we sailed north along the Kauai coast upon leaving the port.

Being as how we were on the “wrong” side of the ship, I just ignored the whole thing till Dani, who was hanging out on the balcony mentioned that the ship was turning and she could now “see ” things. With the coastline changing from lower areas

 

 

To sharply justting rock formations where the layers of rock were often clearly visible.

We packed this evening and will be leaving the ship in the morning with a quiet day prior to our afternoon flight home. The three hour time change will not be working in our favor this time..

Dreaming Deer is as complete as I can stitch her, missing two colors of floss –

and started the new Barbara Ana Mystery SAL called Bonkers….

Kaua’i

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We sailed into harbor early enough this morning that there wasn’t much activity from either passengers on ship or those on land.

I love the colors reflected in the water and the play of cloud shadows on this small bit of island we passed on the way in.

I didn’t do much today, went off the ship, hiked part way to town – that is until I hit the first section that was without sidewalks. Yes, there were a lot of offers of taxis….but I was just looking to walk. 

Dani was out on a hike –

and captured this shot of what was referred to as the only bear on the island. Personally, I thought the tree ate a dog which is still trying to escape.

I am about 3/4ths complete on the Deer Dreams. (Barbara Ana) which I started on Tues…

 

 

It is another overnight, then sail toward Honolulu tomorrow afternoon. 

(A side note – where we are docked is about 3 miles from Lihue – and the airport where we changed planes on the way in….go figure 

 

 

 

 

tenders

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(not chicken or fish, but the use of a ship’s lifeboats to ferry passengers to/from shore at a port where there is either no good dock or a shallow bay).

I really don’t like tendering. It isn’t that I dislike the lifeboats per se. It is more than now, even more than over the last decade, that I don’t appreciate being crammed in with a bunch of strangers. Even when there is a nice, stiff breeze blowing through. The trip in this morning to Kailua-Kona was actually fairly smooth, all things considered. Much better, in fact, than the last time I was here. 

Dani and I walked through a portion of the town, then up the hill to Kona Coffee & Tea where we met Aubrey

≈

she belongs to the owner of the coffee shop. Just over a year old, she was more than pleased to have someone adore her. 

Post coffee and mint tea, both iced thank you very much, we walked back down the hill and through a number of shops which featured just about what you would expect of tourist goods. In the main ones, nothing was locally made. Dani noted signs to the local quilt shop which we found in a local center not off a main road. 

There were patterns, fabrics, kits…. and for the non quilters – this apparently is also the local knitting shop

with a great selection of yarns, patterns, and notions. We actually spent a fair amount of time looking around. There was a quilt pattern that I really liked, but they were out of stock of both pattern and kits. I picked up two skeins of floss from the DMC carousel, a skirt pattern and was sorely tempted by a different quilt pattern as well. 

After more wandering around – I headed back to the ship =

and enjoyed a quiet afternoon in the air conditioning. To quote the usual – it isn’t the heat, it is the humidity….

The last tender is due back right about now, then I think we are sailing out around 1800… We are using one of my two specialty restaurant vouchers tonight….

 

Showers and Sunblock

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Before I forget, it can rain during the day. Not cold and blustery mind you, but at least here on Hilo, showers in the morning aren’t uncommon. So (fill in your name in addition to Marise, Mike, Graeme, Jill, etc) you might want to bring along an umbrella, poncho, or lightweight rain jacket if you plan on being out and about.  The original plan for today – me hanging out and Dani on a hike and volcano sightseeing  ran into a challenge yesterday. The tour guide had a vehicle breakdown and couldn’t locate an alternative. Result was that her trip was cancelled and we really didn’t see a good alternative.

So hiking into town it was. And off we went with the intermittent showers spotting my glasses, adding weight to our clothing, and squeaks to my sandals. If I had had any sense – I would have talked to the operator of the Hoppa-On, Hoppa-Off van that was hanging out in front of the terminal. In fact, it is the first thing I have seen that even remotely resembles the Hop-On, Hop-Off double deckers that seem to populate all major European  Cities as well as tourist locations in the US (NYC, SF, etc). 

As routes go, we exited the port and hung a left at the first street which ran all the way into Hilo. It was almost 3 miles into town (counting all the zigs and zags to stay with the sidewalks). Again, pedestrian crosswalks and signals at all the major intersections. 

We found a fun little coffee shop – The Palace Grounds which opened less than a month ago at the former Axe Lounge after having to move from its previous location. Excellent coffee, chai, and a public restroom. From there it was out and about town, The “Farmer’s Market” looked to be more like a flea market and we skipped it.  Of note in town – there is an excellent used book store called Bookbuyers, candy, toys, souvenirs.

 

Also of note is the Hilo Discovery Center located in an amazing historical building.  

It just reopened in June. Upstairs an amazing art exhibit of what can be done with recycled trash. 

There were also sections on the marine life from the area –

and the unmanned ocean monitoring systems –

Dani stayed in Hilo longer than I did, following signs about sugar cane juice and met Ziggy. 

I walked back

noting ducks 

canoes that hold 5-6 

thinking about living somewhere with a high risk of tsunamis, volcanos, and the damage that can accompany both natural and man made disasters. 

 

Chickens

Holly Doyne Posted on by

It is probably well known by anyone who has come through most of the Hawaiian Islands that there seems to be an abundance of feral chickens. Yes, you read that correctly – there are chickens just about everywhere….

(taken by Dani yesterday)

This is our second day on Maui with nothing major planned. Dani and I just decided to head out and walk a bit.  Stopped at the local drug store (Langs? Longs? Owned by CVS in anywise) for ibuprofen and extra sunblock before exploring further.  We found a Mall – so coffee/tea – and iced in both cases, before continuing down the main road past the University of Hawaii – Maui branch. My goal was mostly exercise with a side order of quilt shop. This particular shop is a bit over 2 miles from the ship along a main road that actually had a sidewalk and walk signals at all the main intersections.

As one of those noticing things in the environment

these remind me of home where the warning is “drains into the Bay).

On the way back we stopped again at that particular shopping center. Dani located a “Friends of the Library” book store while I wandered into the local sewing shop to find that it was really quilting/fabrics/notions etc. The same shopping center was also home to a Ben Franklin Craft store.  Yes, you read that correctly. I hadn’t been aware that anything survived from that particular chain.

With a total of almost 7 miles passing beneath our feet, we headed back to the ship –

I finished all but 45 stitches on Chapter 3 of the Haunted Library (two additional colors not with me) which turned out from last night and this afternoon to be about 1600 stitches to complete the arches…

Pride of America

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which is the only ship NCL has flagged in the US.

 

This is our route & times

 

Saturday September 10.      Honolulu, Oahu, HI  departing 7:00pm

Sunday, September 11. Kahului, Maui, HI.        8:00am arrival
Monday, September 12. Kahului, Maui, HI    6:00pm departure

Tuesday, September 13 Hilo, Hawaii, HI.   8:00am-6:00pm

Wednesday, September 14 Kona, Hawaii HI.  7:00am-5:30pm

Thursday, September 15 Nawiliwili, Kauai, HI. 8:00am arrival
Friday, September 16.   Nawiliwili Kauai, HI. 2:00pm departure

Saturday, September 17 Honolulu, Oahu, HI.   7:00am

We have a simple, clean and relatively comfortable balcony cabin on Deck 8.

Right now the view is only that of Pier2 Cruise Terminal which is completely boring.  Of course, there are clouds, a mountain or so, and shiny high rise buildings downtown.

 

I am contemplating a nap since I woke up fairly early. On PDT, not local Hawaiian time…

New Cruise new start (hey, there had to be some fiber somewhere in the post)

September Quaker  by From the Heart NeedleArt – 16 ct PTP Legacy Aida and the three called for specialty flosses….

That is a lot of water

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Home to BART (via Peet’s for an early morning caffeine fix) to Coliseum station to monorail to OAKLAND Airport.

(break – rewriting what was obviously lost on a failure to save before an unexpected re-boot)

And we were through security and hanging out near the gate by 0730. Thanks to both George who got us to BART and the lovely woman at the check-in counter who suggested that since we were flying out of Gate 6, it would be smarter and faster just to go through security in Terminal 1. And she was certainly right. There are moreates to Terminal 2 and almost all of the Southwest Airline flights go out of Terminal 2. Also, since they are the largest airline at this particular airport, security for that terminal can be a real pain. 

And why Oakland? 1) faster to get there on BART 2) cheaper flight + free checked luggage. Leaving aside the whole mess with Booking.com – their failure to properly rebook flights, transfer funds, etc – I would just rather not have to travel across the bay if it can be avoided.  Europe or Asia? Ok that makes sense. But Hawaii? Southwest Airlines offered a good choice of price, times, and flights.

But back to the water – from Oakland you fly west and a bit south. The Pacific Ocean counts as large. There is a lot of water. And clouds, so most of the time you can’t see much of anything. In fact the only time it was clear that something else was out there –

 was on the hazy approach to Lihue Airport where we had a plane change. 

Some times I am completely in awe of all the Pacific Islanders who spread across the Ocean, found and settled on all those scattered islands….

Coming into Oahu 

it was more of the clouds, water and steeply rising land. 

We caught a Lyft to our hotel. Entertainment while we were waiting was this little character –

who was a lot smaller than most of the flying rats that hang out in my area. His body wasn’t even 10 cm long. But more than willing to peck up a smashed pretzel with that sharp little beak.

 

 

Too many projects

Holly Doyne Posted on by

and likely nowhere near enough time in which to complete them all. , After all, I am only packing for a week, not a month, year, or the rest of my natural life.  Two projects make sense – they have weekly releases on Fridays so bringing them along means that I may not fall too badly behind. Another is one of those “new cruise, new start” type ideas.

Oh, that is right – I forgot to mention it. Dani and I leave tomorrow for Hawaii for a week on NCL’s Pride of America. This is a reschedule of a reschedule: our original planned cruise was on the NCL Jewel as she repositioned from Hawaii to Seattle in April 2020. Obviously that didn’t happen. Our next attempt was this past January to just go around the islands. Cancelled a month out in Dec.  So three times is the charm? We are flying Southwest Airlines both ways. A plan change on an additional island seemed like a small inconvenience when balanced against free suitcase and flying out of Oakland.

Anyway, I am planning on relaxing on the balcony and otherwise finishing up the last hours of CME that I need for renewing my license. Oh, and stitching. Also in my plans.  I have signed Dani up for hikes on three islands so hopefully she will see waterfalls, volcano basins and other sites while avoiding injury or sunburn.

The next week might proved to be a bit more interesting than the last five weeks (which I haven’t bothered to send out most days). And pictures, hopefully those will upload decently. I am also desperately hoping that most under 16s are back in school….

otherwise – laundry, a bit of organizing and ~780 stitches more into StitchyWitch (Tiny Modernist)

 

 

Virtual Cons

Holly Doyne Posted on by

ChiCon 8 starts today ( or mostly tomorrow).

Obviously, it is in Chicago. What is just as obvious is that I am not there. Attending in person this year felt like it was insurmountable. I attend Cons for the people and actually spend more time volunteering than actually going to panels, presentations, readings, or programing. I just couldn’t see spending the money at this point considering that I elected to attend cross-stitch retreats this summer and am headed on ship this fall (more about that later next month).

The platform ChiCon is using is called Airmeet and from my early interaction with it today – it actually works. Some of the programing is live, some panels are runniZng virtually. All the panels, as well as the readings by authors apparently are going to be recorded and available for replay.

The filk room, unfortunately, is not on the list. I can understand – it takes a lot of tech support and that issn’t something that most Cons have at the needed level. Not when it is a non-commercial Con.

In other hobbies:

I finished the following cross-stitches this month – Haunted Library prequel & Chapter 1 (Lola Crow’s SAL), Virgo, Libra & Scorpio (Zodiac Girls), Zombie, Jinn & Angel (WitchyStitchers Supernatural SAL), Sailing Dreams (Barbara Ana), and LongDog – Entré Chien et Loup.

Oh – yes – and Cottage Garden Samplings Barn Owl – found that last color hiding from me and finished those last 87 stitches.

rather productive month.

Did some cleaning – still have project bags and scroll rod covers to complete.

No good deed

Holly Doyne Posted on by

ever goes unpunished.

An early quiet morning of packing and stitching followed by a Lyft ride to Kansas City Airport. Again, I am flying Southwest on a direct flight which is the only positive thing I can think about when dealing with this particular airport. Terminal B. Ok, been here, been confused here before.  Dropping bags, getting through security was followed by waiting.

With a fairly early number in the Southwest line-up I easily found a seat partway back in the plane and parked my backpack in the overhead before dropping into a window seat. Turned on the audiobook and proceeded to ignore everyone and everything.  And just before the gate closed, a mom and her four year old got on the plane. Their connecting flight had been late. All that was open on the plane was the random middle seat. Having faced those type of challenges when my kids were young, and my row still had the middle seat open, I offered to move. No way I am thinking a small child needs to be seated separately from their parent on a 3+ hour flight.

Now, I don’t think this is anything kind – self-protection perhaps. But I guess that all the other people who were studiously avoiding eye contact with the mom or with the cabin attendant didn’t think the same.

So there I was, moving toward the back of the plane into terror child territory. I picked the remaining seat in a child free row and spent the flight internally cursing the oblivious dad in the row in front of me. Why? He is sitting in the outside seat watching a movie on his iPad while the two blond demons ages ~ 3 & 4 are trying to kill each other. Crying baby in the row behind, another one in across the aisle. And me with my headphones in my backpack.

I survived. Barely.

Baggage claim to the monorail to BART to NB where George picked me up.

It is good to sleep in my own bed.

BNS – Final Camp Day

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It was the shortest of times. Not the best, not the worst. About ½ the campers pulled pitch early this morning as they were facing long drives home. The rest of us, figuring three hours of stitching is better than no hours of stitching showed up on time and helped police up the room.

Effectively then, the high points of my day became walking over to BassPro Outdoors World where I found a nice shirt and pair of sandals on sale. Listening to an audiobook, and talking on FaceTime with Jill (who is in Australia). Oh, obviously stitching was part of the last. Packing is not a high point. 

After fussing and picking out stitches, I finally started on the lower portion of this particular piece…

tomorrow is a fairly leisurely day – breakfast, airport, hang out and then fly home…

 

BNS – Camp Day 3

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Why are there games and challenges you ask? Because this is Summer Camp!

Ok, I did an attitude readjustment on myself yesterday evening and decided that watching was fun and not participating in some of the insanity was completely my choice. The lovely woman from Quebec who sits next to me and I have decided that we are observers and otherwise stitchers. When the room gets too loud, we take a break.

There are some amazingly talented people in the group and I am making the table rounds a couple of times a day to see what projects are being stitched. There was also a beginning knitting impromptu class being run. Two had decided that they wanted to knit socks. It was quietly suggested that starting with a washcloth or two might let be a better introduction. There was the snail hunt (don’t ask), prize drawings, the charity raffle, and a fair amount of noise.

I headed for my room about 2100 for a bit of quiet. There are no children running in the halls here, nor are there drunks partying after midnight – so definitely an improvement over the last retreat hotel…

I managed to complete more of one stairway in the Haunted Library SAL

With the first of four skulls plus the cat skeleton. Sunday will see this side finished and the second staircase side I think I will manage during the week.  Then I will be caught up till 2 Sept.

I am making steady but careful progress up the tail on the Owl. I am missing one color, as it was backordered when the pattern was shipped. That is ok, there are 6500 other stitches to complete…..

BNS-2, Independence, MO

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Day 2 of the stitching “camp.”

I am thinking that I just might be a bit old for summer camp. Not too old for stitching, not too old to enjoy chatting with other stitchers, not too old to appreciate seeing other people’s projects. But I am too old for “games.” But then, I think I hated such games even when I was a kid.

I don’t remember going to camp more than once in the “below” ten age group. I can vaguely remember absolutely hating the experience so my current attitude might just be a reflection of that long ago and absolutely best forgotten experience. Given the age range here – which is lending itself much more to parent of small to medium age child – I can understand why there just might be an appeal. But I am an older grump and am not going to:

  1. participate in a scavenger hunt that mostly consisted of grabbing selfies all over the place
  2. dig through my stitching stuff to grab a particular item before standing up and waving it. Especially cash – Who carries cash anyway?
  3. go outside in 37*C heat to make S’mores?
  4. hang out for a group photo?

 

You get the idea.

I came to meet a few people, see what others are stitching, stitch. relax. (I would add avoid cooking, cleaning, laundry but honestly, I don’t do much of that at home anyway.)  I wandered through the vendor room and bought little. And stitching…

Made progress on the Haunted Library SAL

the fifth monster, the Zombie dropped in the Supernatural SAL. Now all I have to do is finish up the black on the body and find a small strand of the three new colors which, of course, I don’t have with me…

and I put my usual one strand into Leo. Not bothering with a picture since I don’t think anyone could see the minuscule change.

 

 

BNS – Day 1

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Sponsored by the BlackNeedleSociety (no clue from whence came the name) this stitching retreat was scheduled for late April 2020. And we all know what happened to everything planned that month and for months and months afterwards. I don’t think the owners of this particular company even made any attempt to reschedule for last year, choosing instead to wait for this year, better news, or at least a chance to not be cancelled at the last minute.

So here I am in the middle of nowhere – officially we are in Independence, MO but this is one of those hotel/conference center complexes just far enough away from anything to be able to sell the lovely grounds and view of the local lake. Pond really from my point of view, but then I get to see SF Bay and the Pacific Ocean every day from my living room window.

Silly me, when I went down early in the morning to see where we would be, I found the room open, set up and empty. I failed to take a picture. When I came back later – door safely closed, I never got the opportunity.

None of my table mates are locals – one is from Quebec, one from Ohio, and two from Iowa. More than that – I really can’t offer. The organizers are lovely, the group is quite a bit younger than either of the other two retreats. Having said all of that, it is probably not one that I would do again.  Reasons are both simple and complex. The venue is good, the people are good. I am not much for organized activities. My fault for not expecting games, but then I am not on Facebook so didn’t have too much warning. Today’s games were related to “how many things on this list do you have in your bag.” The winner? 32. Me – about 5. I don’t bring printed patterns and I leave everything nonessential in the room. Two pairs of scissors? Why? 10 needles? why? Thread conditioner? Why when I don’t need it for this piece.

See, neither of us care much about that sort of thing. Tomorrow is a scavenger hunt. It will be a balance between my irritation and not trashing the fun of the others at my table…..

not in Kansas

Holly Doyne Posted on by

There can be a huge confusion when it comes to flying into Kansas City Airport. One has to disassociate the name of the city (and airport) with the state names. After all, Kansas City lies partly in Kansas and the rest is in Missouri. The airport is also in Missouri, But then I shouldn’t be surprised – the Cincinnati (Ohio) Airport is actually across the Kentucky state line.

Getting to the airport was easy on BART. Navigating the airport was also easy. Security now has the new fancy scanners on most lanes so that you don’t have to take stuff out of your luggage, backpacks, and cases. The airport itself was the usual crowded place. PowerPoints at the desks and tables were all non-functional near my gate. But, unlike many airports, the frequent outlets along most corridors were functional resulting in my being charged up and ready to go.

MCI (airport) has an extremely weird setup. Once you exit the plane, it is hard to figure out the escape route from your section of the terminal. But, unlike other airports, the baggage claim for your flight is immediately outside those doors. I am thinking that this makes it easier for baggage handlers and results in much less lost/unclaimed luggage. The downside is that I saw neither airline personnel nor baggage handlers anywhere in the area. What happens to unclaimed luggage?

Lyft/Über is the only way to get to my hotel – discounting taxis and car rentals.

I checked in and crashed.

Total stitching for the day was on Leo. Not bothering you with a picture since a center column or outside border are boring….

but the room?

all-in-one-piece shower

and a good size room overlooking the lake

Oops

Holly Doyne Posted on by

My plans for this coming weekend are fairly simple; travel, hangout, come home.

So, about 2100 I decided to check the Southwest App on my phone to verify my Thursday departure/Monday return.  Staring at the screen didn’t make the facts change. My flight reservation was there. Clearly listed with a departure on 3 August. Now, according to my limited ability to read a calendar, 3 Aug, my friends, is tomorrow not Thursday. At least my flight is a reasonable 1100, not 0dark30.

Pulling up my email, I verified that my hotel reservation also started on 3 August. It did. Since I had the information, I called the hotel to verify that there were limited ways to get there; rental car, taxi, or ride share. 

Obviously hit by a sudden attack of packing, I have laundry to do…. and it explains why, in the back of my head, I was sure I was going to miss a standing webinar from the CDC at 1100 my time the first Wednesday of the month..

late to arrive, early to rise

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You would think that after landing close to 0130 in the morning at SFO. Having the “exciting” challenge of finding my suitcase and getting home after 0200 I would have crashed till midmorning. Oh, not so.

But first – EWR. We finally took off shortly before 2300 I believe. The flight was quiet and not as uncomfortable as it could have been. It doesn’t help that there was only one jetway. So all of us seated in cattlecar in the rear had the opportunity to see 1st class, business class, premium economy, and mid-range seating before finding our seats. The new 777 also has more headroom which is accomplished by smaller overhead bins.  (Queue unhappy people with wheeled cases greater than 19″).  I will say I prefer SW’s boarding process. It is much much faster and the isles are wider. I don’t know how anyone with either a mobility challenge or a significant number of excess weight manages to get to their seat.

On landing, I was greeted with a txt that said my suitcase arrived on an earlier flight. The baggage claim area was a mess. At least a dozen areas roped off packed with luggage. Three poor clerks attempting to help people locate luggage. No signs on any of the areas indicating origin of the luggage. The upset passengers performing for everyone wasn’t helping the line move. I left George in the line and went on a scavenger hunt. Finally locating my lonely little bag three areas past the service counter, I attempted to check out with one of the baggage attendants; no dice, the four of them were so busy complaining to each other they couldn’t be bothered.

I could have loaded up a luggage cart with all sorts of interesting bags and just left. Some security. I just wheeled back to George, we headed to the car and home. So why, I wonder, was I up at 0700 (PDT)?

Anyway, I spent the day upstairs in my craft room away from everyone. I am staying quarantined for at least a couple of days. Unlike my previous experience, no one here was ill, but I still don’t want to take any chance. A couple of nights sleeping upstairs aren’t going to hurt me any.

I managed a lot of stitches into Leo (the Seventh Zodiac girl). Other than backstitch, beads and a few random stitches, I have only the top of the “frame” to complete.

Tues-Thurs are going to be a lot of errand running. I am hoping to finish the Bear as well. .

 

Last flights out

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or to arrive  as the case might be. In either case, you leave the airport late and arrive even later when you count the time YOU have spent and the wear and tear on your body. Of course, when flying East to West this can be much more easily accomplished than the other way around as the clock time can be significantly less than the travel time.

Trust me – do not go down the road of “it is really….” because it isn’t. The time where you currently are sitting, standing, or sleeping IS the correct time. Even when your body, phone, or computer doesn’t agree.

Anyway – Lyft back to Newark was easy. Checking a bag was easy. Finding out where to print my boarding pass was a bit more challenging as was security. EWR doesn’t have the new machines so it is back to taking everything out of bags that is electronic. Queue in all those who can’t manage to empty pockets or can’t figure out that the leather thing around their waist with a large buckle is actually a belt…

What I also found interesting is that this particular airport, and maybe it is true for  other US airports, doesn’t care about your actual flight departure. The good and the bad? There is even more opportunity for the airline to send your luggage on a different flight than you. I am not completely sure that this particular practice meets common sense for security precautions. Are you more likely to check nasty shit if you know that it will be traveling on a plane other than yours?

I checked earlier flights – they were booked solid. The standby list was too long to bother. So imagine me bored, sitting in the airport under a huge A/C blower with a mask on. I am wearing my jeans jacket. It is too cold for almost anyone to sit in the area.

We will not talk about flight delays. At least we took our scheduled plane, even if there were arrival delays, delays due to thunderstorms on the outbound flight path, and, finally, cleaning delays. The new 777’s are not small planes. It takes a dozen people an hour to clean the thing.

At least it looks like our flight crew will still be able to get us to SFO and the flight will go out tonight. Not so for the Salt Lake City passengers. Mechanical issue, plane swap. Smaller plane. 40+ people bumped… and it was obviously the last flight of the night…

Pizza Party!

Holly Doyne Posted on by

In case it wasn’t clear, this is a cross-stitch repeat. No trains, boats, or ships involved. I would say no planes, but that would be stupid since it is obvious that I flew out here and will be flying back on Monday. The idea is actually fairly simple; get a bunch of people together who have a love of a particular craft together. This particular retreat isn’t put on or sponsored by a needlework shop or professional organization. Instead, it is the work of a particularly dedicated needleworker & designer. Lot of work for the love of the craft. About ½ of the attendees live within reasonable local driving distance and are commuting daily. There are a number of others who drove from various locations on the east coast or south of here.  The maybe 1/4 remaining are from scattered location; two of us from California, one from Vancouver, one from Hamilton (Ontario), another Canadian, a woman from the Netherlands and one from Sydney (AU). I would have to look at the list to add in some of the other locations.

I am sitting at a table near the door. There might be more traffic in an out than I would choose, but the air circulation is great. Three of us are firmly and carefully masked. The other five at the table? Not so much – a three family generation group of stitchers who joined the first of us early this morning. This adds the oldest (82) and the youngest (14) stitchers to the mix.

Enough said on that.

This bear is still nowhere near complete:

I should be able to finish him today – which will just leave the cottage and all of the cattails.

The fourth “thing” dropped on the WitchyStitcher’s Supernatural SAL. I got as far as I could with the treads I had with me. This leaves about 150 stitches to complete once I get home.

My last project of the day is a present. I decided that this was as good a weekend as any to finally finish it (last picked up in March of 2020).Of course, the fiddly bits are left. I am planning on taking photos of some of the items on the brag table in the morning..

But I have saved the most important part to the end. Tonight’s Pizza party was an included activity. There were four choices of pizza, there was salads, cookies, and canned drinks. The three of us decided that “smart” meant we ate in the lobby. We also packed it in about 2000. Others I am sure stayed till 2200….