After all the excitement of my day spent traveling I slept very well. My alarm woke me up so I could get myself in order for the Santa Rosa Quilt Guild’s meeting on Thursday morning.
They meet at ten so I had plenty of time!
Once I get my stuff set out I always like to take a wander to see what’s going on before the business starts.
After saying hello to the ladies of the front row (VIPeople to know!!) I found all sorts of happenings. There was fabric for sale on this table…
Assorted clutter in a silent auction here…
Books and magazines for sale at yet another table…
(Did you spot my Lone Star quilt hanging at the front?)
These are the library ladies. They were very busy.
No sooner did I stop to say hello than I was whisked away to see the library closet… It’s a whole room of books and archived magazines and rulers and stencils… Over 3000 items on offer! Wow!
And then it was time to get started for proper. I took this picture before I began … while everyone was still awake.
Actually, it’s so different giving a lecture in the morning while everyone is still wide awake and the effects of their morning cup of coffee haven’t worn off. It was a large crowd and they laughed well. I’m not sure that everyone could hear every word but they laughed anyway. A very polite crowd…
Show and tell followed with quilts from a class taken with Mark Lipinski in May.
Everyone got a chance to get up close and personal with my quilts before I folded them away.
We had a pot luck lunch, I sold a few DVDs (!), there was a member demo and it was packing up time. Laurie (red shirt on the front row) was assigned the task of looking after the speaker and we headed out together.
I wanted to see the sea. The Californians refer to it as the ocean but it will always be the seaside to me. After driving under beautiful blue skies we arrived at Bodega Bay where we encountered the particular phenomenon of the micro climates of the Pacific coast – a marine layer… it was foggy! Dare I say it reminded me of a trip to the beach in England?
It sounded like the sea (complete with fog horn) and smelt like the sea and a few brave soles were flying kites. We took a little stroll that turned into a two mile hike. So much for sedentary quilt teachers!
Next we decided to head south to Point Reyes where there are elephant seals.
We went back in to the sunshine, I took today’s featured image just north of Inverness on Tomales Bay (note blue sky!) and then after a windy one lane road we arrived back in the clouds at Point Reyes. The “rocks” on the beach are the seals. They occasionally moved and flapped some sand over themselves…
And a view in the other direction.
The clouds didn’t take away from the sheer vastness of the Pacific Ocean and certainly seemed to be keeping the crowds away so we were able to enjoy being outside with nature in a way that wouldn’t have been possible surrounded by hordes of day trippers!
We drove back along the San Andreas fault, (I’m not sure Laurie was as fascinated by that as I was… ) and stopped for a wonderful, locally sourced dinner at Saltwater in Inverness.
The sun was beginning to go down by the time we finished eating.
I thought I might need a nap on the way back to Santa Rosa but there was way too much to see. What is the point of traveling if you don’t enjoy the journey?
It was a very good day. Thanks Laurie for driving over 150 miles keeping the speaker happy…
