Tales from the Trip

Presented here are the rest of the pictures from my wonderful trip to Bainbridge Island. Everything was in bloom and gorgeous!
See....here is a picture of gorgeous Noreen and blooming flowers!
On every trip to my Dad's we make an excursion to this nursery, which is the best one I have ever seen in the world! Bainbridge Gardens is the name....it is a must visit if you get to the island! We bought these flowers for Mary's birthday! Rununculas! (that is the name of the flower, and not some weird exclamation!)
These looked like Fall leaves in a planter. I am not sure what they were, but they were so cool!
This photo is of a truck in the parking lot at the nursery, I was fancying myself as a bit of an artistic photographer on this one!
Here are the best buddies at Bainbridge Gardens!
Here we are at Cafe Nola in Bainbridge. We were celebrating Mary's birthday. We thought we ordered one piece of cake to split, except we all ended up getting the richest chocolate cake known to mankind and boy, were we stuffed!
Best buddies eating cake.

One of the highlights was a walk through the Great Forest. (Nan, click on this link for some answers to your question about the island!) It is close to my Dad and Mary's house and just beautiful.
Noreen and I got stuck in a tree!
Okay, there is this neighborhood of new houses near my Dad's. It has the coolest looking houses, and everytime we are there (well, twice now), Noreen and I drive around and pick out which house we want. I would like all my family and friends to live in this subdivision! This would be Noreen's house. Mine would be next door.
On Wednesday of my visit I had the great good fortune to spend the day with Carolyn!!! She is a great friend whom I know because she is one of my Mom's best friends! I drove to Bremerton to meet Carolyn. We had such a great good long visit. First stop was one of the best stamp stores in the country! The Embossible Dream in Bremerton. Please go if you are in that city. We had our picture taken in front of the wall of stamps! We also went to several antique shops, had lunch at the very cool restaurant, The Boat Shack (best clam chowder ever!), and then had a lengthy visit over Starbucks and molasses cookies!!! Great fun!
On April 20th it was my Dad's birthday!! This is he and Mary at Point No Point where we visited after breakfast in Port Ludlow. As you can tell, it was totally gorgeous and scenic there! We had a ton of fun that day, and then had a really great dinner at a sophisticated, but fun, restaurant back in town. The Four Swallows.
Everything was in bloom!!!!
Whenever Noreen and I get together on vacation, shopping ensues! It seems like every gathering has a shopping theme, past themes being sunglasses, books, antiques, and purses. The theme this time was shoes!!!!! I got two pairs. This pair for fun and kicking around....They are Privos by Clarks. So comfortable!
This is a pair of Dansko clogs. Believe it or not, I have looked at these shoes for three years! Everytime I go to my Dad's I say I am going to get them, well this time I did.

Also, Noreen and I are now on a hunt for some really cool Spanish shoes! We found them in a shop, but they did not have our size! I was really trying for a hat trick (hockey reference made especially for Diane Duda!) on shoe buying, but no luck. They are made by El Naturalista and they are red! I will have them soon though because I am on a mission!
On my last full day in Bainbridge, my Dad and I ran around and hung out. Here we are on his sailboat, Widgeon!!! It is so gorgeous! My Dad loves to sail and when not sailing, he is very good at making improvements on his boat.
Here is my Dad at one of his favorite places!!
Here is the marina and you can see Seattle in the background.
Here is another instance of me playing professional photographer! My favorite flowers are tulips!
One of the most fun things we did was look at old slides. I have poured through family pictures over the years and have seen each one multiple times, but these slides I had never seen!!! So it was truely like looking through time. We are getting everything organized for a big viewing of them later this year.
Okay, I know no one else can tell what this is, but I had to put it on my blog for my Mom. This is a slide of me going home from the hospital. I am the baby in the middle that the unknown nurse is holding. On either side of her are my Mom and my Grandma Bates!!!! My Mom looks a bit nervous in this picture! She is saying in her head to her mother, Don't go home until Laura is a one-year-old!!!"
This is the view from my Dad's reading chair. It looks like Japanese wood cutting to me. So gorgeous!!

So, now I have been home for a week. I am starting to get back into the swing of my daily routine, although it has been hard. I am back to work and that is good. I really like my new job. Jane and I have already been on a toot too!!! Mike and I spent the day together yesterday shopping and visiting his parents. Today I hope to get some stamping done and then later this evening I will have the great good fortune to meet Anjali from Lotus Reads!!!! She is in town for a book conference and we are going to be able to squeeze in a quick get together. I am thrilled to meet her as I love her blog and she seems like such a warm and generous person!!! Also, this week I am excited because a new book is coming out by my favorite author, Elizabeth Berg. I am hoping to attend one of her readings at a local bookstore this week.

I love to travel and I already miss Bainbridge Island. I hope to go back soon. In the meantime, it is great to be home with Mike, Buddy, and Pal. We sure have a great life together!