Wow! That was such a perfect holiday! The Oregon Coast is so relaxing. It was the best combination of sunshine, fog, sand, walking, shopping, reading, knitting, beading, eating, drinking...OK. Perhaps my spouse and I have an odd idea of what makes a holiday perfect. The above description sounds pretty normal but if I add details you'll see what I mean. The sunshine was only warm, not hot, and included a lot of rather cool wind as well. The sand was either hard and great for walking miles on or it was so soft you sank in up to your ankles every step. It also might be blown into your face, boots, ears, and down your neck. The fog was eerie. We walked on the hard sand at the edge of the waves in a cocoon highlighted by a barely-seen sun, prompting us to have some concern about finding the way back to camp since we couldn't see anything around us. It was like the rest of the world didn't exist — until a pair of riders on horses popped out of the mist. We also saw lots of wildlife: whales, seals, brown pelicans, 5 kinds of butterflies (on one single trail), and a very klutzy young eagle who fell off a branch almost right at our feet.
The shopping was such a big treat too. I went just a little nuts with the sheer volume of choices. It didn't help that two of the shops were the biggest of their kind! We started the first day out as we were heading through Washington State by stopping at 2 bead stores: Beads & Beyond (no website) in Bellevue and Shipwreck in Lacey (near Olympia). Why 2 stores you might ask? They carry different things of course. Even the amazingly huge warehouse that is Shipwreck doesn't have everything, not by a longshot. I even hit one more bead store on the way home: Wynwoods Gallery in Port Townsend, WA. It's tiny but very well-stocked with hard-to-find items. We also had a great time in Powell's Books in Portland, OR. This huge store (over time it took over a whole block of old shops) has a map available for newbies and all sections are colour-coded so you can find what you want. The craft section is really extensive. Not to leave yarns out of the mix, we stopped at the Wool Company in Bandon, OR, where I succumbed to 3 big balls of Meilenweit sock yarn, 1 print in deep colours and 2 different Mega Boots Stretch. The latter yarn is quite different having 1 strand of gradually varying fall colours, 2 slightly finer strands of one colour (one had black and one brown), and one tiny strand of Elite' (a stretchy thread not unlike fuzzy nylon). Another yarn shop I checked out is Diva Yarns conveniently located right in the same building as Wynwoods in Port Townsend. I found the really long cord for my Denise needle set there. Now I can knit Cat Bordhi's moebius scarves. Last but not least and especially for Thom, we went to Frantz Glass in Shelton, WA. This is a big supplier for lampworkers and the tables were turned on Thom as he tried to get what he wanted/needed without going too nuts! I'm afraid I wasn't too sympathetic after Shipwreck. Tee-hee.
There's more, but I'll post more later. For some reason I can't include any pictures at the moment, and I definitely have pictures!
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