Road Trip!! Part 4 - The final installment....

I have discovered Carmel, California. OH MY GOSH!! It was like walking through a fairytale storybook. I almost expected to see fairy godmother's flying through the air and the 7 dwarves to pass on the sidewalk. This pic is of the restaurant where we ate after the race. We ate out on this cute patio under an industrial strength space heater. There was a big fire going in the giant fireplace which is in the center of the patio. This city is full of perfectly manicured flowerbeds. This picture really doesn't capture how cute this place really was.

So, in order to transform 'girl's week' into a 'corporate retreat' (and write it off) I decided we needed to visit a couple of local craft shops. I did an internet search before we left and found a little place called 'Findings' and one called 'Knitting by the Sea'. Turns out they are, like, 6 blocks from each other in Carmel. Seriously, when it comes to finding things - I have a gift. Findings was super cute and had such fun ribbon and buttons and fabric and ribbon (Those of you who know me know that I have a ribbon fetish that fringes on 'illness'). Knitting by the sea was closed on Sunday. So we decided that we would leave a little later on Monday so we could check it out. So, you're probably thinking that we're crazy to head home 4 hours later than planned just to shop at some yarn store. Well, check out the novel about her 'store hours'. We were laughing SO hard when we read this. We wanted to see the store but we REALLY wanted to meet her!

Are you laughing so hard that you're crying?

Here's Carrie waiting for the doors to open Monday morning. This shop is SOOOOO cute. And Maurya is just as funny as we thought. If we lived there we could all be best friends. She has a fireplace in there - and orchids! I LOVE orchids. And her yarns were really cool. I got some dark red alpaca yarn. It was a little spendy but I figured that it's okay to splurge on something nice - if it's for me. No way am I using that stuff on something for kids to ruin.

So, anyway. It was a great weekend. Driving with no kids in the car, antique stores, yarn stores, ribbon stores, dinner at places our kids would HATE, races, sleeping in (except for race day).....that's what Girls Week is all about.

Here's a little eye candy :)

I don't know what this stuff is but I suspect - weed. It grows all over the place and it's so pretty. I wish our weeds were this nice. By the way, does anyone else notice the HUGE dandelion problem we're having this year? Come on people we ALL have to be part of the solution!!

This tree sits in a cute little park. It probably takes up half the park - this is the best climbing tree EVER. Once again, the pic doesn't do it justice.

These were growing outside Knitting by the Sea. Beautiful.