…come for the weekend.

I know Kathleen and Kasi through my sister, Sally.  They are both full of fun and crafty gals–and neither had ever been to Long Beach!  So, we’d been planning a weekend to get them here.

Kasi had a list of what she wanted to do on the weekend:

Tour a cranberry bog
Visit the beach
Meet Monica
Meditate in that fabulous craft space
Meet Poppy (now Lola)
Tour the little Swedish cabin
Sleep in
Stay up late
Drink wine
Eat yummy fun food at fun yummy restaurants
Shop all/any cute little stores in downtown Long Beach

I tried to accommodate them.  They arrived late Friday afternoon, and we started with a tour of the Swedish Log Cabin.

It’s mostly been winterized for the season, but they still had fun looking around.

I hope they appreciated that I was out in the pouring rain picking the last of my flowers for them!

Sally is more handy to have around than a Girl Scout (well, in our case, a Campfire Girl).  She brought her professional martini shaker.

So before we went out for dinner, we enjoyed lemon drops!

Then we were off to Jimella’s for a fine dinner!

We stayed up late, as promised, and looked at Sally’s photo albums and Kasi’s latest quilt–a work in progress for a friend’s new baby.

Saturday morning we slept in a little bit, but not so late we didn’t have time to eat.

We had a quick breakfast of pecan sticky buns…

….and fresh fruit.

Then it was off to see cranberry harvest!

Kasi and Kathleen went to walk on the beach while Sally and I came back here to get ready for high tea.

They loved seeing Sid Snyder Drive, the street named for my dad.

My mom joined us.  Our first course was Tomato Blue Cheese Soup for sipping.

That was followed by our sandwich plate–egg salad, tuna and cucumber/cream cheese sandwiches; carrot crudite and a currant scone.

And for dessert, a buche de noel.  I know, it’s not Christmas–so we decided it was a buche de autumn.  I made the mushrooms from almond paste.

While I did dishes, the others went to see my parents’ house….

… and the family grocery store, Sid’s Market (a highlight on any tour of the area!).

From there is was downtown Long Beach for some shopping.

Anna Lena’s Quilt Shop may be gone, but the fudge lives on–at Scrapuccino.

Then it was a trip to Astoria (and a lesson in Lewis and Clark).

But, the real reason for our trip was a visit to Monica and a chance to see her studio.  Ever the generous hostess, she had made Itty Bitty Poochie Bags for us–and filled them with m&m’s!

After filling our senses with all things good and wonderful, we were off to dinner at the Bridgewater Bistro.

Why, are those more lemon drops?

Our food was delicious–and we topped it off with tiny desserts.

Good food, good friends.  Does it get any better than that?

Then it was back here for a late night of show-and-tell from my vintage linen stash and some 1930′s quilts.

To be continued…….