Travel

I took a little trippy-trip a week ago and I haven’t had time to even post about it! It’s a sad state of affairs here in ThimbleannaLand.

TheFirstChild had a conference in Seattle and he invited me along to play during the day with SweetiePie (AND FinallyAGirl!) We had lots of fun, in spite of rain every day. It is Seattle, after all.  ;-)

We did some of the touristy stuff. We visited Pike Place Market first.  I love markets, but it’s sort of sad to visit them on a trip — I really wanted a kitchen so I could take some of the beautiful flowers, vegetables, and amazing fish home.  (Not that I have a clue how to cook fresh fish or seafood, but it sounded good!). We also visited the first Starbucks (we had to) and found the famous gum wall (I was amazed at the variety in color of the gum!)

I think my very favorite part of the trip was the visit to the Chihuly exhibit.  My oh My.  So much beautiful glass in one place.  I was only sorry that MeMum wasn’t there with us — she’s always loved beautiful glass and Chihuly is in a world of his own.  I LOVED the boat full of “balls”.  The colors were so gorgeous.

After Chihuly, we mostly just shopped and played around for the rest of the trip.  We visited several neighborhood shopping areas (saw the Troll Under the Bridge in Fremont) — our favorite was the Queen Anne area where we found some fun baby gift shops.

TheFirstChild was able to join us on our last afternoon, and luckily we had a short break in the rain.  We went to Kerry Park where we wasted spent a few hours hoping the clouds would clear so we could see Mt. Rainier.  We got a teeny tiny peek of the snow covered western edge of the mountain, toward the top.  (How’s that for a description — a fancy way of saying we saw a little spot that could have easily been confused with a cloud.  Thank goodness for pictures on the internet that told us where to look!)

Anyway, it was great fun to get away, even if it was a short trip. The best part was all the snuggle time with FinallyAGirl and spending time with TheFirstChild and SweetiePie. Those moments are few and far between and time is fleeting, so they’re very much cherished.

Hope you’re having a good week!
XOXO,
Anna

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Aha!  I was right when I said it would be September before I would post again.  Don’t worry though — I’m not clairvoyant, I just had a little insider information.  We took a little family trip to Utah — our favorite place to visit.  We were all together — TheManoftheHouse, both boys, SweetiePie and FinallyAGirl.  Everyone just wanted to have a relaxing vacation, but TheSecondChild and I wanted to do some hiking, so, on the second day we were there, we hiked the Timpanooke Trail.

We didn’t get to the trail until around 9 a.m. and we took the wrong trail right off the bat.  After about a mile, I realized that something was wrong so we turned around to go back to the parking lot.  Halfway back, we ran into three hikers and while I was asking them where the right trail was, I realized that the 3rd hiker was Amber!  What are the odds of meeting someone you know out in the middle of nowhere???  That was a fun surprise, and of course, provided teasing material for the boys for the rest of the trip — they think this whole blogging thing is pretty funny.

Anyway, we lost 2 miles and an hour, but we finally found the right trail and hiked away.  The scenery and views were gorgeous!

By 2 p.m. we made it to the meadow just below the saddle and stopped for a little snack and rest.  We kept on going, but when we came to the bluffs, just below the saddle, TheSecondChild decided that he’d had enough.  The trails along the bluffs were steep and rocky with a few washed out places and he was worried about how we’d get back down.  So, with just a half-mile to go, we turned around.  So Sad!  In hindsight, and as I look at the pictures that I took on the way back down, I think that little bluff area was very short and we should have kept going.  Oh well.  I hiked it when I was in college, so, I’ve seen those stunning views from the top.  I hope maybe TheSecondChild will try it again some day.

The hardest part was the 3 hours coming back down.  The trails are really rocky and uneven and hard on the feet.  I didn’t have my boots tied tightly enough, so I have lots of bruised and blistered toenails that will be my souvenirs for a few months.  Ouch!  The upside of the whole hike were the gorgeous views and the mountain goats.  We saw several of them and there are so many people that do this hike that they don’t seem to be afraid of us.  Not that they’re friendly, but they don’t run and hide!  I think mountain goats are SO amazing — how do they climb those rocky cliffs with hoofs and not plummet to their deaths???  (This is not a zoomed in picture — we really are that close.  This is the bluff area where we turned around — the mountain goats and lots of other people could handle it, but we couldn’t LOL.)

My sore toes hampered any other hiking that I wanted to do for the rest of the week, so we just took it easy and hung out.  One morning, we went to the Olympic Park and watched the ski jump practices — always fun!  That afternoon, TheManoftheHouse and TheSecondChild went to a gun range where they had a great time playing with machine guns.  Men!

The rest of  the time was just spent loafing around.  I didn’t even take very many pictures.

My very favorite thing was spending time with this little cherub.  I got lots of cuddle time and the best part was several times when I got to walk with her and sing her to sleep (no rocking to sleep for this one — she likes to be on the move!)  There’s nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby in your arms!

Here’s a shot of her in her new little Liberty bonnet.  It fit just right, with a wee bit of room to grow.  She’s getting so fun now — she’s a smiley girl and loves to lay out and kick and squeal.  She’s growing too quickly!

Now we’re back home and I’m having trouble with re-entry. I spend my days aimlessly looking at quilt pictures, dreaming of all the quilts I’ll never have time to make in this lifetime. There’s SO much inspiration out there! I need to work on lots of UFO’s though. Speaking of — it’s dreary and gloomy here today, so I’m headed to the dungeon to try and make some headway on a certain baby quilt. Happy Weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

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Hello There!  Finally, I’m going to post about the last part of my trip and then you’ll be freeeee!  Or, you can be free now and skip this post LOL.  I love to read about other people’s travels, but I know that some people don’t, so I won’t be offended at all if you just skip it!

Anyway, after Scotland, I stopped over in London for a few days before coming home.  It used to be that we could book a flight to Edinburgh and have a stopover in London for no extra charge.  But, they’re on to us now, and they charge extra money for that extra little stop.  So, I figured, if I was going to spend more money, I might as well spend it on a train trip.  I LOVE the train and I’d never taken it in England.  The train trip was everything I’d hoped and more.  The scenery was beautiful and there was knitting time!

The train arrived in King’s Cross Station and I decided to pop in to The British Library while I was in the neighborhood.  (As a fun surprise, I passed Harry Potter’s 9 3/4 Platform on the way out of the station — look at all those people waiting to have their picture taken with the suitcase cart!)  The Library was wonderful — no pictures allowed in the area where they had original manuscripts, but what fun to see the handwriting of Thomas Hardy and Charlotte Bronte to name just a few.

 

 

While I was in London, I was so lucky to be able to stay with Pam‘s daughter, Laura and her husband.  I had so much fun getting to know them — they’re an adorable young couple.  (Psst! If you need a room in London, they have an AirBnB listing – I can’t recommend them enough!). On my first full day in London, I hit the jackpot and Laura was my tour guide!  I had planned to go to Portobello Road for the morning market, so we started there.  It was fun to stop in all the little booths — for some reason, we migrated to all the booths that had silver pieces.  I was terribly tempted by antique egg cup sets, but I managed to escape with no purchases — might have had something to do with my limited luggage space LOL.

After Portobello Road, we spent several hours at the Victoria and Albert museum.  I have a few must stop places when I visit London, and the V&A is one of them ;-D    We had “lunch” at the V&A cafe — for some reason, I didn’t take many pictures — probably because we were talking and I was stuffing myself with a delicious scone.  Before we went back to Laura’s, we walked around Notting Hill and Chelsea — it was so fun to have Laura with me, as she could tell me more about the places that we saw.  When we finally got “home”, Laura and her hubby made a fantastic dinner — they’re great cooks! (Here’s a picture of my adorable little guide – not sure what’s up with that guy behind her though – looks a little creepy LOL .)

 

 

 

Laura had some really neat London travel books in my room and one of them was a deck of cards called London Walks.  There were so many walks that I wanted to do, so I randomly chose a card out of the deck and used it to plan my activities for Sunday morning.  I did the walk backwards, starting at Farringdon Tube Station.  The first stop was the Smithfield  Market which was once the heart of the British Empire’s meat business.  It’s still in use today and it was fun to walk through there on a quiet morning when no one was around.  From there, I went to St. Bartholomew the Great, one of London’s oldest churches, dating back to 1100.   Unfortunately, I couldn’t go inside, as services were in progress.  I did find Cloth Court though ;-D.  It was also fun to see little blue historical markers on the sides of some of the buildings — very interesting!

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop was The Museum of London.  I’d always wanted to visit, but previous trips to London found me in the bigger, more famous museums.  I really enjoyed the museum — it traces the history of London from prehistoric times to today.  I didn’t really take any pictures, but I did love this little girl’s dress from the WWII era.  Look at that adorable border print along the bottom of the skirt — I wish someone would reproduce this print!!!

 

After the Museum of London, I walked past the Guildhall, which marked the end of my little walking tour. From there, I walked over to the beautiful St. Paul’s Cathedral, just in time to enjoy a sandwich for lunch in the rose garden.  I’ve been to London a few times before, but I never remember a more beautiful day weather-wise.  It was picture-perfect.  It was so nice to sit in the rose garden and just people-watch.  I also took pictures of the stone work on the sides of the building.  I always take pictures like that — thinking the designs will someday make their way into a quilt, but, … well, it’s fun taking the pictures!

 

 

After lunch, I decided to walk along the Thames toward Westminster.  I walked out onto Millenium Bridge and took lots of pictures — it was just soooo beautiful that day!  Somewhere along the way, I found someone blowing bubbles off of another bridge.  I loved being able to walk along and stop whenever I wanted and take pictures and enjoy all the sights — I’ve never had that much freedom on other trips.  My last stop of the day was at The National Gallery.  I wanted to see my favorite painting, but sadly the exhibit was closed.  ;-(

 

 

 

My last day in London was shopping day — Yipee!!!  I started out on Picadilly and went to LaDuree, Fortnum and Mason, and Cath Kidston, among others.  Fun shopping for an American!  ;-D  Then, of course, I made it to Liberty — lots of beautiful fabric and accessories in the iconic Liberty prints!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After all the shopping, I decided just to walk around, much like I’d done the previous day.  I started in Hyde Park and rented a bike and rode around the park — I Loved it!  Then I walked over to Buckingham Palace and just sat on the steps of the Queen Elizabeth fountain for about an hour and people watched.  From there, I walked through St. James’ Park and ended up at Big Ben around dusk.

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s it – just like that, my trip was over.  If you’re still here, thanks for suffering reading through to the end.  It was a wonderful trip — very relaxing and just what the Dr. ordered!

Now, it’s back to work and the beauty of everyday life.  And hopefully, lots of sewing and quilting!

Have a great week!

XOXO,
Anna

Hello Again! It’s been a busy week here this week, but I’ve finally had time to sort through the pictures of the second part of my trip to Scotland. I’ve discovered that I take way too many pictures, but not always of the right things. Here’s my standard:

**Warning** – Long, Picture Heavy Post

Haha! As I mentioned before, this middle part of the trip was supposed to have been spent with Meredithe and Anne, but, sadly, Meredithe had to cancel her trip plans. Since this part was only a few days of my trip, I decided to go ahead with my visit with Anne and her hubby Malcolm. Pam took me to the Edinburgh airport where Anne picked me up — I got a little teary-eyed at having to say goodbye to Pam, but I didn’t want to be a big baby, so I held it together!

From the minute Anne and Malcolm picked me up, we were on the go. They worked so hard to make me welcome and have a fun two days and we had a great time!  We arrived at their home in The Borders in the evening, just in time for a wonderful dinner and a toast to our missing Meredithe. The next morning we started our busy day with a little walk around their “neighborhood”. Anne and Malcolm live out in the country and the setting is just beautiful. Every direction you turn, the view is amazing. SHEEPIES! And, just down the road is a pretty little churchyard with a cemetery.  And, really fun for me, was to see the arrival of the Fish Man — he delivers fresh fish every Wednesday  morning.  Malcolm just has to go out to the truck and pick out the fish they want for the week.  How fantastic is that???

 

 

 

 

Next, we went into the little town nearest where they live, Hawick. (And don’t be confused like I was — it’s not pronounced HAW-wick. It’s pronounced HOY-ck. Or something like that. That was really hard for me LOL!) Hoyck Hawick has a rich history as a textile town and we went into town to visit an exhibition at the Textile Towerhouse. On the way into town, we crossed over the bridge and we saw the heron that Anne frequently posts about.  Anne ordered the heron to appear and it did!  Hoyck Hawick is a pretty little town and I really enjoyed seeing where Anne and Malcolm “live”.  We saw the fish shop that belonged to the fish deliveryman that we’d seen earlier that morning.  And the entry floor of the Textile Towerhouse was screaming “make me into a quilt”! (For another post full of things to do in Hawick, check out My Scotland Voyage.)

 

 

 

After Hoyck Hawick, we drove over to Jedburgh. There are four abbey ruins in The Borders (Melrose, Dryburgh, Kelso, and Jedburgh). I thought I’d been to Jedburgh Abbey, but I was mistakenly thinking that Dryburgh was actually Jedburgh (if that makes sense!). So, happily, Anne picked the only abbey of the four that I hadn’t been to on previous trips!  After walking around the Abbey, we went to Mary, Queen of Scots’ House.  It’s believed that she stayed in this house, and it was interesting reading a little bit about her history — I definitely want to read more.

 

 

 

(I waited at least 10 minutes for that guy in the background to leave so I could get a good picture of Anne and Malcolm at Mary, Queen of Scots’ House, but I finally gave up. He must’ve been waiting for someone ;-( ).

 

 

 

After Jedburgh, it was off to Abbotsford, home of Sir Walter Scott.  Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful.  Abbotsford was built along the banks of the River Tweed and the view from the back of the house to the river was just gorgeous.  As were the gardens.  What a fun place to tour.  I don’t know how Anne kept picking places that I hadn’t been to before, but I loved it!

 

 

 

We zipped home after Abbotsford and Anne dispensed me to the sitting room while she prepared a gourmet four-course dinner. (Did I get any pictures? No-o-o-o. I guess I was too busy eating! Luckily, Anne got pictures, and you can see them here.) Anne wanted me to have a traditional Scottish dinner and it was fantastic. We had Scottish Smoked Salmon on Homemade Brown Bread, Creamed Asparagus and Broccoli Soup, Venison Casserole with Dumplings, and Cranachan — all with champagne!  Yum, Yum, YUM!!!  After dinner, we watched The Great British Bake-Off (can’t wait until the new season starts here!) and we went to bed full and happy!

The next morning, we moved over to Anne and Malcolm’s flat in Berwick-upon-Tweed.  And again, if you’re pronouncing that as it’s looks like you would pronounce it, you’re wrong!  It’s pronounced Berrick.  I’d decided that the w’s are always silent and then we passed a sign to a town called Lowick, so I asked if it should be “Loyck”.  Nope, it’s pronounced “Low-wick” — just like it looks.  So, beats me how they decide these things LOL!

Anyway, after we dropped our clothes off at the flat, we drove down the coast to Bamburgh.  This was the only day on my whole trip that was really rainy, so, even though it was windy and chilly, I felt quite lucky.  We braved the elements to walk out to the beach so that I could take some pictures —  the picture of Anne and Malcolm will always remind me how cold and windy it was that day!  We didn’t last long outside and hustled to a cute little tea room where we shared a delicious scone — just like I like them with jam and cream!  After our little warm up, we walked down the street to The Grace Darling Museum.  It was really interesting to read about Grace and how she, as a young girl, helped save survivors of a shipwreck.  I love little local museums like that.  The museum was right across the street from the local church, so we made a visit to the grave of Grace Darling too.

 

 

 

By now, it was lunchtime, so we drove down the coast a little farther to Seahouses, a cute little seaside village. Anne had posted about fish and chips on several occasions and I’d mentioned how much I’d love some fish and chips, so she very kindly worked that into our schedule. Normally, Anne and Malcolm take their fish and chips down the street to the harbor, but, since the weather wasn’t cooperating, we ate inside. I didn’t really care — it was delicious! If only we could get great fish and chips like that here! Before we left, we walked around the harbor a little — I love little seaside towns and this one was just perfect.

 

We drove back to Berrick Berwick and walked around a bit. Seeing all the beautiful old buildings was fun, and I was really interested in an old abandoned school. It appears to be home to lots of pigeons now ;-D. We walked along the old medieval walls and it was exciting to see a golf course next to the sea. I also managed to get a picture of Anne’s swans that appear in the harbor quite often.  We had a wonderful dinner in Berrick Berwick that night and the sun was just setting as we walked back to the flat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a Cricket game on tv that night and Anne and Malcolm tried to teach me the finer points of the sport. People say Cricket is a lot like baseball, but aside from the “bat” and ball, I didn’t see many similarities. By the time we were done, I think I was starting to get it, although, I know there are a ton of little nuances to the game and there just wasn’t time to discuss them.

And, just like that, my fun visit with Anne and Malcolm was over. I had a wonderful time and I can’t thank them enough for all their hard work. Oh — and Anne has written much more eloquently about my visit and you can read about it here and here.

Ok, I’ll try not to ramble on so long next time — I’m really sorry, but it’s so hard — it was a packed trip!
Hope you’re having a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

Wow — it’s been so fun to read all your comments on my last post!  Thanks to everyone who has entered to win a fat quarter pack of CrazyMom’s new fabric (there’s still time to enter if you’re interested!) and Thanks for playing along with my request to tell me the one place that you want to visit.  There have been some fun and interesting answers.  No surprise, a lot of you want to go to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and lots of places here in the US.  And really fun for me to read, is that a lot of you want to go to Scotland or England, since that’s where my latest little trip took me.

**Warning** – Picture Heavy Post (LOL)

It was a complete accident that I ended up with two big trips in the same month.  We’d been talking about taking a family trip to Canada and Montana for a long time, but at the beginning of the year, the kids said they wouldn’t be able to go this year.  But “I” wanted a little break somewhere and about that time, Meredithe and Anne were planning a little get-together in Scotland and invited me to come along.  It was the perfect opportunity for me to get away, so I decided to go and made my reservations.  THEN, the kids called and said they really wanted to go out west anyway and could only go during the second and third week of August.  What’s a girl to do???  Say no to one of them???  Nope — I used up all my vacation from work in one big bundle!  I’m a REALLY LUCKY girl!

My Scotland trip divided neatly up into three little segments, so that’s how I’m going to post about them.  I can’t go to Scotland without begging for an audience with my Best Scottish Girl, Pam and she very kindly said yes.  This was my third visit with Pam.  The first time was in 2008 when TheManoftheHouse and I were cat-sitters for The Life family while they went on a trip and the second time was in 2012 when SweetiePie and I dropped in on The Lifes for a visit.  On both of those trips I had every second planned with activities.  This time was different.  I just wanted to relax and visit.  I only had two requests — I wanted to see Pam’s adorable little grandbabies, and I wanted to see The Kelpies.  (Ok, I had three requests — I wanted to go places that Pam loves to visit.  Live her life, so to speak!)

I was SO excited — in “living her life”, I was fortunate enough to be able to meet all of her family that I hadn’t met before, as it was her son’s birthday and everyone was there the night I arrived to celebrate his birthday.  I felt terrible that I hadn’t remembered his birthday when I planned the trip and it was so naughty to crash the party.  But.  I felt very honored — they were so kind to include me and I loved every minute.  No picture, I forgot to take pictures.  Or, I could have just been jet-lagged or something.

Anyway, the next day, in between chasing down my lost luggage, Pam and I went to the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens.  She posts about them often and they’re beautiful!

 

 

And Look!  There was a wedding reception — MEN IN KILTS!!!

We also went to My Bear Paw — a cute little quilt shop in Edinburgh.  ‘Cause I’m on a quest to get Pam quilting and it’s working!  She’s made three beautiful quilts so far.  And did I get pictures?  No.  I didn’t get any of the adorable grandchildren either.  I’m so sad, but I was busy playing with them, so I do have a good excuse.

On Sunday, The Lifes took me to see The Kelpies.  They’re really beautiful.  And big.  It was so fun to finally see them.

Very close to The Kelpies is The Falkirk Wheel.  I’d heard about it, but thought it was some sort of thing used to generate power.  Wrong!  It’s a really cool “wheel” that takes the place of locks.  Boats are loaded into the top and bottom of the “wheel” and it rotates to move them to the lower or upper canal.

 

 

 

After Falkirk, we went to Crieff.  Pam grew up going to Crieff Hydro and then took her children there when they were growing up.  I loved getting another glimpse into her Scottish life!  While we were there, we hiked up the knock (did I say that right Pam?  LOL???).  The views from the top were beautiful — the heather was in bloom!  (And please note my darling little tour guides!)

 

 

(Look at the children on the top of this building at Crieff — I want that pattern on a quilt!)

On the way home, we stopped at Queensferry, a pretty little town on the Firth of Forth. The views across the water were beautiful.  (In the third picture, you can see new towers for a new bridge behind the existing bridge — those towers are huge!)

 

Whew!  Are you tired yet?  Poor Pam and Mr. Life — we were busy!  On Monday, we went for a beautiful walk along the Water of Leith walkway.  It was a perfect — I loved just being out and walking along a pretty river.  If you look closely in the second picture, a local artist had been there and made lots of little standing stone sculptures in the middle of the river.

(I want this wheat on a quilt too!)

We stopped and had lunch and then made our way to the New Town part of Edinburgh.  It was fun to see all the Georgian architecture and we went to The Georgian House too (no pictures allowed ;-( ).

On the way home, we walked through Princes Street Garden.  The gardens are so pretty and there were people everywhere — it was the last day of the festival season in Edinburgh.  A symphony was practicing for a concert that night — what a beautiful setting under the stunning Edinburgh castle!

 

And finally, on my last morning in Edinburgh, Pam and I went to High Street.  Edinburgh has such a fascinating history with buildings being built on top of each other (even streets on top of each other! — and the closes are amazing) and I love to pay a visit to The Royal Mile just to take pictures.  We also visited Gladstone’s Land and the John Knox House –again, no pictures.

 

There is so much to see and do in Edinburgh and I loved having Pam with me this time.  I saw so many little details that I wouldn’t have noticed without her!

Sorry, I rambled on so long — and this was only 4 days!  There’s just so much I want to remember about this trip — i had the best time with Pam and Mr. Life — I loved every minute of it!
Next time, I’ll tell you about my visit with Anne.
XOXO,
Anna