Shop Hoppin Till We Drop

I have finally recovered enough to share our shop hop experience! This is a major event up here. There were 57 shops on the hop (yes - all within a 4 hour drive from my house!)...7 of them in Whatcom County, where I live, alone. So Michele, Olivia (my dd) and I went to Lynden on Wednesday (the first day of the hop) to hit the 3 up there. Then we went to Lynda's Quilts and Yarns in south Ferndale/north Bellingham. O

n Thursday, Michele and I met up for lunch and went to two of the shops in Bellingham near where I work. We each hit the third shop in Bellingham that day, but at separate times (I hate having a 30 minute lunch break sometimes!). That took care of the northernmost part of the state. (Lynden is at the Canadian border - about a 15 minute drive from my house)

Thursday evening, Donna,(who joined in the most recent scrappy swap - but still can't get into the Yahoo group for some reason), Olivia, Kim (another Pirate) and I went to Anacortes, a lovely little town on the sea (home to Angela Landsberry amongst other famous people) with two fantastic shops. We did those two, got in the car and decided to make a dash for Oak Harbor (Home to our local Naval Air Station). We hit that shop just as it was closing. They stamped us and kicked us out. Oh, well. I didn't need to spend any money there....and they DID call the Quilt Shop in Anacortes to locate my dd's lost "passport" (which is a list of all the participating shops - you have each shop stamp the "Passport" and you receive a free 8" block pattern with at least 3 pieces of fabric to make it). The Quilt Shop mailed it to dd - they are soooo nice there!

Karen O, Michele and I, along with our friend Kim, did the lions share of the Western Washington Shop Hop on Saturday and Sunday last weekend (28&29). Donna works at Fourth Corner Quilts in Bellingham on the days she isn't watching my dd, so she had to work all of Shop Hop except Thursday. I started by leaving my house at 6:30 a.m. to pick up Kim at 6:45 and Michele at 7. We arrived at Karen's just after 8:30 in Everett. Kim made the most wonderful cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and we noshed on those on the way to the first shop in Bothell. We hit a total of 18 shops on Saturday. It was a blast! I decided that collecting Christmas fabrics was going to be my focus, so I found every fun one out there and bought a quarter yard of each.

We lost our Pirate flag when Karen rolled the window down going over an overpass and trying to take a picture of Mt. Rainier which was out in all it's splendor. We saw it by the side of the freeway a couple hours later when we circled back to the main highway. No, we didn't stop. I’ll get a new one! We shopped until the hop closed at 7 p.m. We made it as far as the two shops in Kelso/Longview, WA and had dinner at the most wonderful restaurant named Judy's. Amazing food, especially for being out in the boonies. The crab cakes were to die for, and I had a prawn Alfredo that surpassed anything I had had before. I highly recommend it.

I should note that at each shop, we threw doubloons (of chocolate, of course!) at the weary shop- tenders, and they were highly appreciative. Most of them laughed and said, "Hey - I remember you guys from last year! Good to see ya!"

We drove back to Karen's to spend the night, and started again about 10 in the morning on Sunday. We first went east to Duvall and Woodinville. I should mention that I was fired as the navigator on Saturday, even though I never once got us lost....so I became the Captain and Karen was demoted to navigator. We found Woodinville right where we left it a few years ago (it had been on suspension from the hop for misbehaving about 3 or 4 years ago), and it was still a fun place. Then we tried to find Duvall. We go Sooooooo lost - and we lost about 45 minutes driving around in the wrong place, but when we did find it, it was a fun place. I found some lovely fabric to make Olivia a nightgown (my latest obsession - fun nightie fabric!) I think Karen has been fired as the navigator! Anyway, we hit the shop in Everett and then went back and dropped off Karen. We headed north hitting the last 3 shops along the I-5 corridor that we missed on the way down.

Whew. 33 shops in all. Two passports turned in (that means 2 chances at one of the grand prizes). Four days of fun, friendship, and going to shops that we never get to go to, except once a year when the pirates set sail.

Next year, we're planning on being a little more organized. Along with a new flag, we hope to have vests with a logo, and if we have a logo, I can have a stamp made and we can stamp our bootie bags with the doubloons in them!

So, that was the story of our shop hop. I hope we didn't scare Kim too much (she's a new Pirate), and she will join us again next year. The legend continues.....