Retreat

It's been a week or so (actually two weeks but who's counting?) so I thought I would post about the retreat on which Jen and I went. (How's that for correct English?) We were supposed to go to a retreat in Ohio benefiting St. Jude's but the coordinator kind of screwed up and the day was lost. So much for that. Jen's husband was committed to keeping the kids so we decided to make our own retreat. We left on Friday morning and drove to Oldenburg, IN, where we had lunch at a German pub. Great sausage with sauerkraut!

We went on Cincinnati where we checked into a motel for the night. Jen got a great rate on Expedia. The employees just looked at us like we were nuts when we started wheeling in our stuff - two machines, a table, two bags of projects, bags with clothes and, of course, snacks and wine! We got set up pretty quickly and started to sew. Here are a couple of pictures:















We worked hard but stopped to have dinner (great Chinese) and spent some time with Jill who is in our Tranquiltity online group and lives in Cincinnati. It was great to see her again.



We got a late checkout on Saturday and then left for shopping and good food. We went to Aunt Ruth's Quilt Shop which just happened to be three storefronts from Roc-a-feller's. We went there for lunch and had outstanding pizza. We also made a stop at Aunt Ruth's that was very good. They had some great fabrics on clearance and I certainly took advantage of that. :)

After we left Aunt Ruth's we went to another shop where we didn't do hardly any damage. We then met Julie at Crate and Barrel. That is a very dangerous place for me. I bought a candle (don't tell Vic) and then went on to The Container Store. With a 20% off coupon for the entire purchase I really had a good time. I now have a new bookcase and Jen has some new bins for Jack and Jenna's toys. Then we all went back to Julie's and unloaded our stuff. Julie appreciates what we do so she didn't faint - especially after we promised to clean up before we left.

It was a great time - lots of sewing time while Julie caught up on her wedding website (Jenna is going to be her flower girl and is over the moon!). We went to The Green Papaya for dinner. It features Thai food - my second time and I didn't cry this time. It was delicious.

Jen made a donut run on Sunday morning and we sewed until 3:00 after taking a break for lunch and finishing up the Chinese from Friday night and the pizza from Saturday. We left for home ~4:00, made a quick stop at JosephBeth Booksellers (a fantastic book store in Cincinnati) and got home in time for Mike's ball game at 8:00.

All in all it was a great weekend. Lots of good fun, sewing and spending time with family. Hope we get to do it again soon.