Bainbridge Island and friends

Sunday I headed out of town via the train. It was such a beautiful day. I was thirty minutes early for my train so I stood in the sun and just soaked up the rays. It felt so good.

The train ride was so great. I just ate my lunch and read my book and even took a short nap on the 3.5 hour ride up to Seattle, Washington. It was good to release all the worries and responsibilities of home and just enjoy the beautiful scenery going by.

My train got into the station around 4:00 in the afternoon and I headed out to the ferry terminal. It was quite a walk but I had prepared by packing light and I kept thinking that this walk was nothing like all the walking we did in Paris. Of course I wasn't carrying around a very large duffel bag either. I stopped outside the ferry terminal and bought a Starbucks coffee and then headed to the Bainbridge Island ferry were my good friends live.

I met my friend Teri and her daughter Nicole about 18 years ago when our girls were so little. They became the best of friends and so did we and our husbands. This doesn't happen very often and we have cherished their friendship all these years. It was sad when they moved away but we try and keep in touch. Nicole just graduated from college and we are so proud of her. Way to go Nicole! We wish you all the best as you pursue a career in ministry. She has traveled to Egypt, Africa, India, Turkey and Israel. I was able to hear about those trips and see some of her photos.

We went for coffee every morning and it was so fun to just sit and visit and catch up with all that has been going on not only with our travels but with family and life

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I am pretty sure Seattle and the surrounding area is the coffee capital of the world and you can get some pretty amazing coffee there. There is even an art to making lattes. It doesn't hurt to have a yummy piece of chocolate dangling off the handle either.

Her husband is into old cars and fixing them up. This is his old suburban and it actually runs. In fact, he took it to a car show while we were there. He has a corvette too but I kinda like the rustic look of this one.

I worked on a few journal pages in the afternoons. I tried to get some converts while I was there but I had no takers. We did hit a couple of art stores though. Teri is an artist too and is writing a book and illustrating it herself. No doubt, she will be famous one day.

We went to a very interesting grocery store for lunch one day. It is similar to our Whole Foods or Natures but they have a cafeteria inside the store with some really fresh food that you can either take with you or eat there.

It was fun to walk through and look at all the fresh food and I wished that I could have sampled everything.

This cake was in the bakery department and I thought it was so cute. Doesn't it just make you happy to look at it. I think I want this one for my birthday.

Bainbridge Island has a huge artist community and so we got to walk through the town and see all kinds of art up in stores and galleries. One of Teri's friends had her paintings up in a gallery for the first time and I actually got to meet her. We ran into her at the art store, go figure?

We also went to an amazing chocolate shop. I about died from the taste of their fudge because it was so good. They had so many types of licorice too and I brought some home for my husband. Teri bought some spice covered crickets for her son. I'm talking real crickets. YUCK! I couldn't even hardly look at the package. I know for sure I couldn't have eaten them. I'm still laughing about Teri screaming in the store when the package wiggled and seemed to jump off the shelf at her. So fun.

It was a fun trip and so good to see my dear friend. We were thinking we should do this more often. Why do we let time just go by and not take the time out of schedule to enjoy a few days away visiting and playing with each other. Next time it is her turn to come to my neck of the woods (literally) and we will play tourist here.