Retreating Part One

This weekend Kerry and I headed to Carmel, CA for a "Knitting And Crochet Retreat" hosted by Knitting Arts in Saratoga. It turned out to be a weekend filled with yarn, learning new skills, a bottle (or two) of red wine and proof that you really never can eat too much chocolate.

We headed out Friday afternoon and en route stopped at Monarch Quilt And Yarn Shop in Pacific Grove. Might as well get into the spirit of things early, right? Either that, or Kerry and I can't go more than two hours without stopping at a yarn store.

If you're ever in Pacific Grove, near Pacific Grove or just want to visit a wonderful store, this would definitely be a good choice. The people who work there are very nice as well as helpful. They also have a good selection of yarn including this sock yarn which I couldn't resist. Ahem. The first person to mention the fact that I have yet to actually make a sock is hereby and forewith banished from this blog forever. And it was CHEAP. $8.45 a ball with 414 yards. It's called "Sockotta" and is 45% cotton, 40% supewash wool and 15% nylon. Made in Italy, ooo la la. AND they have a dog and a parrot in the store. How much better could it get?

Then it was back on the road for a very short drive to our hotel.

Yes, I know, what a dump. Ha! This particular hotel is included in the "Historic Hotels of America" registry and was originally built in 1904. It's not a big hotel with only 73 rooms and 5 cottages but it lacks for nothing. The service was marvellous and the rooms were gorgeous. The Yarn Gods decided to smile down upon Kerry and I and we ended up with an ocean view room. We're talking "and with the windows open you can hear the waves" ocean view.

This was about 4:00 Friday afternoon, looking out from our room. Kind of foggy, kind of cloudy but breathtaking nevertheless. And when you looked down this is what you saw.

A lovely garden with benches for crocheting and knitting on. Doesn't this place just scream "California"? It was fantastic. We couldn't have asked for a nicer location.

In the interest of keeping my blog entries a reasonable size to load and so that I don't bore you all to tears, I'm going to spread out the events of our little vacation over the next few days. Tomorrow's entry, "What's Another 60 Balls Of Yarn?"