Back to the real world!

As much as I wished the weekend would continue we all know that sooner or later reality sets in. So it was back to the grind this morning. After being spoiled with all the fine meals and snacks I found the hospital cafeteria food a little lacking!

Now I'm home I'm able to share some of my pictures of the weekend with you. The picture above is of the Gananoque Inn, a back view. The brick area at the bottom of the inn where you see the arches is where our stitching room was located. The area directly above that is the dining room. The outdoor patio wasn't in use at this time. The room I shared with Dani was in the main portion of the inn but several of the ladies had rooms in the area to the left where the flower beds are located. Some of these rooms have fireplaces and jacuzzi tubs.

Next you see me and Jeannette Douglas. She is just a super lady and I really enjoyed her class. In the picture I'm holding her newest piece we were stitching called Pomegranate and Pears. Below are Dani and another stitcher Caroline, checking out the project for the next day's class.

At the Saturday evening meal several of the ladies like to make the evening special and dress up. I didn't bring a dress but did have some dress pants and a fancier blouse with me. I thought Dani and I cleaned up well!

Next is a picture of some of the wonderful new friends I made over the weekend. Jeanne and Prima were also "newbies" and are looking forward to returning next year.

Sunday's lunch was a lot of fun with singing and door prizes. Some of the ladies at our table were teasing and saying how all the "newbies" win all the prizes. Right after that they called my name!

I won a lovely bath package including body silk and bath crystals

Dani's turn was next. If you've read her account of the weekend you know by now that Dani held the glass slipper in her goodie bag. I can't believe she managed to keep it a secret!! For being so quiet she won two beatiful oval picture frames.

Bob and I had a great finish to the weekend. He arrived at the inn on Sunday in time for sharing one of those great suppers with me. I figured I might not spend much time stitching after his arrival but not long after we finished our meal he asked if I wanted to go join my fellow stitchers for awhile (About half of the ladies were staying on the extra day until Monday). Turns out he wanted to watch the Boston/Cleveland baseball game! So I left him in the room while I joined the others for some more quality stitching time. Because of this I had a little happy dance later since I was able to finish Faith.

Monday we woke up to the perfect day. It was sunny and the temperature steadily climbed until it felt like August again. After another fantastic breakfast Bob headed off to explore the surroundings while I was booked for a full massage. This was the first time I've ever allowed myself this luxury and boy was it worth it! I could feel all the kinks working their way out. Although we'd had lots of room in which to stitch at the inn, the chairs just weren't as comfortable as my own stitching chair at home and consequently I'd ended up with a sore neck and lower back from being bent over my stitching all weekend. Apparently I wasn't the only one either. Several of the ladies had taken advantage of the inn's spa for the same purpose. After a relaxing hour being pampered I went in search of my DH only to find him booking a tour boat ride of the Thousand Islands. We had hoped to take the tour that Dani had taken a couple of weeks previously but it turned out that that was a 5 hr tour and it wasn't operating that day. Instead we booked a 1 hr cruise out of Ivy Lea. Ivy Lea is a little hamlet or village about a 15 min drive outside of Gananoque and it was on our way home. We had missed the morning tour boat out of Gananoque. So we joined the ladies for one last lunch at the inn, said our goodbyes and headed off.

It was the perfect afternoon for the tour . The last of the fall colours really added to the landscape. For those of you who are not familiar with the region, the Thousand Islands are a chain of islands which straddle the Canadian/US border on the St Lawrence River. They run for about 80km(50 mi) downstream from Kingston, On and are made up of more than 1800 islands. Some of the smallest of these only support a tree or shrubs whereas many others are populated by cottages. Here's an example of one of the smaller islands which supports a cottage.

Then of course there's Boldt Castle which resides on the US side of the river.

It was the perfect finish to a super weekend. Needless to say I've already pre-registered for next's years retreat!