Sisters Outdoor quiltshow

Hi The After our exploration of the town and getting to know a few locals we had an early dinner and retired early, ready to see what more Sisters has to offer. The population of Sisters of is around 2,500 and swells to twice that when the quilt show is on. Our AB&B is a 15 minute walk from the centre of town.

After breakfast on friday we set off to explore more of Sisters and the many art galleries and antique shops. I must say I was surprised that there was not much going on in town, except for normal business.

A few stalls being set up, in front of an antique shop, where I bought a vintage quilt, all hand quilted and hand embroidered.

Of course this action gave my DH some angst,  and on it went about luggage, room, overweight etc.

Get over it I say!!!!!

Just some of the great art work around town.

Just a few of the quilts in the shops.

More sculptures 

DH was spoilt for choice with 

Craft beer, Hop and Brew had 24 on tap.

After a very full day in town we made our way back to our home stay, to get ready for saturday, we have been told that Sisters has over 10,000 tourists that visit on this day.

Saturday we set off early at 9am to walk downtown and it had already begun, quilts were hung everywhere, and there was a lot of people milling through the streets. The day was hot at 30degrees and got hotter to 34degrees. I had a great time sitting and chatting to a lot of american quilters, who was amazed that I had travelled so far to attend the show. Quilts as many as 1497 were hung everywhere.

Just some photos of the crowds,  I did not think that there was 10,000, maybe 5,000at the most,,we did not have trouble getting a seat or something to eat.

DH was amongst it, long suffering!!!

Due to the hot day, shade was a bonus.

The most exciting thing about the show was seeing the quilt....."Bling" which won a prize in Paducah and I think Houston, seeing this quilt in the flesh was just amazing.

But wait....it gets better as I was explaining to DH about the quilt "Bling" who happens to walk past was Tula Pink, never to miss an opportunity, a photo was graciously given.

With Tula was Sarah Fielke a talented aussie quilter and whom I have met before in a class at Killara, so Sarah also consented to a photo, it was great chatting with them both and to meet Tulas mum as well was a bonus.

This made my day, even DH recognised Tula from her post on FB this am about her new quilt that she had made for this show, after lunch we finally made our way over to the teachers tent to see all of Tula's quilts.

I actually need to do a separate post with all of Tula's quilts, and some of my favourite quilts from the show, at a later date.

After our tent vist we continued on and came across the lovely Sue Spargo and all her wonderful quilts, Sue remembered me from my two classes that I took with her when she visited Sydney, so like old times, lovely to see Sue and that she is looking so well.

All of her quilts were hung nicely, although hot, there was some shade.

One of my favourites.

The show went until 4pm, that is when the quilts are starting to be pulled down, and I must say that it is like a well oiled machine, most were down by 4.30pm with the help of many volunteers in each zone, even the fire brigade helped.

DH had a few beers with the locals as we watched the process of the quilts being pulled down.

Sue Spargo's quilts

Fire brigade helping, this concludes the Sisters show, for tomorrow we set off for home.

Another show ticked of the bucket list.

Vancouver and Sisters, Oregon

Our cruise finished at 7am wednesday morning, we had breakfast and left ship at 0900hrs, caught a cab to our hotel, then set of to explore, we walked back down to Canada bay and did the Canada fly over, what a thrilling ride, I throughly enjoyed the experience, but I must say DH does not do roller coaster rides and was not happy with me pressuring him to do it.  He only closed his eyes twice, it was a tame ride anyway.

Goodbye Volandam, it was a great cruise.

Our canada fly over experience 

When we were in Canada, they celebrated Canada day on the 1st July, 150 years since the constitution 

The famous gastown clock.

After our Canada fly over experience we caught a cab to a Walmart to try and get our son some Jiff peanut butter, well after a 30min drive there and back and $60 later, Walmart only sold Kraft peanut butter and to top it off, I did not get my Alien's glue so not a happy  camper. I will not mention DH's comments.

After this little venture we explored Gastown and had to walk through a film set. A TV series called, "Man in a high castle" was being shot, the streets looked like the 1950's.

A street scene

Some actors

Some great vintage cars on the street.

This is our final day in CANADA, we have a very early flight to San Francisco, then Redmond, Oregon 

Goodbye Canada, until we meet again.

Early rise at 0300hrs, to catch a cab to the airport for our flight to San Francisco, Redmond, then road it to Sisters.

Upon landing in Redmond, we had organised enviroshuttle to get us to Sisters to our air B & B, after dropping off our bags, meeting our host, we then set off to explore the town.

I am here, we arrived on the Thursday, so have a few days to explore before saturday.

Signs all over for the big day, always the second Saturday in July.

First stop and where some money was seriously dropped, quite busy, a few quilters in town already, DH waited by sitting outside and entertaining some hubbies as well as some quilters, there was a lot of quilts already hung in some shops.

My next post will be on the quilt show.

More of Alaska, ketchikan and Glacier Bay

The next morning we went into Glacier Bay and saw some sea otters and orca whales, the glaciers were very impressive, the colours of the ice was amazing and all the little ice bergs floating in the water, although looked small were quite large. We had a magical few hours just cruising in the bay and admiring the scenery.

Just one of the many glaciers 

The weather was perfect today 

After Glacier Bay we docked into Ketchikan, the weather was OK, but we did not do a tour, we both decided to explore Ketchikan, especially after I found out that there was three quilt shops in town. We caught the free shuttle out to the plaza to our second quilt shop  visit, this in itself was an experience that we will both not forget,  everybody knew everybody and the woman driving the shuttle seem to be a mother to quite a few that boarded the shuttle.

The port of Ketchikan 

This jean jacket is all handbeaded, in our first yarn and fabric shop. 

Ketchikan has a lovely creek flowing through the town where salmon breed.

Our second quilt shop visit,  where DH helped to convert my purchases to centimetres and amused the quilt shop owner in the process.

Our third shop the Whales Tail and our first Internet opportunity for 5 days, only one piece of fabric was purchased here.

This was our last stop so we will have 1 1/2days at sea, then back to Vancouver,  back on board we dined in the evening at Le Cirque

 And what a wonderful dining experience that was, 4 course's later, we were replent, and enjoyed the comedy act at 8pm.

A wonderful dining experience.

Our first course.

Our second course, steak tartare.

Our main, Alaskan crab.

Dessert, vanilla soufflé 

Our last night we dined at The Pinnacle and another wonderful evening, we then met all of our 47 tour group and had a farewell drink, tomorrow we are back to Vancouver.

Alaska by the sea

After leaving Vancouver Island we travelled to Vancouver we drove straight to Canada Bay to board our ship for Alaska, the checking process took just under an hour, then it was all aboard our ship, Volendam.

Our stateroom looks comfortable and will be our home for the next 7 days.

Off to explore the ship and have some lunch.

Canada Bay where board our ship the Volendam

Our stateroom on the veranda deck

Inside passage

We set sail at 4pm, our first two days will be at sea, so a little rest and relaxation with our time at sea, will be welcomed. I went to a couple of workshops on how to get the best out of your didital camera, saw a couple of movies and got some time to sew, also read two books.

Our first stop in Alaska was Juneau, the capital city of Alaska , we docked at 1300hrs and we had a tour booked to go dog sledding 

, the weather was not great,  overcast and a soft drizzle, but we were determined not to let the weather dampen our fun.

Off we set on our tour to the dog sledding camp up in the hills.

The dogs are mangy mongrels and 50 bitza's, very thin and just love to run, the wheeled sled is pulled by about 20dogs and my heart just went out to how thin these dogs were, but they just love to run, they get fed a very high protein diet and a lot of pig fat, apparently the dogs get better looked after then the dog handlers, look after themselves.

The puppies were quite cute and cuddly.

This is one of my favourite photos, look at all the moss on the logs, taken at the dog sledding camp

In the afternoon I did a town tour on my own as DH, had also caught the bug and was unwell. 

The famous Red Dog Saloon.

Dollar notes and dirty undies on the wall,  quite and interesting place

We set sail at 2130hrs that night, tomorrow we stop at Skagway,,where we have the White rail and Yukon train trip planned.

Skagway

The weather is still raining and poor visibility 

After out 2 1/2hour train trip,  we went to Liarsville for lunch and a show.

We had a salmon bake and side salads, entertainment and some gold panning.

After Liarsville we were back into Skagway to do a town tour, this is the visitors information centre, it has over 19,000 pieces of driftwood and the most photographed building in Skagway. We also didnthe Red Onion Brothel tour.

And of course the biggest bonus of all was the discovery of the quilt shop, where a few dollars were promptly spent,  I bought heaps of american wildlife prints, so I hope to be able to do an Alaskan quilt.

After a great day spent in Skagway, time to get back on board to sail for Ketchikan.