Back Home - Part 1

Well, I'm hone! My trip was so amazing in so many ways. Remember, I hadn't been back in 17 years. So much had changed I had to GPS myself EVERYWHERE. Thankfully, I had my friend Rob with me most of the time. This is Rob and I over 20 years ago on our cross country road trip...

We were so young then. At any rate, he was with me Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then started a new job on Monday. That's when Google GPS got me wherever I needed to go. I have a ton of pictures that I would like to share with you all but I think I may have to do it in pieces to keep this from being the longest blog post ever!

When I arrived in Columbus on Thursday Rob was waiting for me in the baggage claim area for my flight. Our eyes met and we hugged out about 8 years of not seeing each other. He and I have a very long history. It was so wonderful to see him in person again, not on the phone or on Skype. We went to dinner then got settled in the hotel room. He stayed with me as there were two queen beds in the room....3 queens total, 2 of them were beds! We relaxed that evening knowing that tomorrow we would be headed out to see a couple of the yarn shops I wanted to see. I wanted to get a feel for where my trunk show was going to be on Sunday. We got up Friday morning, got dressed and ready to go...

It was cold and rainy outside so I bundled up in a shawl. Nocturna to be exact. Its one of the shawls out of my new eBook Sexy Spines Vol. 2. Our first stop was Knitting Temptations. What a lovely shop it was. The whole shop was built into a very charming old house. I walked in and was greeted by the owner in a room bursting of fiber and color! I was given a short little tour by one of the ladies that worked there, I feel terrible I don't remember their names. The back of the house was all set up for classrooms and for teaching, it was wonderful. But to get to that back room you walk through a ton of fibery goodness...

When looking for yarn, I was looking specifically for either local stuff or yarn that wasn't in out home town shops. They had Anzula and Baah. THEY HAD ANZULA AND BAAH. Oh My God. I had heard of them but never had my hands on either of them. Absolutely dreamy. They also had a wonderful selection of shawl pins made by local artists. I couldn't stop looking at them, they were so beautiful! After doing some serious damage here we headed on to Knit It & Haberdashery. When I walked into the store there was a cute, petite lady at the register and she introduced herself as Esther. She was the owner of the store. I told her I just wanted to have some time to shop outside of the trunk show which was 2 days away. She was so sweet; showed me around the shop and let me know what she had. During my trunk show she mentioned looking for a larger area already as they are outgrowing the space they have. As Rob and I left, we noticed the yarn bombing right out front that somehow we missed on the way in....

After we left the Haberdashery, as Rob was my navigator, he took me a certain route that went passed Jeni's Ice Cream. I was instructed by a few people that I MUST have Jeni's Ice Cream. So I did!

 With Rob navigating, next we landed in the parking lot of the old VIP Bar. 15-20 years ago when Rob and I were working together we used to frequent this bar ALL THE TIME. After work, on the weekends, etc. The bars name has been changed to the Dub Pub. We walked in and it was the same place it was all those years ago. They knocked down one of the walls to make it bigger but either way, its the same. We bellied up to the bar and each of us ordered a beer and set in to play some pool. It was so surreal to be there...

It was great to play again. I beat Rob so I must still have it. Rob and I used to play against A LOT of people back in the day and almost always won. We had such good times. reliving a few of them was a good time. 

Getting back to the hotel was nice, both of us sort of collapsed. We had a totally full day of fun! After we were settled, Rob gave me a present. It was so sweet. He noticed how much I was looking at the handmade shawl pins that were at Knitting Temptations. He got one for me....

I will be sharing my week with you all over a few posts so bear with  me. There's just so much. It was an amazing trip and when I got home I realized that I cannot let 17 years go by before seeing my longest friends. Looks like I may be going back every other year, maybe every year. This trip reignited the friendships I have with people who I've known longer than anyone else. Look for another post tomorrow about the reunion and ones to follow that!

Until then...Knit On!