{"id":574,"date":"2015-07-23T12:42:28","date_gmt":"2015-07-23T19:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/?p=574"},"modified":"2015-07-23T12:42:28","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T19:42:28","slug":"in-which-i-wander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/?p=574","title":{"rendered":"In Which I Wander"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summertime is also for traveling, adventures, and wandering.\u00c2\u00a0 Right?\u00c2\u00a0 Well folks, that’s what I’ve been doing for what feels like the last month.\u00c2\u00a0 To be honest, there were days in between where I could have posted, but just felt like doing nothing more strenuous than sitting in a chair and breathing.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m sure you’ll understand.<\/p>\n

So where to start?\u00c2\u00a0 First, there was a fabulous trip south to Oregon for the Black Sheep Gathering<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 I twisted the arm of one of my favorite road-tripping knit girls, and together she and I turned it into a short camping vacation.\u00c2\u00a0 Neither of us had attended this particular fiber festival before, but quite a few of the fiber celebrities and vendors we follow had plans to be there.<\/p>\n

The festival runs Friday through Sunday, and we attended on Saturday and Sunday.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes folks, two whole days!\u00c2\u00a0 It was that big.\u00c2\u00a0 There was a huge barn full of a variety of fiber animals waiting their turn for judging – goats, sheep, alpacas – and one end was set up with rows and rows of tables with fleeces for judging.\u00c2\u00a0 One of the nice alpaca farms let us feed a few carrot rounds to their alpacas.\u00c2\u00a0 And my friend got to pet a soft little goat.<\/p>\n

They had set up the marketplace in the convention center this year.\u00c2\u00a0 We were glad they were forced to move it indoors, as the air conditioning was welcome after being in the 85 F degree heat.\u00c2\u00a0 It took us all day on Saturday to wander through the aisles of vendors.\u00c2\u00a0 Even then, I think we missed a few things.\u00c2\u00a0 Legs get tired of shuffling after a while, you know.\u00c2\u00a0 We took advantage of the big area of chairs set up for spinning\/knitting to sit and spin for a while.\u00c2\u00a0 Which of course led to chatting with our neighbors, meeting new folks, and trading spinning tips.\u00c2\u00a0 I think we’d both agree that sitting and spinning there was one of the most enjoyable parts of the event.\u00c2\u00a0 They also had a nice lineup of guest speakers in a little demonstration area off to one side of the marketplace.\u00c2\u00a0 This is what led us to definitely come back on Sunday – we wanted to attend a couple of the demos scheduled for that day and get in a little more public spinning.<\/p>\n

\"200'<\/a>

200′ high sand dunes near Florence, OR<\/p><\/div>\n

For camping during the gathering, we opted to stay at a campground near Florence and commute to Eugene during the festival days.\u00c2\u00a0 This turned out to be the more comfortable and enjoyable option – cute seaside town, shady campground, and much cooler seaside temperatures.\u00c2\u00a0 (The field next to the convention space that they opened up to campers is absolutely devoid of trees, and the heat of the day would have made sleeping in the tent unbearable.)\u00c2\u00a0 After the festival closed, we packed up camp and headed north up the coast to Tillamook.\u00c2\u00a0 We camped at another seaside campground near there for two nights before heading back home.\u00c2\u00a0 This one was a winner as well – I’m sure you can imagine the waves lulling us to sleep at night, playing in the sand, windblown trees, and cheese factory tours.\u00c2\u00a0 So relaxing!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20150622_165258_clr_sm\"<\/a> \"IMG_20150622_165304_clr_sm\"<\/a> \"IMG_20150623_123910_clr_sm\"<\/a>The next adventure took Husband and I to Arkansas to join my extended family for a week of relaxation and boating at my parents’ lake house.\u00c2\u00a0 There was lots of good food, good company, sunshine, floating, and boating.\u00c2\u00a0 You know that floaty feeling you have in your head even after you’ve stepped off the boat?\u00c2\u00a0 My head was doing that for several days after we got back home.\u00c2\u00a0 The whole week was capped off with the town’s fabulous Independence Day fireworks show out on the lake.\u00c2\u00a0 Always a winner.<\/p>\n

Finally, last week we took a short trip down to San Francisco.\u00c2\u00a0 Son and I had never been there before.\u00c2\u00a0 (Unless you count the time I got stuck there because of a missed connection and the airline swore the next earliest flight home was three days away.\u00c2\u00a0 I took a train to San Jose the next day and caught a flight from there.)\u00c2\u00a0 Husband had to go for a business trip, so we decided it was the perfect excuse to tag along with him.<\/p>\n

The scheduling (and delays) on our flights left us two complete days for squeezing in as much touristy goodness as we could stand.\u00c2\u00a0 My local sources insisted that we should go see the Winchester Mystery House<\/a> one of the days, and we agreed.\u00c2\u00a0 I had seen the documentary about it, and you know I can’t pass up a tour of an architecturally interesting historic structure.\u00c2\u00a0 It is definitely architecturally interesting!\u00c2\u00a0 Spooky?\u00c2\u00a0 No.\u00c2\u00a0 Creepy?\u00c2\u00a0 No.\u00c2\u00a0 Weird?\u00c2\u00a0 A little.\u00c2\u00a0 Honestly, a good chunk of the strangeness about the way the house is constructed can be explained by the way the house was constructed.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean, what do you expect you will get when the builders’ instructions are changed on a daily basis, and whole sections of the house are renovated willy-nilly?\u00c2\u00a0 What struck me the most was the absolute gorgeousness and detail in the front section of the house, and how it was closed off from use after the earthquake at the turn of the 20th century.\u00c2\u00a0 The rest of the house doesn’t hold a candle to it.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Winchester Mystery House<\/p><\/div>\n

We started our second tourist day at the Golden Gate Bridge<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Did you know you can walk or bike across it, for free?\u00c2\u00a0 We should have rented bikes.\u00c2\u00a0 We walked almost halfway across, then decided that was far enough and turned back.\u00c2\u00a0 The weather was perfect for it – sunny with a few fluffy clouds, windy, and 75 F.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20150716_111010_clr_trm_sm\"<\/a> \"IMG_20150716_113749_clr_sm\"<\/a> \"IMG_20150716_113808_ro_trm_sm\"<\/a>Next we headed over to Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39.\u00c2\u00a0 There is a sea lion colony that lives here part of the year, but our luck was out and they were away for the summer.\u00c2\u00a0 Ah well.\u00c2\u00a0 We consoled ourselves with ice cream and plotted a route to our next stop.\u00c2\u00a0 We decided to get a different perspective on the city with a view from the top of Coit Tower<\/a> on Telegraph Hill.\u00c2\u00a0 The wait looks like it will take forever, but actually doesn’t, and it’s definitely worth it.\u00c2\u00a0 We had to skip the parrots on the way down though, so we could make it back to the Financial District for our dinner date.\u00c2\u00a0 All in all, a good day.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, and remember that perfect weather?\u00c2\u00a0 I completely forgot sunscreen, so my face has been sporting an overly rosy complexion since.\u00c2\u00a0 Oops!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20150716_161635_clr_sm\"<\/a> \"IMG_20150716_160303_clr_sm\"<\/a> \"IMG_20150716_160010_sm\"<\/a>That’s it so far.\u00c2\u00a0 There are no plans to stray from home in the near future, but that doesn’t mean much in my world – something might pop up at the last minute.\u00c2\u00a0 There was knitting, of course, but I’ll leave that for another post.<\/p>\n

Happy Adventuring!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summertime is also for traveling, adventures, and wandering.\u00c2\u00a0 Right?\u00c2\u00a0 Well folks, that’s what I’ve been doing for what feels like the last month.\u00c2\u00a0 To be honest, there were days in between where I could have posted, but just felt like … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4,66],"tags":[58,60],"class_list":["post-574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventuring","category-knitting","category-spinning","tag-summer","tag-vacation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}