Tuesday in Issaquah

Here's how yesterday went down, starting with breakfast at the hotel.

Cathy, Teresa, Sandie and Colleen

Stopped for coffee, which I don't drink, so instead I bought this cool painting by local artist Jesse Link whose work is currently adorning the walls of the coffee shop.

A visit to the very beautiful Snoqualmie Falls

followed by a stop by the side of the road to take pictures of rusty old trains (part of a train museum) - gotta love that distressed metal!

A stroll through an art gallery was very inspiring.

"Roller Girl" by Nikki De Relle
- made out of roller skates!

Lunch at the Red Corner, a Chinese restaurant that is a favourite of Tracy's (easy to see why, the food was delicious and Jesse the owner very generously treated us to an apple dessert that was just the right way to finish our meal.)

Sandie, Lisa, Teresa, Teesha,
Tracy, Norma and Cathy

The next stop was a tour through a chocolate factory (not enough samples!) and the home of the owner's Austrian-style chalet.

Making chocolates by hand,
a time honoured tradition.

I think we're all looking pretty rock star here,
if you don't count the paper hats
we had to wear inside the chocolate factory for sanitary purposes!

Workshop time at the studio included instruction from Teesha about painting techniques.

Suzette had a visit with her cousin who lives at Teesha's house.

Dinner was pizza while watching a documentary about the painter Rex Ray.

Teesha and Catherine

Remind me not to sit by Colleen next time - she tidied up her workstation at the end of the day but I couldn't convince her to do mine!

Back to the hotel soon after that, where I finally got the excitement/tired balance figured out enough to get a solid 8 hours sleep!