This post is my photographic travelogue of my recent trip to Austin, Texas.
I’d just returned from New York City when I turned around and went with my partner John to visit his son who recently moved to Austin, Texas. It was a quick 3 day trip and it was my first return to Austin, Texas since I used to live in Texas over 25 years ago.
I love taking photos when I travel and Austin lended itself (at least in my mind) to Black & White photography with my camera phone. Here are a sampling of my photos from my trip to Austin, Texas.
I had a wonderful time in Austin, Texas and I had the best beef brisket I’ve ever had in my life at the Rolling Smoke BBQ food truck. I also saw my first Lone Star Beer chandelier (see 2nd photo), a sight I can never “un-see” (smile)!
I remember moving from New York to Texas so many years ago when my late husband was in the military and having complete culture shock as a New Yorker. But I adapted and met many great friends; and now having lived in 5 states around the country it is easier to acculturate when moving (but I have no plans to leave Colorado).
That is it for traveling for now, am currently “travel out” and have a bit of traveling fatigue. It is good to just be home for a while!
Lately my blog has primarily focused on my recent travels and I’ve joked I should change the name from “tierneycreates” to “tierneytravels”. Well over the past 6 months I’ve been tierney-creating a lot (when not traveling!) working on a “secret quilt” for a Women of Color Quilting Network (WCQN) show that opens next year.
The name of the show is Black Pioneers: Legacy of the America West and it opens next spring at the The James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art in St. Petersburg, Florida. After a stint at The James Museum it will tour nationally (museums across the U.S. have already contacted the curator and head of the WCQN, Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi to request that the exhibit show at their museum).
Recently I put the final touches on my quilt for the show and sent it off to the curator to be professionally photographed for the book, etc.
We were provided with a list of Black Pioneers that contributed to the growth of the American West and my quilt is about one of those pioneers.
You’ll have to wait until Spring 2022 to find out more as the museum asked for no social media images of our quilts prior to the opening.
I am pretty excited about participating in this show; and this will be my third WCQN exhibit (see posts Visioning Human Rights in the New Millennium, Part I and “Giant Among the Sequoias” Returns Home). I’ve had the opportunity to participate in several other WCQN exhibits since Yours for Race and Country: Reflections on the Life of Colonel Charles Young (“Giant Among the Sequoias”) but I’ve had artist block when it comes to art quilts for a show over the past several years since my husband Terry died in December 2018.
I finally figured out what it was (beyond part of grieving) – I used to, in my previous home I shared with Terry for 14 years, work on art quilts in the giant design wall that spanned our small hallway of our home:
Working on “Giant Among the Sequoias” in Spring 2018
I loved creating textile art in that hallway and I would always have Terry down the hall watching TV, playing a computer game, or reading a book while I worked. Occasionally he would walk by on his way to the bathroom and give me an approving nod.
In my current home in the Denver metro area, I have a large design wall inside my lovely studio that my partner John put together but for me creating art quilts was about being in that hallway.
So I had to overcome that, and it was more difficult than I thought, to be able to work on the quilt for this show. I knew I did not want to pass up on any more WCQN exhibit opportunities (nor did I want to give up making art quilts) so I had to overcome this hurdle to my creativity.
All I can say is widowhood is a long road filled with potholes (some you think will kill you or at least break both your legs) and pits of muck getting you stuck.
Image credit: Firestone
But then ever so often the road smooths out and you can travel peacefully for a while. You can also learn to avoid some of the potholes and pull yourself quickly out of the muck when you slip in.
You keep learning that you are stronger than you think you are.
Glad I got unstuck from the muck to create this quilt. I will update you in the future on the creation of the quilt, the finished quilt, and more information about the show.
So where did I leave off in this series of posts about the recent visits to New York City? Oh yes, on my second visit to NYC my sister and I visited NYC during New York Fashion Week (and the 20th anniversary of 9/11).
After having yummy gelato in Little Italy on Saturday after my first fashion show, we wandered around Soho and stop at a delicious little shop (Cha Cha Matcha) that specialized in green tea matcha and had green tea lattes with special messages from the barista:
We were joking because we just had a break to have gelato, only made it 2 blocks and had another break to have a latte!
After that we ran into Sunny Fong, winner of the second season of Project Runway Canada and competitor in Season 7 of Project Runway All Stars. My sister is a huge fan of Project Runway so she recognized him immediately. She took a photo with him and he invited us to stop by his pop up shop for his new line of watches.
Saturday was the 20th anniversary of 9/11and instead of a somber mood people appeared to be exceptionally warm and friendly. There seemed to be so much love going around on Saturday and we gave the same warmth and love back to those we met and talked to,
We did not attend any of the 9/11 20th anniversary memorial events due to the crowds since we are still in a pandemic, but we did stop for a while at Engine 55 fire station (we came upon it walking around Little Italy) and pay our respects to those firefighters who died during 9/11.
While walking around we stopped by a couple sidewalk vendors on the streets on NYC and spent time chatting with a lovely couple who made amazing little leather wallets. My sister bought one and we had it engraved. We enjoyed chatting with them so much we took photos:
After a long day of wandering about, meeting and chatting with people, and stopping at lots of interesting places (this blog post would never end if I shared all my photos from the trip) we retired for the evening at our lovely historic hotel in Soho.
Here is the lobby where the next morning we met a real Instagram Influencer (they always seem like mysterious people who do not really exist) and her stylist and had a wonderful chat while they waited for their Uber. It would seem strange to have like 100,000 followers on Instagram but she made her living off of it and even had a paid stylist!
In NYC, like in Los Angeles you can always get the opportunity to see famous people wandering about. My sister attended the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC in 2019 and got a special invitation as a past attendee to go see Robert De Niro interviewing Martin Scorsese about their new film The Irishman. A couple rows sitting in front of her was Leonardo DiCaprio!
She had invited me to go with her (she automatically bought 2 tickets thinking of me) but it was in April 2019 and I was moving to Denver, Colorado. I sure wish I went. Of course I was in the midst of some scary stuff – starting a new life after my husband suddenly died in December 2018 so I was not thinking fully about the opportunity I was missing out on.
I can tell you this – I will not turn down an opportunity like that again (smile).
Sunday I needed to eventually get to LaGuardia Airport to fly back to Denver but first we wanted to find an interesting place for brunch. My sister and I thought we’d been all over NYC but we stumbled upon an area outside of Soho we’d never seen before: Little Paris.
We only found it because we asked someone on the street where they recommended we have breakfast and they recommended Maman.
We had an amazing breakfast, amazing server and the atmosphere was amazing!
I had the best almond croissant I’ve ever tasted!
Across the street from Maman was the NYC Police Department and it was just like something out of a movie or a television show:
The photo above does not do it justice – it was so immense and elaborately historic looking!
My sister and I parted back at the hotel and I headed via Uber to LaGuardia Airport. I hadn’t been to the airport in a long time (I usually fly into NYC via JFK Airport) and they had done some major remodeling and I enjoyed watching an elaborate laser water show at the fountain in the middle of the concourse before heading to my gate:
I found a video of it on YouTube if you’d like to see:
Continuing my story of surprisingly visited NYC twice in the span of two months which began in yesterday’s post New York City x 2, Part I.
So a couple weeks ago my sister called me up and asked: “Are you going anything the weekend of September 10 – 12th?” To my reply of “Nothing planned”, she responded: “What about doing something crazy and going to NYC to attend a fashion show during NYC Fashion Week?”
Not sure what came over me but I said “Yes”.
Must be something about these pandemic times and realizing you should take opportunities where you can (as long as you are safe, masked and vaccinated, at least in my opinion not necessarily the opinion of some of my fellow Americans…oh and I am aware that vaccine may not stop you from getting COVID but it does seem to lessen the symptoms).
It seems like 2020 took so much away from us and perhaps I am taking a little too many risks in 2021 but we did recently cancel our long awaiting and planned holiday in Hawaii because the governor of Hawaii asked people not to visit unless it was essential travel.
My sister was invited to buy to tickets to several of the NYC Fashion Week shows because she’s attend pre-pandemic. She got invites to mid-level shows, not the big designer shows like say the Prada show or something (I think you have to be a celebrity or in “the industry” to get invited to those). We decided to go to one show.
Yesterday’s post I mentioned some of the awesomeness of my younger brother. Well my younger sister (there are three of us and I am the oldest) is pretty awesome! She is very adventurous and has done a bit of world travel (more than me) and is not shy in seeking out new opportunities like regularly attending the Tribeca Film Festival, NYC Fashion Week, and getting me into one of her industry conferences where I got to see President Barrack Obama speak as the keynote speaker (see post Bucket List Delight!).
As a full-time working mom she went back to school and got her MBA with a focus in Project Management and now works for a university in a male dominated industry: Construction Project Management. She is ex-military and can hold her ground with “the boys” of the construction industry! She got me into “thrifting” and she has curated for herself a lovely second-hand thrifted wardrobe (I am still in training).
If you can’t tell, I am in awe of my siblings and consider them some of my best friends!
So it wasn’t just the opportunity to attend my first fashion show during NYC Fashion Week but an opportunity to hang out with my sister.
The journey began on Friday September 10th with a flight to BWI (Baltimore-Washington International Airport) with a “Sisters Road Trip” to New York City:
It is crazy driving into NYC so we drove to Secaucus Junction in Secaucus, New Jersey which is just 5 miles from Penn Station, New York.
There you can park a car at reasonably priced overnight parking and take the NJ Transit train for under $5 from the Secaucus Junction to Penn Station. Here are a couple photos from that trip for NJ to NYC:
An interesting note about NYC – not only were masks required in many places, but proof of COVID vaccination was required to eat in many restaurants, stores, museums and to get into the fashion shows, etc.
From Penn Station we walked a couple blocks, then took the subway to Brooklyn were our Airbnb accommodations awaited.
My sister got a room in a boutique hotel in Soho for Saturday night, so I treated us to a unique Airbnb stay in Brooklyn for Friday night. The owner is a curator of unusual antiques, vintage items and plants. It’s difficult to describe the place we stayed at but here are photos (and yes the late 20-something host/owner could be described as the “Ultimate Hipster“):
It was awesome but a little bit visually over stimulating!
We found an awesome neighborhood deli/grocery store and picked up a delicious assortment of hot and cold yummies to take back to our room to eat. We returned to that deli for breakfast the next day also. It was the sort of deli you can only find in New York.
The next morning we headed to the Angel Orensanz Foundation, a beautiful event space, for my first NYC Fashion Week Fashion Show!
We had little free gifts from the designers on our chairs and the atmosphere/vibe inside the place was awesome. We saw runway shows by 5 – 6 local NYC designers and here are some images from the runway shows:
After the show we headed to eat a very tourist lunch at Katz’s Deli (famously known for a scene in “When Harry Met Sally”):
But it was really different with it’s COVID restrictions/protocols and for the high prices (which did not used to be so high) we decided to pass on the tourist trap. I’ve eaten there several times before pre-COVID the food is great and the atmosphere is delightful – the crowded busy NYC deli – but had no charm this time unfortunately due to its rigid COVID safety set up.
Instead we wandered to Soho (where we would be spending the evening in the Sohotel a historic hotel in Soho) for find dining.
Before getting to Soho we ran into Little Italyand had a delicious stop for gelato!
I’ll continue the rest of our adventures from this visit to NYC in my next post!
It seems like my blog should be called “tierneytravels” instead of “tierneycreates” as it feels like I’ve been doing a lot of traveling over the past several months, especially since leaving my job of 16 years and taking a break.
Over the past 2 months, I’ve been to New York City (NYC) twice: at the end of July while visiting my brother and his family; and just this past weekend with my sister during New York Fashion Week. In this post I will share my adventures and photos from the visit in July with my brother and his family. Part II will be about my more recent visit.
I was born in Pennsylvania but grew up in Long Island and Upstate New York. I spent a lot of my youth traveling to New York City (we would go to Rockefeller Center around Christmas time to see the tree, ice skating rink and Radio City Music Hall to see the Rockettes). I remember as a teenager (I think I was 14 the first time), my parents let me travel with my friend to NYC for the day on the Long Island train (things were different then and you could actually be okay letting your teen travel without an adult to the city).
When I lived in Upstate NY, NYC was only a couple hour train or bus ride away. When I moved to the Pacific NW, I would take the JetBlue “red eye” flight from Portland to JFK Airport/NYC to meet up with my sister for a long weekend a couple times a year. NYC holds a special place in my heart and I have lots of fun memories tied to NYC.
So until July 2021, it had been the longest period in my life that I had not been to NYC.
Since taking a break from my job of 16 years at the start of July 2021 (see post News) I’ve been doing a bit of traveling (staying safe, I am vaccinated and always wearing a mask and social distancing) which included reconnecting with my family who lives on the Eastern Coast of the U.S.
My brother and his family live outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and I’d not seen my darling now 9-year old nephew since 2019 (they came to visit me in Denver when I first moved here) and it was definitely time for a visit. My brother surprised me as I was about to arrive, that I would be going with them to NYC for an overnight because he had a client meeting in NYC he needed to attend.
They picked me up from the Philadelphia airport and we headed to NYC (couple hour drive) to stay at a nice hotel in Times Squarefor the night and have breakfast with his client in the morning.
NYC has not recovered from the pandemic yet and tourism is still down. It was surreal to wander around a fairly empty feeling Times Square with my brother and nephew after we got to our hotel.
Usually there are throngs of people wandering around Times Square.
The next morning we had a wonderful breakfast with his client, a television actor and author with a current television show. (A side note about my brother – he has his own Public Relations/PR and Branding company. He is quite the entrepreneur and started his company while at university in his undergraduate studies. By the time he was in graduate school he had his company up and running which at the time found speakers for colleges. It has grown since then quite a bit).
It was fun dining with a celebrity at a hip eating establishment in NYC! A very unexpected experience.
After the client meeting, we headed to the “spy museum” in NYC called SpyScape. My brother and nephew love movies focused around espionage, covert organizations and intrigue such as The Bourne movies and James Bond movies. We had a blast at the museum on simulated espionage adventures.
I did through the “spy training” academy and the “spychology” assessment I participated in at the museum with my brother, his wife and son, that I was not cutthroat enough to be a spy and that my best position would be an Analyst that works in the background of a covert organization.
Here are some photos from our visit to SpyScape, including the history of espionage, more than you wanted to know about “government surveillance; and the amazing James Bond Exhibit they had:
If you weren’t already paranoid about the government listening in when you arrived, you were definitely by the time you finished going through the museum! But it was really cool to see the James Bond Aston Martinup close!
After the museum we headed to the Central Park area to wander around.
Here I am in Central Park, just absolutely amazed to be there (but a little jet lagged and sleep deprived as I never sleep well in hotels):
We could not help ourselves, we had to stop for some yummy ice cream from the Ice Cream Truck parked in the area (it reminded me of the Ice Cream Trucks that would come around our neighborhood as a kid). My brother and his son have red arrows next to them:
I posted this photo on Instagram around the time of my visit and we had a little laugh that everyone seems to have gotten the memo that is was “blue t-shirt day” that day!
My brother had the idea that we should do a bicycle carriage ride (where you are transported by someone driving/riding a bike carriage) through Central Park. Here are some photos from that adventure:
But the best part of the bicycle carriage ride through Central Park was on one of the many “photo breaks” the driver gave us I discovered “Open Air Salsa” in the middle of Central Park! I spent my entire photo break watching people dance and took this little video which I will use to close this post:
Good Morning and here is part two of my story of the “Drawstring-bagalicious Retreat” I attended August 9 – 12, 2021 with my Washington based friends Judy and Dana. In Part I (A Drawstring-bagalicious Retreat, Part I) I shared that what began as a “bring your own project to work on quilting retreat” turned into a “let’s just make drawstring bags for 3 days obsession”!
We did do other things than make drawstring bags during our stay at the Riptide Retreaton the waterfront/beach in Shelton, Washington.
WE ENJOYED OUR COZY RETREAT CENTER
It was cluttered at times (this is what happens when you get a bunch of crafters together) but here are some scenes from the quilt retreat center (including while creativity was in progress):
In addition to the upstairs and its deck overlooking the water, the retreat center also had a downstairs with a cozy seating area, additional beds, and access to the downstairs deck.
There were only three of us at the retreat so we had plenty of space (the Riptide Retreat is set up for up to 10 attendees). Judy and Dana took the upstairs bedroom and I had the downstairs to myself – I had my own apartment! I would wake up each morning and look out on the water – it was pretty yummylicious (another fake English word like “bagalicious”, ha).
WE ENJOYED GORGEOUS VIEWS
One of the challenges of being at the Riptide Retreat (okay it was the only challenge) was not getting distracted by the gorgeous views. We keep being lured outside to sit on the upper deck and look at the water, instead of working on our drawstring bags.
I sat outside each morning with my tea and when I was not too distracted with the quiet peaceful views I worked on a blog post or two.
WE WENT SHOPPING!
The owners of the Riptide Retreat also own Annie’s Quilt Shoppea very reasonably priced quilt shop in Shelton, Washington. We got a discount on some items because we were staying at their retreat center.
All I can say is we might have visited this shop more than once during the retreat!
During one of our visits to this quilt shop (oops I just gave our secret away) I discovered that there is actually a National Sew A Jelly Roll Day on Sept 18, 2021. So quilters get your jelly rolls ready to participate – ha!
WE HAD YUMMY FOOD
The three of us are pretty laid back when it comes to our food selections and when we eat, so we had whatever/foraging for breakfast each morning among what Judy and Dana brought (I didn’t have to bring any food since I flew to the retreat). For lunches and dinners we either ate out, ate leftovers, or Judy/Dana made a wonderful meal.
We discovered this wonderful sort of “hole in the wall” place in downtown Shelton which was actually an awesome (and super delicious) family run eatery – T’s Cafe. There I discovered the most scrumptious meatball sub on the planet:
We enjoyed dining “al fresco” on the upper deck of the retreat for several meals:
And yes, those are homemade frozen margaritas in our glasses (and I am happy to report all three of us are of legal drinking age, ha!).
WE WALKED ON THE BEACH
From the downstairs deck you can walk down another level to the beach along the water. I had a nice solo walk and with my friends on the beach.
WE DID A LOT OF RELAXING
I think some people consider a quilt retreat (or a drawstring bag retreat, ha) time to get all those projects done you could not get done at home. Well we consider a quilt retreat time to actually “retreat” from the busy world and do some relaxing.
We spent a lot of time on the upper deck reading, blogging, playing iPad games, walks around the neighborhood, catching up with each other, and watching boats go by on the canal.
Sometimes I forget just how beautiful the Pacific NW is (and I lived there for over 20 years between Washington and Oregon) until I visit it again.
Before I get into this post, I just want to clarify for anyone reading this in which English is not your primary language, that “bagalicious” is not a real word – ha!
“Drawstring-bagalicious” was the best way I can describe a small quilt retreat I attended at a beautiful location in Shelton Washington in August 2021 with my friends Judy and Dana where we ended up making drawstring bags for 3 days!
We stayed at The Riptide Retreat, a house/retreat center right on the waterfront:
I think for this post I will focus on our drawstring bag making obsession during our retreat and next post share the photos of the beautiful waterfront, the inside of the quilt retreat center, the awesome quilt shop we visited, and the yummy place we ate.
We each brought projects to work on at the retreat, and I brought some pre-cut and pre-fused fabric to make a couple drawstring bags.
Well you know how crafters are when we get together – before you knew it everyone wanted to make drawstring bags and put their planned projects aside.
Judy made several lovely bags (5 or 6 total) but the photo I took of them included some surprises/gifts for mutual friends, so I am not going to post the photo of her bags.
I will just share images of some of the bags Dana and I made.
Here are Dana’s first set of drawstring bags, including some fun photoshoots she did with her completed bags:
Dana started out making one extra large drawstring bag with the Ruby Star/Sarah Watts fabric – Purl (which I now own in several colorways the fabric is so yummy!) and then she became obsessed and made them in every size from on the pattern (we all got the pattern for the drawstring bags by Sotak Handmade)!
I plan to totally copy Dana’s interpretation of the pattern design and make the same drawstring bag. The photos do not do it justice – it was so freakin’ cute!
She went on and made more and along the way we worked out ways to make the drawstring bags faster and more efficiently. We basically had a Drawstring Bag Workshop! I can now make them in my sleep!
Here is an example of a trick to make sure the seams stay flat that Judy came up with and Dana used on one of her bags – press the seams open during early assembly:
Dana also got creative on her drawstring bag design and started added labels made from the fabric selvage:
Another idea I am totally stealing when I make more bags in the future.
Here are more of Dana’s completed bags and her fun photoshoots on the deck against the waterfront:
And here are some of the bags I made and some fun photoshoots I took with the waterfront in the background off the back deck:
If you haven’t figured this out from the photos, part of the fun of making the drawstring bags is not only selecting the external/outside bag fabric but also choosing a coordinating interior fabric. We had fun sharing fabrics and picking up more from the local quilt shop! We also had fun selecting the ribbon/cord for the drawstrings and went on shopping adventure one day just to buy more drawstring materials! Yes we were obsessed!
We even made the same bags when we’d seen another’s completed drawstring bag and want to make it also (any everyone was so generous with sharing their fabric and our dwindling supply of interfacing).
More to come on our retreat to including what we did when we weren’t sitting around making drawstring bags (and photographing them)!
This is sort of Part II of my post from yesterday, Wilmington, North Carolina in Black and White. We also took photos in color and I wanted to share a little more from our trip to Wilmington, NC for my partner John’s business meetings.
Let’s get started with THE BEACH!
In yesterday’s post I provided a little preview with this B&W photo I took after we parked our rental car and were headed to the beach:
Well here are some in color photos from our afternoon on the North Carolina coast:
There was something special about being on the East Coast of the US at the Atlantic Ocean again. It seems like I’ve spent a lot of my life (living in Seattle for 8 years and Oregon for 14 years) on the West Coast near or on the Pacific Ocean.
I grew up on the East Coast (Long Island and Upstate NY) and there was something so nostalgic about swimming in the Atlantic Ocean again! Now for me there was not much swimming as the waves were very active and even while standing on the shore I got knocked down by some forceful waves. John was braver and headed in deeper than I did.
A special treat of being on the Carolina coastline/Atlantic Ocean for the afternoon was all the SEASHELLS!
I spent part of the afternoon at the beach hunting for perfect seashells. I felt like I was a kid again wandering the seashore looking for shells!
Here is my haul:
And yes I have not been landlocked so long in Colorado that I thought the rock (with red arrow) was a seashell – ha! It was just a cool rock I found on the shore that wanted to come home with me!
We had a delicious lunch at a restaurant overlooking the ocean (had one of my favs for lunch – fish tacos!):
Since we were in a touristy coastal town, we had to of course indulge in the obligatory visit to the handmade candy shop (though we stayed away from the standard “salt water taffy” and fudge) and buy a caramel apple – yum!
Although tasty, it was not the best caramel covered candy apple we’ve ever had, that honor belongs to a candy shop in Estes Park, Colorado at the base of Rocky Mountain National Park (see post Rocky Mountain National Park).
Here are a couple more photos, this time in color, from the wander about downtown Wilmington I mentioned in yesterday’s post:
There was beautiful foliage everywhere. Definitely different types of plants than I see in Colorado!
Here we are at the shopping center I mentioned in yesterday’s post, before having dinner with his colleagues at a restaurant called “Port Land” instead of “Portland”.
Did you notice I managed not to cut off anyone’s head in the selfie above? Well that is because I think John took the selfie for me!
I will close this post with some photos that John took of the beautiful sunset on the river as we spent the early evening wandering the Wilmington Riverwalk:
A couple weeks ago my partner John had a 5 day business trip in Wilmington, North Carolina. Since I am not currently working (see post News) I accompanied him and Mike the Miniature Schnauzer stayed with the dog babysitter (Mike will do a post in the future about his adventures at “Dog Camp” for little dogs).
We stayed at the Embassy Suites on the Wilmington Riverfront, and each morning I went on a walk along the river to explore and take photos, many in Black & White. As some of you might remember I like to pretend I am a photographer and do B&W photoshoots (see my blog post category Life in B&W if you want to see more of my delusional photography…).
Here are some select B&W photos from my trip that I want to share with you (as usual I took a ridiculous amount of photos).
Here is the photo that I would call “The Money Shot” (like they do in Hollywood) – it is my favorite photo I took along the Wilmington Riverwalk:
I love the reflection of the clouds on the water!
OLD BUILDINGS
I was fascinated by the old buildings I encountered while wandering around downtown Wilmington one day.
AROUND DOWNTOWN
Wandering around Downtown Wilmington…
THE RAILROAD MUSEUM
I thought I would get time to visit the Railroad Museum while I was there because I love railroads but time got away from me and I will have to save it for next time. I did take some photos though…
THE BEACH
Wilmington is on the North Carolina coast and we did spend an afternoon, when John was able to get out of meetings early, at the beach/ocean. Most of those photos were in color and I will share them on another post, but here is my one B&W photo at the on my way walk to the beach from where we parked.
BLOGGING CENTRAL
Our hotel room had a separate living room/kitchenette area from the bedroom area. Between the kitchenette and the living room was a desk set up. While on the trip I spent a bit of time catching up on reading blog posts as well as writing some posts. I took a photo of the desk I worked from in our hotel room:
I really enjoyed pretending I am a photographer! I also really enjoyed Wilmington, North Carolina!
John will be returning in the future for more business trips and there is a lot more to explore.
I also met some of his wonderful colleagues that live in North Carolina at a company dinner and look forward to spending time with them again. We dined at a place called the Port Land Grille (and yes after living in the Pacific NW I got a giggle over the name…) and I will close this post with a photo from the shopping center next to the restaurant.
tierneycreates 