Reporting Live from SOAR!

The Drive

We awoke at 5:45am this Sunday Morning. Kristine's mom was catching a bayporter to the Oakland Airport at 6am to head back to Minnesota. She spent the last three weeks with us helping us prepare for SOAR. Her visit was a total god sent for numerous reasons. Needless to say we really appreciated all of her help and company.

The van was loaded on Saturday night with the help of Nam, WonderMike (podcaster with a NEW podcast called Fiber Beat, check it out!!!! he has a contest right now), Kristine's mom, Kristine and myself. We had pizza from Rotten Cty Pizza which really helped us pack!

After running around loading the last bits of stuff into the van we left Oakland, CA at 7:15am. The van was and is still filled with most of the AVFKW store. Kristine's cherry matchless laid on it's back in view through the back window. Which came in handy when a little red Prius passed us honking. Of course my first thought when someone is passing me honking and waving at me is "I must have a flat tire" or "Oh god the back door is open" you know something bad. But no, the little red Prius had a very happy girl waving at us in spinning camaraderie as I noticed a spinning wheel in tea back seat as she passed us. It was seriously the cutest moment so far.

We got to WEED, CA at 11am and stopped to have breakfast at the Hi-Lo cafe (I got the pancakes). While I was finishing up breakfast Kristine ran across the street to the local liquor store for the special Weed Beer.

After we left Weed we caught the 97 north. It was so super beautiful. I was driving so not a lot of pictures from pictures me. Kristine took some nice ones, so stay tuned to her flickr page or blog.



We arrived ar Sunriver at 3:30pm. We were both bouncing off the walls excited to be there. We went to the registration table and immediately saw people we knew, yea!

I felt jet lagged so I was dying for some decompression. Let's just say I had a coffee for my headache and a beer for my nerves. We're in the Deschutes forest area, so I drank a delicious, no joke, Mirror Pond Pale Ale

SUNRIVER

The Sunriver Resort is much more than I expected. This is now on my top list of working vacation locations. It is nicely wooded, quiet, and accommodating. I even spotted two deer outside my window just after arrving to our room!



The best part of our room is the fireplace!



MONDAY, October 26th

Breakfast is from 7am - 8am so we needed to get a bit earlier than I wanted, but if someone is cooking for me and doing the dishes I'm there! So after breakfast Kristine headed to her class with Michael Cook (Worm Spit) the famous Silk Master. I went to the market area to start setting up. I unloaded the van which I actually had fun doing, I blame the good coffee. Then in the late morning I went looking for the restroom and found a coffee and hot chocolate station, decked out with whipped cream and mini marshmallows. At that point I really forgot I was at work! After 5 hours of setting up the booth my body ached and knew I had gotten a pretty good workout. After dinner Kristine and I headed for the hot tub while it was snowing and the moon glowed above!!! Truly one of the most beautiful moments in my life. I never realized how beautiful and quiet snow is falling at night. Just heavenly!