annual us

Rain is everywhere. It is falling on cheeks and streaming down windows. The air is only a little chilly, but the wind is having fun splashing water on the underneath of things.

I am sitting in my office thinking about my weekend. It was my annual Girls' Trip with dear friends, and I am always a little exhausted and a lot pleased afterward.

My girlfriends are wonderful. They are fun and sweet, smart and sassy. They are chic and stylish, perfectly sarcastic, and they are compassionate which makes all the sly remarks and silly giggles balance perfectly on the tightrope that friendship can be. Our tightrope is close to the ground (in case we fall) so we get all the good challenges and provoking conversation without the danger or any kind of meanness. Except when one or two of us are really hungry. And that is usually cured by lunch.

We had four nights and five days traipsing all over Seattle and even managed a 24-hour trip to Orcas Island. We loaded up my Volkswagon pop-top camper van (a.k.a. White Lightening), fully stocked with cheeses and specialty breads and spreads from Pike Place Market, and a few bottles of wine. We rode the ferry, hiked in the woods, went out for lunch, and sat on the beach sipping wine and watching otters. We went to dinner. We rode the ferry back the next day and had such a spread of culinary delights that passers-by made comments. We had to wash honey off the table.

The four of us can spend hours chatting, our conversations fluid, running all over the globe and up and down the span of our lives. We like to seek out boutiques and antique shops, locally made jewelry and small-batch perfumeries. We love dancing and even waited for 11:00p to roll around before we went out. This used to be no problem, but we're not the young sprouts we once were, so there is some self-impressing to do. (I could easily have sunk into the sofa for a nap.) As it was, we wore heels and got silly and dropped into bed at 3am.

Even after 24 hours a day together we were slow to say goodbye. They live 1254 miles South of me, which means we must plan our visits well ahead of time and save our pennies for splurging and discoveries. We found Vinho Verde (a Portuguese nearly-colorless white wine with an effervescent flavor). We found hand-hammered necklaces and Coconut-Curry Theo Chocolate. We have a list of funny quotes that will enter our stories the next time we get together.

I hope it won't be too long.

Here are a couple of photos (thanks to Morgan and Rachel with their Hipstamatic).