Buses, Trains and Automobiles

*Note: this post has been edited to allow me to protect just about everyone.*
So, last thursday I got on a bus at a completely ungodly hour to go to Seattle and get on a train to Portland. I took the early bus 'cause it had the best train connection, only half an hour. Sounds good, right?
Hah!
I wound up standing in the Seattle train station long enough to watch people walk straight onto the 10:30 train (mine was supposed to be the 9:45 one) and then watched as that train pulled out. I was still standing in the station waiting for my train to show up.
A bit of a piss off, but finally we pulled out at about 10:50. Things were looking good until the train came to a dead stop in the middle of nowhere, for no reason that I could see. The conductor came on the PA to tell everyone that a track was out of commission and we'd have to stop every so often to let trains go the other way. Greeeeeaaat. 'Cause it's not like we're already really late or anything. So I call Blank and let her know that my train is sucking the hind tit in a rather major way and I will be pretty damned late.
The train got to Portland only an hour late (I don't even want to know how they made up the time. Really. I don't want to know). Blank picks me up and we're off to blank.
Blank is really pretty. I loved it. Very quiet, and full of wildlife. I saw rabbits, deer, ground squirrels, a ton of colourful birds and a bunch of chipmunks on crack. Very twitchy those chipmunks.
It was great to see blank and meet her family. They were nice enough to put me up for a couple of days. Really lovely people. Thursday, Blank and I played with yarn and compared notes on the blank. There was a lot of brain-storming, but it never got overwhelming. Lots of fun!
Cat arrived on Friday and we went to Portland to get the hall set up for her talk and signing. Traffic was awful, making a lot of people late, but it worked out great in the end. And I think everyone had a good time. Cat's new book is pretty inspiring and I loved seeing her again. I think it had been a couple of years since I'd last seen her. She encouraged me to get on with the designs and the book sooner than later. She also said a lot of really nice things about the blank.
Blank introduced me to some fabulous (but sadly, blogless) people from around blank and Seattle. I'm hoping we'll keep in touch and take a trip to the Daiso sometime soon.
Saturday, we all left and let Blank have her house back. I went to stay in Blank with Doug and Angela in a little cottage at an Inn. We just relaxed and knit for the rest of the day.
This is the only picture fit to print:


The Inn had fresh eggs thanks to the chickens running around the grounds. Of course, I was thinking how good this guy would be kentucky fried when he woke me at 4:30 am on Sunday morning.
The drive back was long, but pretty entertaining. I have a great pic of Angela dozing the back seat, but I was mildly threatened into not posting it. She's small, but feisty.