Ashland Trip 2014

Another wonderful time with the girls in Ashland this spring. We lucked out on the weather-- had sunshine for most of the days there! We saw four plays: Comedy of Errors (set in Harlem in the 1920's), A Wrinkle in Time (staging was awesome), Water by the Spoonful (a contemporary play about the complexity of online relationships, cyber chat rooms, PTSD, and addiction--- an intense and very well acted play), and The Cocoanuts (a Marx Brothers comedy-musical.)



We had lots of porch time

 afternoon happy-hour!

 

 morning coffee/reading time

eating time

Blueberry crepes

 Pasta and green beans

Egg muffin with Cinnamon Roll Cake

  

 Breakfast lasagna with more coffee cake

At our favorite restaurant, The Peerless

relaxing and reading time

spa time

pedicure with Jan

and wine time

I was crowned Cork Queen this year for my wine label entry (a tough category - "old people.") I had to watch my back as the reigning queen wasn't happy about giving up her crown. As a matter of fact she wore a back-up crown after passing the scepter and crown to me!

1st place label

2nd place winner

2nd place label

The backup crown

It rained our last day there, so we visited a new winery just outside of town, Bella Fiore. Gorgeous setting and buildings. Great wine, too!

Seems like every year the time in Ashland goes by faster! Sure do enjoy these girls! Got to get my crown on and come up with next year's wine label competition category! Any suggestions?

Ashland 2012

Six of the seven in our group returned to Ashland for the annual girls week away last week. This year is my 20th year as a member of the group; others have been involved for almost 30 years. The Sherwin Cottage on Oak Street works perfectly for us.

 We worked in pairs to prepare scrumptious breakfasts.

 Crepes, baked chai french toast, eggs benedict breakfast pizza, baked cheesy apples, smoothies, mimosas, YUMM...

We were spoiled with dinner out at Ashland's fantastic restaurants each evening,

and treated ourselves to awesome Pacific Northwest wines.

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We saw exceptional plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. My Favorite was Romeo and Juliet. It was set in a fabled world of the Spanish Californios in the late 1840's. The artistic directors took the play to new heights with their insight and nontraditional interpretation. It was magnificent. (I'm glad I had a Kleenex in my pocket at the end!)
Vaudeville, the Marx brothers, and craziness were the key words for Animal Crackers. Delightful with its music and zany comedy, this fast-paced play kept us in stitches.
There was much discussion about Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella as it showcased the three plays on the stage at the same time. It was a bit mind-boggling for me.
Several of the group saw The White Snake, adapted from the classic Chinese fable, and thought the staging was excellent.

Porch sitting throughout the day always brought great discussions and gave us a chance to unwind, read, or people watch.

Once again, we crowned the Cork Queen for 2012. The 2011 reigning Queen spent some time wearing the crown before it had to be relinquished to the 2012 winner.

The winning label for the theme "Nature" was:

Late night discussions, pudding shots (have you ever had one??), and popcorn with truffle butter were the best!

 Remnants of pudding shots = we had chocolate pudding with rum and baileys, and vanilla with orange flavored vodka and triple sec.







Ann got to return home in style when her husband flew down to pick her up. The rest of us had to make the 5+ hour drive home! But it was all worth it!!

 

We've already made next year's plan for the trip and are looking forward to getting together again!
(I took the pictures, so I'll have to wait until someone posts their photos before I can add one of myself!)