I didn’t write over the weekend because I was busy here…

…having a lot of this…

…with my friend, Melissa.

We left Portland at noon on Friday and drove 6 hours to Spokane.

The sun was shining.

We stopped once to pee, once to get gas, and chatted the entire time.

I think it was the fastest 6 hours of my life.

We stayed at the historic Davenport Hotel in downtown Spokane.

{The hotel deserves it’s own post, so I will write one later.}

We got our room, went downstairs for cocktails and dinner and went to bed so we could get up early to get in line for the show.

On Saturday morningwe were up and out of the hotel before 8 am with coffee and scones in hand.

There were already people lined up when we arrived at 8am.

Here is a map of the show and vendor names. {click on it to see it larger}

We bought our tickets and stood in line for 2 hours until general admission was let in. Serena came by and handed us a map and said hello. I should have asked her to take a photo with us, but I am never good at that kind of thing.

Here she is talking to some men who were filming her at the show…

The show was huge, the vendors were great, displays were beautiful, and the other people from all over the country (and Canada) we so friendly.

I usually just bring my camera and take photos on one of these adventures with Melissa, but this time I planned to look for a couple of things…one of which was cowboy boots for the kids.

I found ’em.

I also found an old sign that reads “sunflowers” and an old chalkboard (you can see part of the sign in the photo below before I snatched it up).

I thought about buying this guy for Ryan…it’s a Blue Grouse. I didn’t. When I showed Ryan the photo he said I should have. I shouldn’t have second guessed myself. Next time I will be on the lookout for a Blue Grouse mount!

And, for some family in New York (you know who you are), if this sign hadn’t been $125 I would have bought it for you to put in your front yard(s).

We took one 3 hour cruise through the entire place in the morning, stuck our purchases out in the car, and went through again without our hands and bags full.  It took another 2 hours…and our hands and bags were full again!

Our feet were hurting from walking the concrete floors in out boots. {Of course we wore our boots!}

By 4 pm we were ready to head back to the Davenport for a cocktail and some dinner.

The rest of the evening was spent exploring the hotel and reading about it’s history.

After dinner we headed to the room to get some sleep to get back on the road to relieve our husbands from daddy duty.

We did stop at Chaps, which Serena highly recommends. I understand why. Super cute place with amazing food. We just got pastries and coffee to go, but it was worth the short drive out of our way to go!

 

On the way home the weather was perfect, we made awesome time, and we chatted the entire way. We discussed what we would do differently the next time…that topic deserves it’s own post, too!

In a nutshell, the weekend was well worth it. It was fun, inspiring, rejuvenating, and I will definitely be making future trips to Spokane for the Farm Chicks Show and otherwise!

Did you know that 5 years ago, in 2006, Ryan went to the Farm Chicks Show with me?!  I wonder if Ryan would rather stay at home with the kids alone for the weekend or go to the Farm Chicks Show? Hmmmm.

Hey, if you were at the show, leave a comment to let me know what your favorite part was, where you came from, and where you stayed! Also, if you have a blog and wrote a post about it, leave a link to your URL!

home is…a girls weekend at the Farm Chicks show!