Day one of my third year

There is just no way I can convey to you what my experience of attending Stitches West 2011 was like, and still keep it short in one post. So, I will split it into three, beginning with day one.
My daughter, granddaughter, and I boarded the train on Friday morning, filled with so much excitement! It would be mine and my granddaughter's first year attending the Student Banquet and Fashion Show, and the adrenaline was pumping at a high rate. We were so excited!!
(Yes, for those that didn't know, my birth name is Deborah. I'll answer to that, Deb, Debbie, Deedee, and Dee.)

In years past, we would take either a shuttle bus, or walk to the convention center from the train station. This year, Amtrak decided not to provide buses, and since it was raining, we called our hotel and asked them to please call us a taxi. Hard to believe the Hilton doesn't have shuttles, but oh well, not to be dwelled upon. We went straight to our room, dropped off our luggage, freshened up a bit, and walked over to Stitches. We had about 3 1/2 hours to take it all in, so we each split up after agreeing on a meeting spot and time to head back over to our hotel. None of us had eaten anything that day, so we decided to grab a nice, relaxing meal in the hotel restaurant. The Hilton, like other hotels in the area, I'm sure, take advantage and charge a king's ransom for their meals and drinks, but it didn't matter to me. I just wanted the three of us to have the best time ever; we had waited a whole year for this! Our dinner was excellent, and they served us the best tampenade I have ever had, made from green and black olives!

The three of us were a little tired, but we decided to sit in the lobby of the hotel where they had nice comfy sofas and chairs. My daughter and g-daughter still had a bit of knitting to do on their garments they would be modeling the following night in the fashion show. I sat and worked on my Terra shawl, some relaxing, auto-pilot knitting. The picture above doesn't do the color of this yarn justice (Shelter by Jared Flood of BrooklynTweed). A little while later, we were joined by my good friend, Lew, and other knitters would occasionally wander over to where we were all seated and introduce themselves. What an honor to have a published, well-respected friend like Lew, to help my g-daughter with her knitted dress! Sometime, around 11:30pm I think, we all decided to go to our rooms and get some rest. It would be a full day tomorrow, and we wanted to get up early, grab some fresh fruit, a muffin, and some coffee, and head into that vast sea of fibery goodness!!!