Friday night in Westport was pretty low-key; once all of us had arrived, we decided to go out to dinner. I chose Mexican because we don't have any good Mexican restaurants in Waterloo. We ended up driving around in circles for a while because the person driving wasn't able to get her bearings. The food was exceptionally good although the restaurant was full of really, really drunk people so the atmosphere left something to be desired.
Everyone who was going to be there was there on Saturday. Most of us got together for breakfast (it was included in the hotel price), after which I decided I'd walk down to the drugstore. I thought it was really close but it turned out to be about a mile and a half away. I saw a TD bank on my way there, which surprised me - later, someone said that they'd just taken over another bank. At least I was able to stop at the bookstore on the way back :) I bought a book I'd been interested in before: Books of Blood (Volumes 1-3) by Clive Barker. I'll have to get the volumes 4-6 as well - I looove the stories. I hadn't expected to go on such a big walk and slept while others went down to the beach.
That night, the person who knew the area best suggested we go to an Italian restaurant. She called the owner who said that he could fit us in as long as we showed up by 6pm as he had a reservation for 15 at 7:30pm. We're a group of 13 at this point, and if any of you are familiar with groups of this size, you'll know that getting the entire group together at the same time is like herding cats.
We were supposed to all meet at 5:45pm to figure out car assignments. Everyone finally showed up by 6:05pm and we all made it to the restaurant by 6:30pm. Remember our reservations were for 6pm? Yep, we were late. The owner was in a tizzy because he had this huge group coming in at 7:30pm but he assured us that he could serve us all within 15 minutes. Ha ha.
The meal was delicious and finished around 8pm. I don't know of any restaurant that can serve 13 people in 15 minutes :) We all met afterward in one person's room for some chatting, italian desserts, and fun. There was a lot of laughter (much of it inappropriate) and good times.
On Sunday, the person who knew the area arranged for us all to go to dinner at The Dressing Room , which is the restaurant that Paul Newman part-owned (apparently she knew the family). The restaurant serves only organic food. The food was *delicious*. For dessert I had angel food cake lightly pan-fried and then drizzled in honey, served with vanilla ice cream. It was soooooo gooooood. And it's something that we could make at home :)
I ate a little too much at dinner and my painkiller patches expired during dinner so I ended up feeling like crap afterwards. A lot of people got together that night but there was no way I could have done that - once I got my patches changed, I went to bed.
We all did a little bit of shopping on Monday at Anthropologie and Balducci's . I fell in love with a coat at Anthropologie but they didn't have it in my size, which is just as well - it was $328USD. I fell in love with many of the clothes there because they have such beautiful detailing on all of their clothes. I can make clothes and I want to put detailing on them, but I don't really know what would look good without looking homemade. I signed up to receive their catalogs as inspiration.
Balducci's carries a lot of organic foods and whatnot. After that shopping, some people went downtown and I went to bed, where I stayed until Tuesday morning. I kid you not - I slept through dinner and everything. I've been exhausted since then, as you know.
All in all, it was a fantastic visit. I'm so very glad that I went, even though I was nervous and anxious. I met some great people that I hope to see again. I hope that I gave everyone as much as I felt I got - there were so many wise, wonderful women there that I feel indebted to them.
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