Good day!  Today, we will arrive in our new home for the next nine months.  I am nervous and wondering what to expect.  I need to learn my way around, find a job (soon) and figure out the whole area.  It's a little overwhelming and consumed most of my free thoughts yesterday.

Speaking of yesterday, what a lovely day in Anacortes and La Conner.  We set off in the morning, walking from our nice motel to downtown.  Walked past a fresh fruit stand looking in awe of locally grown blueberries, raspberries and blackberries the size of walnuts.  A half flat mix and match for $11.  What a deal.  Will have to pick some up on the journey back.

Oh wait... before we left, I checked the TV Guide and saw "Chopped" championship would be on at 3 p.m.  Mental note to return to the motel to watch it.  It is my all time favorite show.

We saw a sign for Antique Machinery Show today.  Started off towards it and looked at several menus for local cafes on the way.  What a great show!  They had old tractors, steam engines, air compressors, farm tools, cars, and more.  Pretty cool to see some of the tools in use.  One of the tools was a drag saw, and it was really neat.  Emil took plenty of pics to send to my Dad, who I know really would've enjoyed the show.

Next we headed to to the Farmers Market and looked at honey, cheese, crafts and picked up a garlic cheddar scone.  Delish!  After looking at some stores, we settled for lunch at The Calico Cupboard!  I ordered the Skagit Hash.  It is fresh broccoli, tomato, spinach, mushrooms, red onion, garlic, crushed red peppers & Feta cheese tossed with a generous portion of our famous country-style red potatoes. Topped with a little mozzarella cheese.  A perfect serving with a little spice. 
Check them out at http://www.calicocupboardcafe.com/index.cfm

On our walk back to the motel, we picked up berries and marveled at the freshness and low cost.  Quite a nice change from Alaska prices.

After watching "Chopped," we drove over to La Conner to look around.  What a super cute little town!  Sort of reminded me of Aspen with the specialty stores and beautiful people.  The Wood Merchant store is a particularly nice store with these fun wooden spoons shaped for all different uses like sorbet scoop, stir fry spoon or ketchup stirrer.

For dinner, we picked up food from a specialty market called The Market at Anacortes.  Kind of like at Whole Foods or Fresh Market. 

Now, we head to Redmond... ready for the big adventure to begin.