1st Annual S&B Retreat in the books

The 1st Annual S&B Retreat was a resounding success, I'd say! I think it achieved all of its intended goals-or really, its main goal of spending quality time with good friends (requisite stitching and bitching included). I'm looking forward to keeping up with this as an annual event!

The Oaks was great. I enjoyed the fact that we didn't have to worry about anything. Everything we wanted to do or eat was right there. We were fed 3 meals a day, plus smoothie, veggie, and the aforementioned broth breaks, and all the water and iced tea we could drink! Besides frequent visits to the ladies room, we also took part in a couple of fitness classes, which were great, and took advantage of the nice pool area all Saturday afternoon. (Thanks, BTW, Dis, for the lovely photo of Nasus and I simultaneously depicting our frustrated "Dangit, sash!" faces.) We did, however, decline a visit to the "solo meditation" area. ;) As Dis mentioned, the food was quite tasty, although notably lacking in sodium. Lucky for us, we brought sodium supplements in the form of chips, pretzels, and other goodies! One of the fun aspects of dinner time was that we were able to meet and dine with a couple of nice women, one each night. We met Mary, a woman from Alaska who is a world-traveler and health spa go-er and Estelle, a lovely lawyer and mother of two year-old twins from Santa Monica, who was only there for the day but was very happy and exclaimed that it was the best day of her life. :)

We even managed to get in some knitting! Although, as I look at the half a dozen or so rows of my Kyoto sash, I wonder what the heck I was doing all weekend, as I sure didn't make much progress on that thing! Another fun aspect of the Oaks environment was the way we were approached by a few different women while we worked on our sashes on the patio. They would ask to see what we were making and talked a little about yarn and one woman from LA told us about her LYS. Knitters are so friendly!

We also shared our 100 Things lists and made a new list- of future possible retreat locales. These sessions were both great fun. As close as we are, we learned even more about each other, which was great. We made a pact to make continue this as an annual event, and even joked about what we would be like at the 30th Annual S&B Retreat! Ha! Personally, I can't wait! Well, I can wait for 30 years to pass by, but I am happy to think we will still have this in 30 years. As the 3 of us slowly part from the job (and city) that initially brought us together, we are unable to see each other every day like we used to, so retreats will be good excuses to get together for a good old fashioned Girls Weekend every once in a while. I know I'm already looking forward to next year's retreat! Hawaii, here we come! ;)