Summer Vacation - Girls Trip 2009

This year after some research the Girls' Trip was on. We headed for Southern PA for the town of Somerset. Andy did much of the research and found a cave for our exploration day (Laurel Caverns) and the perfect house that would accomodate all 16 of us! A comment was made last year, "wouldn't it great if we could rent the same house we had last year but in a different location?" Well, Andy did good. He found a 2 story house with a finished basement. 3 bathrooms, 9 beads, and about 6 rooms. Enough space to go around that we were able to place 3 blow up mattresses throughout. No complaints of being uncomfortable. We did the honorable thing and drew for beds. However, the 4 who had to share beds did get the 2 kings.

We left together on Friday morning from the CF store minus one person. Unfortunately, due to unforseen circumstances Hillary was not able to join us. But we did miss her so. Everyone was cleared for take off after answering 3 security questions, "Did you pack your own bags? Has anyone asked you to carry...." 3 SUV's carried all of us comfortably. We drove for 3.5 hours in the rain, but arrived in glorious sunshine in time for our tour of Falling Water in PA. Here we all are at the end of the tour. Out of 3 cameras this was the only shot that "worked out"...what does that say about the tour guide?....(and..."no corners" with a wave of the hand..inside joke)

Pizza was the perfect meal that evening as it allowed all of us to settle in and get a jump start on beading. While others got a head start on the boozing...no need to mention names. The laughter started early and ended late. There was never a shortage of conversation regardless of the room you were in. Silence was not to be had...until 2am or so.

As with the previous year, Saturday started early. I still want to know why it is I have yet to be able to sleep in on this trip? And WHY are these people getting up soooo early? This is suppose to be a vacation! Plans for caving was outvoted to a last minute change for outlet shopping. Unfortunately that was not exactly as great as one had imagined. On the ride to Somerset we again made a last minute change. There would appear to be an "art show" in the middle of town so we thought, ooooh, an arrrrt show...lets stop! Well, upon the walk from the funeral homes parking lot to the show grounds (1 block) we were able to determine that there seemed to be a lack of art as we peered over the barriers. We arrived at the gates to find that there was not only a $5 charge BUT the show did not open until 11:30am? huh. We walked away.

Arriving at the outlet mall did not give the feeling of exhilaration as we had hoped. It was like a scene out of a Stephen King movie. The mall was at least 90% empty. I think I counted about 10 customers in the whole place. What a bust. After lunch we thought we could make up the rest of the day at a winery. After all, in PA wine tasting is FREE. You know what they say, free is me. Well, maybe no so me. But we were there and we were greated with a bit of eye candy. That bar tender was a hotty. Survey said, 14 out of 15 agreed, he was a little young, but HOT.

We agreed to go to dinner that night, no one wanted to cook. The house was part of a ski resort, therefor equipped with a golf course and restaurant. After checking out the restaurant (...and the cooks) we agreed on the that restaurant. Did no one mention it really wasn't a restaurant but really the golf course's snack bar with a grill? huh? Well, the cooks were nice. The reality was, we wanted to go there for the dessert...and I am not talking about the cooks. We were told that thre would be Red Velvet and a Lemon something or another that sounded great. Of course the way our luck was running they were OUT of dessert...so we were told. On our way out of the restaraunt we bumped into the cuties (uh, cooks) with whom I shared my discontent about dessert or lack there of. We quickly found out that the waittress was trying to cut her shift short by shorting us our dessert course. Not to fear, they packed dessert for us to take back to the house. As pleased as we were feeling about our goody bag it lasted as long as our first bite! Let me just say, "glad we did not pay for it!"

The rest of the evening was complete with great company and beads! There was a showdown of bad jokes that only lead to dirty jokes which brought us to tears and stomach cramps from laughing too much. Life is good.

Sunday morning we were greeted with great weather for our drive home and a pit stop at Ikea.