meeting THE pioneer woman

This  past Thursday I left work early and headed down to Seattle.  The skies were blue but the weather here has been much colder than our average... fortunately no snow since I had a fun day planned.

I left work with the intention of having extra time before I needed to be any where so I could make a couple of planned side trips.  The first involved an antique mall near my daughter's new house.  It did not disappoint... it was HUGE!  In fact I think you could get lost in there never to be seen again.  I found a cute little gift for my mom and the above bottle brush tree for myself, of course!  I've never seen a vintage bottle brush tree covered with vintage beaded garland, ornaments, presents and of course it was flocked too!

Then it was off to my favorite market to get pico de gallo and I came across these whole wheat sugar cookies... and we all know the whole wheat counteracts the butter, right?  And yes, they are were delicious.

And my next stop?  Hobby Lobby!  Yep, I didn't know we had one near by but it turns out there are a couple in the Seattle area and this one in particular is a few minutes from my daughter's house.   This was important since I was picking my son in law up there to head to downtown Seattle and meet up with my daughter.  And why you ask?

Well this lady was in town and we were going to meet her!

Ree Drummond, aka the Pioneer Woman is on a book tour for her lastest cookbook and she was coming to Seattle!

Traffic was a nightmare, is there any other kind in Seattle on a Thursday at 5:00?

But we got there with time to spare... my daughter, Krysta and her husband Sten were with me.

And then it was showtime!  The Pioneer Woman talked for a bit and shared photos and stories.  She is as funny in person as her show on the Food Network.

Then it was time to line up for the actual book signing... this part didn't go so well.  Not sure if it was the venue and it's pew style seating or us crazy fans but it was utter chaos.  Folks, like us, that had prepurchased their books at the sponsors stores had "priority tickets" but that didn't seem to phase the crowd.  They even made us all sit back down at one point only to have the same stampede happen all over again... sigh.

At one point my son in law looked up, he didn't wait in line, and the look on his face was priceless when he saw that we hadn't moved AT ALL... after a good 45 minutes no less.

But finally the line was moving and we were getting close to the front...

And then, it was our turn!  Of course I couldn't think of anything witty... or even not witty to say!

By now it was pushing 9:00 and we hadn't eaten dinner so we headed a couple of blocks over to The Cheesecake Factory for burgers and fries.

And then it was a cold and lonely drive home...

But well worth it since I have this, and my memories, to remember the evening by...

And it's still cold, just 14.2 degrees (Fahrenheit) at 7:00 pm, but at least the wind has stopped blowing...