** WARNING: Heavy photos!! **
About the trip to Ohio and Indiana....all I say is.... AWESOME!!!! We really enjoyed so much although our vacation was very short! We wish we could stay there longer....
What is this???? Does it look like someone left basket there???
Yup!!! It's really BASKET!!!! Oh wait..wait..wait......
Oh my goodness...... That building was built as a BASKET!!!! Oh boy.... so impressive!!!! It is the Longaberger Company's Home Office - (the seven-story office)
Close up.... It's a
Longaberger building.
We stayed in The Place: A Longaberger Hotel overnight. So many cool baskets decorate in every rooms - bathroom, bedroom, dining rooms, lobbies, and pool area.
We went to Longaberger Homestead for the day to shop, eat and watch basketmakers handcrafting baskets from start to finish. The weather was so terrible HOT and HUMIDITY!! It was so hard to walk around the place but there were not many people around which was perfectly fine with us. I don't like shop in crowded places.
I'm standing next to the world's largest Apple Basket. It stands over 29 feet tall. The Apple Basket was hand-woven of hardwood maple in 1999 and measures over 19 feet in base diameter.
Craig and I signed up to weave the baskets. I made the small basket and Craig wanted to make the bigger one.
Craig's artisan inspected and approved the basket.
Craig is really proud of his handmade basket with the great help of his artisan, Eric.
Huge basketmakers are working in the workshop area. It was so amazing watching them making the baskets.
I had to take the picture of the temperature. It was only 4 p.m. and it was so unbelievable HOT and we were so tired and sweaty!! Thanks goodness that we have A/C in our car. We arrived in Noblesville, Indiana at 7 p.m. and stayed with my friends for the weekend.
My dear friend Debbie took me to Mass. Ave. Knit Shop in Indianapolis. It took us an hour to get there because we were LOST in downtown. We were not paying attention on the road when we chatted and realized that we went down too far and could not figure out how to get there. Good thing that I have my own pager to get internet for the direction. We finally found the yarn shop. I was soooooo HAPPY to see the shop. I have never seen so much yarn in one place at one time! They have literally hundreds of finished objects so you can see how your project will turn out. I saw few finished objects that I would like to make and asked the owner of the shop for the pattern. The owner told me that there was no pattern and she invented it herself. She will be happy to write down the instruction on how to make the cool poncho. I told her that I will contact Debbie to get the instruction when I'm ready to make next project. I promise myself to finish few unfinished projects. There are several couches and long table with several chairs if you want to sit and knit a spell and a huge play area for the children. There were four little children running around and play games in play room which is really nice. That shop is a MUST SEE! Of course, I could not leave the store empty hands. I brought two skeins of Jazz and three needles. I would love to go back there again. We went to two quilt stores and brought few quilt patterns, too.
We were staying in our friends' house for dinner and bonfire. It was so good to see my old friends.
The guys were relaxing by the bonfire.
But we were all taking turn to fight each other with the swords. It was so much fun playing with the sword. Here is my Craig fighting with my boss!!! Yes, my boss and his family was in Indiana, too for the weekend. My boss was from Indiana and I know him since college year.
NASCAR day!!!!! We went to Brickyard 400. We were so lucky to sit in right location...facing to pit area and could see the start/finish line and the person waving flag to communicate with the drivers. Beautiful balloons flying up the air just before the drivers start racing.
My favorite driver - Elliott Sandler #38. He was leading the first 22 laps but lost the lead for a lap to pit. He finished 32nd. It was very disappointing for him and me.
Good view of the race track.... you could see a lot of people wearing red t-shirts or caps rooting for Dale Earnhardt Jr #8.
Craig's favorite driver - Dale Earnhardt, Jr. #8 Not good day for him. He started 27th and immediately struggled with other drivers. He was bumped from behind by other driver and hit the inside retaining wall head-on on the main straightaway, then rebounded other three cars. He finished 43rd. I felt so bad for him. Craig was so disappointed for him.
Of course, I brought my Soleil project with me.
It was so hard to knit in very HOT and MUGGY day but I managed to knit about 20 rows. I gave up when my hands were so sweaty.
See the man waving the checkered flag waving to Tony Stewart... Sorry that photo is not clear. It was very emotional moment to see the winner. A lot of people cheered loudly for Indiana naive driver, Tony Stewart #20. I'm really happy for him. He finally lived the dream he has coveted since childhood.
Tony Stewart - the one who drank milk!! Ewwww....drink milk in very hot day!!! We sure enjoyed very much watching the car race.
We were so sad that the weekend was over and drove back last Monday. The trip was very smooth. Craig drove all the way and I knitted. I finished knitting the scarf that I brought two skeins from the Mass. Ave. Knit Shop. We arrived back at 9:30 pm. We were so happy that we arrived safely. We are not sure if we plan to go back to Brickyard 400 next year. It depends on my work schedules for Summer 2006.
Right now, I'm sick like a dog!! I'm having bad head colds and chilly. I'm going to bed early tonight. Will post my knitting photos tomorrow. Stay cool (stay warm for me!!!)
