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| Oak Creek at L'Auberge |
Ok, back to just getting there. Bob, was patiently waiting.
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| Bob is in the black and white shirt |
And, while you really can't see this but, beside Bob is Betty, Lisa, Candy & Pat (this was a first time for both Candy and Pat - therefore, they're the Newbies).
Arriving with me was Suzette:
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| Suzette |
Denise & Mike showed up as did Mike's mug (check his right hand).
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| (L to R) Nori's Leg, Suzette, Denise, Mike's Mug, Mike |
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| (L to R in a zig zag pattern) Candy, Bob, Sandy, Lisa, Nori, Pat |
Then David arrived and also Christine.
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| (L to R) Suzette, Mike, David |
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| Christine |
A couple of others arrived but no pics of them, we'll have to catch them later. Because we needed to get moving and just a short ride away we found ourselves at L'Auberge where we were very cheerily greeted by Linda. I tried to get a picture of her face forward, but sometimes I'm just not fast enough.
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| (L to R) Sandy, Lisa, Cynde, Linda, Suzette |
I didn't get any photos of L'Auberge itself. But, it is a very charming place and the restaurant (which we had to walk through to get where we were going) is really very nice. Makes you want to make plans to go there.
We headed on down to the creek and all of us did a lot of balancing on rocks. Most of us selected a rock or 2 to use as spots.
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| (L to R) Suzette, Lisa, Denise, Sandy |
Bet you thought I was kidding about the balancing bit, no, navigating these rocks had its own special challenge. But, I have to really hand it to Denise because check this out.
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| (L to R) Cynde, Denise, Christine |
Ok, so, it's not obvious to you at the moment, so I'll zoom in for you to see. But, before I do that, check out Denise's tripod -- balanced on not one but 2 different rocks. Ok, now for what I was talking about concerning Denise.
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| Denise was wearing flip flops |
Yes, it was a challenge for the rest of us in our sneakers, but Denise did it in Flip Flops!!!! Boy, am I impressed.
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| (L to R) Cynde, Denise, Me, Sandy -- background Christine (Photo by Lisa) |
These next few are also courtesy of Lisa -- thanks Lisa!
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| Bob (Photo by Lisa) |
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| Nori (Photo by Lisa) |
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| Suzette (Photo by Lisa) |
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| Suzette & Lisa |
Here's Betty in her spot, once again a setting pretty enough for it's own painting.
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| Betty |
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| Mike |
Oh, Lisa also got this one of David in his spot.
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| David (Photo by Lisa) |
It also took a bit of searching but I finally found the Newbies, Candy & Pat in their spots, although their backs are to us.
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| Pink hat is Pat, Candy |
There's also a stairway to Candy's right. I think they came down that way and didn't traverse the rocks. Smart move because I didn't wander on down to where they were from the rocks above, for sure I probably would've done a face plant.
When it was time to wrap up I headed up to where Mike was hiding out and at least got a better photo of him in his spot.
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| Mike |
We managed to put together a gallery using the wood fence and some tape. The sun caused a few paintings to take on a different look as it shone through them. But, as always they all looked great and more importantly, we had FUN painting them. We'll all be happy to go back there at the end of the month. In the meantime though we'll be heading elsewhere.
Ok, the group photo took a lot of maneuvering around to get into place. Besides that, trying to get everyone to interrupt their conversations long enough to smile on 2 was no small feat. You'll see that there are 2 fellows in the back row that are barely visible -- turns out 6' isn't quite tall enough because all you can see is the tops of their heads and eyes.
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| Yikes, let's see if I can do this - going back to front and left to right Mike, Bob (both are WAY back) Suzette, Nori, Denise, Candy, Sandy David Cynde, Me, Pat, Betty Lisa |
One of the things I failed to mention was the noise level. You would not believe how noisy the creek is at this point. The little water falls it was creating while rushing through those rocks and the speed with which it was flowing being the cause. Also the cicadas kept chiming in and there apparently were quite a few of them. Surprisingly though where Candy and Pat the 2 Newbies were, it was quieter. So, definitely the fault of the water splashing through the rocks was the cause. But what a pretty spot!!
Cecilia