Instead of taking the red-eye that the other girls from California took, I left earlier and spent the first night in a hotel near the airport. That was a great decision, because not only was I awake and aware for the first day at the workshop, I had several uninterrupted hours to spend on getting images ready for my new website! That’s a project that I’ve been trying to work on for months now, and it feels great to be so much closer to finished.

So, the next morning, I went back to the airport to catch the shuttle to the island. There, I met Carmen, Sally, and Angie. We chatted for a couple hours and got to know each other. Carmen has four kids (including a pair of twins!) so we had a lot in common. (This picture is from the dock as we were on the shuttle getting ready to go.

  Once we got to the island, we were assigned to our houses. I had the CUTEST house! Most of the houses were million-dollar mansions with a bunch of bedrooms and meeting areas, mine was a remodeled older house with just two bedrooms, a kitchen and living room and it was so rustic and cute! I want to go back with my family some day. I took some pics of the adorable little house.

Doesn’t it just look like heaven? The whole time I was on the island, I felt disconnected from the real world (I guess I technically was, being that I was on an island!), so it was weird when we got back to the continent and back to real life.

After exploring the island for a bit, we had a welcome dinner at one of the houses. Millie’s mom was the camp chef… I can’t imagine how much work that was, cooking food for 40 women, three meals a day. The shopping alone would’ve killed me! She did an awesome job, and we felt so pampered. They had the tables decorated so cute, with raw sugar and sea shells and floating candles in bowls with seashells at the bottom. I wish I’d taken a picture, but again, I didn’t lug my camera everywhere and lived in the moment most of the time!

The workshop was set up around three main houses that were close to each other… one was the “teaching house” where we met for lessons, the other was the “party house” that was stocked up with snacks and was the only house with internet access, and the other one was the “food house” where we met for meals, but had to stay out of the way of the people preparing meals for the rest of the time. I spent most of my free time at the party house, either editing pictures or chatting with other ladies.

There are no cars allowed on the island, so we had to drive golf carts everywhere. That alone was hilarious… on the first day, I had to ask someone from the grocery store to come out and show me how to put the thing in reverse! Driving in the rain, where puddles can become huge obstacles, and the protective plastic flaps offer little protection… good times, good times.

That’s enough for now… more tomorrow.