I kept a daily diary while there. If interested in the day to day stuff and the food then you may enjoy this. If not then pass this entry up and go below for the photos.
April 13 - Asilomar - Left the house at 8:00. Between five potty stops and two large iced coffee’s I arrived in Carmel at noon to meet Prudy for lunch. Weather was beautiful. We met a at little italian restaurant that was recommended to prudy. I had a panini with procuitto, tomato and mozz cheese. It was on a wonderful crusty bread. Came with a very enjoyable salad. Each of us had a glass of white wine with lunch. After lunch we walked around a bit and went into the garden/home decorating store that I had been in the last time I was in Carmel. I found a baby head candle. The head is made from concrete with a spot on the top of the head for a tea light. After that we got into our respective cars and drove the 10 minutes to asilomar. This is a very convoluted area and it is hard to find the right building to go to register. All of the buildings look alike. I finally asked a man that worked there where I should go and he was very helpful. I finally got to the registration desk and checked in. My room is practically on the north 40.
My room is huge. Two bedrooms, A bathroom, a living room and a fireplace. If I had known the room was so big I would have had prudy room with me. And after walking around I realize that it was the map that made it look like it was in the north 40. The walk from here to the reception hall and dining room really isn’t that far. So after checking in and unpacking I walked down to the reception hall and got the fat book that I had participated in. This was my first fat book swap. Very nice. Then I walked on the boardwalk down to the beach. We are right on the beach. The weather is beautiful. Lots of people down there. Walked back to my room and packed my bag for the class in the morning By this time it is time to meet for dinner. I walked down to the dining hall and met Sooz who lives in nipomo/ag. Met up with prudy there too. Dinner was chicken breast with a chipolte sauce, potato/sweet potato casserole and a saute of zuchinni and swiss chard. All very good. Prudy and I each had a glass of wine with dinner. After dinner back to my room to get my fish that I mosaiced and my trades. When I returned to the hall and pulled my fish out of my bag I realized that the tail had been broken in the trip from my room to the hall. I put it on display anyway with prudy’s urging. On the way over to the hall I encountered three deer on my path. They were very brave and didn’t run away and I was able to take pictures of them. The reception was fun. The teachers were there with some of their work and the fish were on display. I brought prudy some "special" water and we agreed to meet up with each other for breakfast the next morning.
Back to my room, showered and decided that my hair was too long and started hacking at it with scissors. Will find out how big a mess I made of it in the morning. Sleep..............
Monday morning - up at 6:30, shower, coffee and out the door at 7:15 to meet up with prudy for breakfast. Her room is so much smaller than mine. Breakfast was tomato eggs, fried potatoes, mango chicken sausage and scone. All the food is so very good. I brought my class supplies with me to breakfast because I wasn’t sure where my class was. Schlepping a huge bag of supplies all over the place is not a good thing. After breakfast I find the room and deposit my stuff. Class is at 9 and starts right away. Stephanie demo’s for the first part and then we dive right in. This class is plaster architecture. We start with foam substrates and then cover that with rigid rap. After everything is covered then plaster goes over that. After that dried paint goes on top of that. I used two pieces of foam, did some niche cut outs in them, mounted them on top of each other and used a round foam piece to make a head. Then I used some wire and wrapped it around a skewer and inserted three of those into the top of the head. As of now the piece is sitting in front of my window in my room drying. I hope to be able to put some paint on it tonight. Lunch was pea soup which was very very good and a salad with chicken breast, salsa, black beans, corn and strips of crispy corn tortilla. Dessert were these very yummy cookie bars with coconut, chocolate chips and nuts. Class went until 4:30 but I was done around 3 so took everything back to my room. went for a walk down to the beach. Yesterday it was beautiful and calm, today it is cooler and windy. It was very very windy on the beach. Came back up to the lounge area and sat outside and read for a bit. Back to my room to read, it is still cool outside.
After prudy’s class she came by for a drink and then we were off to dinner. The dining room tables are round 10 top tables with a huge lazy susan in the middle. When you sit at the table there is salad, dressing, water, ice tea, coffee and dessert on the lazy susan. Dinner was flank stake with a nice green pepper corn sauce, corn on the cobb and broccoli. Dessert was boston creme pie. The food here has been very very good. I came back to my room to call jerry after dinner, realized that it was 7:45 and he was probably still golfing so I would read a bit until I could call him. The next thing I know I wake up at 2:30 in the morning with my light on and my book on my chest. Oh brother.
Tuesday - up at 6:30 and will leave soon to meet up with prudy to walk down to breakfast. Today is the plaster.wax class. I so enjoyed yesterday’s class and am very pleased with the structure that I built. I will definitely do this at home and mosaic it so I can use it outdoors.
After a breakfast of orange french toast and fruit we headed out for class. Today is wax and plaster. This time the class was very near my room so I didn’t have to schlep supplies all over the acreage. We used canvas boards for substrates, built up walls around them with masking tape and poured plaster into them to make thick boards. On the plaster we could then carve into it, do collage onto it, paint it, whatever we wanted. Then we took it over to the skillet filled with bees wax - which smells amazing - and painted bees wax over the substrate. This gave a mysterious feel to the piece. I did this to my first piece. I used sepia tones and black on my piece and painted it over with bees wax. I really liked the outcome. On my second piece I carved into the plaster with wood carving tools. The large piece of plaster looked to me like a large piece of carving rubber.
We broke for lunch - a wonderful soup and pastrami sandwiches on marbled rye.. The weather has turned cold and the wind is howling. To walk into the dining room and having a bowl of soup tastes so good and warms you up.
Back to class after lunch. We embedded plaster into burlap and let that dry. After it is dry you curl it around an object to get the plaster to crack. Then using acrylic paint you smear the paint onto it and wipe it off. The darker paint stays into the cracks and the rest of it is a lighter color. Very cool effect. At the end of class we had a show and tell so we could see everyone’s work. It is amazing to me that we are all given the same materials to work with and everyone’s piece is so very different.
Dinner was salad with fresh fennel and beets, pecan crusted fish, quinoa and a squash/carrot saute. French apple pie for dessert. Everything was excellent.
Tonight was vendors night. Several of the teachers and participants/artists had tables with their artwork for sale. I bought stephanie lee’s book and that was all. There were some very nice things there but the prices were quite high and most of what was there I could make myself. Prudy told me that next year I need to do a table and sell some of my stuff...she is right.
Back to my room after that for some much needed sleep...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Wed morning - what an interesting night last night. It was cold and windy last night and there is a fireplace in my room with burlap bags of wood in them. The instructions said to simply ignite the burlap with the matches provided. I had a very nice fire in the living room. It was burning very low and almost out when I went to bed to read. Fell asleep and was awakened around 11:15 to a smoke alarm going off in the living room and very loud knocking on my door. There are two security guards at the door wanting to know if everything is alright. It is then that I realize that the entire room is filled with smoke. From the open door I can see my neighbor coming out wondering what is wrong. Oh good, i’ve woken up the entire building. The guard fans the door back and forth and calls in for an electric fan. I open windows hoping for cross ventilation. They leave telling me that what happned is that the with it being so cold outside and the wind caused a back draft down the flu and brought the smoke into the room. Then he says that this happens all the time in this room and another room down the way. Well give me a break, if you know that this happens why don’t you put up a sign that says don’t use the fireplace and don’t provide wood and matches to utilize the damn thing. I go back to bed and about 15 minutes later there is knocking on the door again. House Keeping some male voice says. I open the door and there is a man with a huge fan. Now if you think I an going to stay awake and keep the door open with a fan going he is out of his mind. I thanked him, put the fan in the living room (unplugged) and went to bed. This morning the room smells very smoky and I probably do to but at this point I don’t care.
Breakfast of scallion scrambled eggs, sausage and potatoes. Off to class. Stephanie lectured and demoed for three hours. I stood there for three hours watching. I really should have gotten a chair to sit in but was afraid that if I was that low I wouldn’t be able to see anything. She demoed the torch, soldering, making a bezel, using the dremel, using the grinder. All of this would have gone a lot faster if some of these stupid women would stop asking stupid questions. And she would explain something and then one, who was obviously not listening when she was talking, would ask a question about the exact thing she just showed. She has a lot of patience. So from 9-12 we stood and watched. Off to lunch
lunch was minestrone soup and a salad with beef kabobs on top of it, dessert was a chocolate chip cake. All very good. At lunch I was describing to some women at the table what had happened last night and one of them, being an RN, said that this could be serious and that inhaling that much smoke could damage my lungs. So off to the main office I go to speak with a manager. I explain what happened, he is very sorry that this happened, do I want one of their people to take me to the hospital, - no i do not - what can he do for me.. I said that i felt that I should be compensated for this and he offered to do that but since i was with a group I would have to go through the group for the compensation and then the facility would have to reimburse the group. Oh brother. So I suggested that the facility could compensate me with a gift certificate to come back and stay with them. He agreed to that and I will get that when I check out tomorrow.
Back to class where we worked on some bezels and soldering. I am not good at this. I made this little framed house and practically burned it up with the torch. I don’t know if it is my torch or if it is the solder/flux or just operator error. But I didn’t like anything i made in this class. She then demoed etching which is something I think I can do with no problem. Also solder casting which is dropping hot solder into a cast made into polymere clay. Lots of grumbling going on in the class from people who were not happy that they weren’t completing a piece in class. As it turned out she was to only have 20 people maximum in the class but they signed up 26. There were way too many in the class. There were only 6 torch stations so people had to sign up on the chalk board to get to a torch. They shouldn’t have done this to her.
Dinner was a pork loin with pineapple salsa, coconut rice and a saute of swiss chard and mustard greens. There was a a crustless cheesecake for dessert. All very good. After dinner there was a showing of all the classes. Everyone brought their projects so that everyone could see what was made during the last four days. It really gave you an idea of what you might want to take next time. After that I went back to my room for bed. So tired............
Up the next morning and met Prudy for breakfast. Banana walnut pancakes, apple chicken sausage and scrambled eggs. We really did eat very well while there. When I checked out I was handed a gift certificate in compensation for the smoke in my room. I’m glad I said something to them. Got on the road around 8:30 and after 4 potty stops made it home a bit after noon. So good to be home. I had to wash everything because of the smoke smell and still it is on my suitcases and other things that I cannot wash. Hopefully airing out will help. Asilomar is a beautiful area and I am looking forward to taking Jerry there one day.
Both of these were taken prior to the jump. top with jerry bottom with kyle.
In the plane and ready to go. My jumpmaster is directly behind me.
And in the air. We did a free fall for about 60 seconds then the parachute opened. I was amazed at the noise of the wind when we were free falling. Victor was my jumpmaster and he made me feel very secure and confident. What amazed me was that I wasn't scared. Not even a little bit and I don't even like to fly. My greatest feat was that I would pee my pants or throw up. Neither of which I am proud to say I did.
Coming in for our landing. Victor told me to put my legs straight out and I did. 
On the ground and laughing my ass off.
Back with my family! From the left, Kyle, Angela, Scott (behind Angela) me, Jerry and the one in front of me is Bridget our neighbor. It was a wonderful day and words cannot express how it feels to fly through the air. I highly recommend it to anyone who has been wanting to do it.
Both of these were taken prior to the jump. top with jerry bottom with kyle.
In the plane and ready to go. My jumpmaster is directly behind me.
And in the air. We did a free fall for about 60 seconds then the parachute opened. I was amazed at the noise of the wind when we were free falling. Victor was my jumpmaster and he made me feel very secure and confident. What amazed me was that I wasn't scared. Not even a little bit and I don't even like to fly. My greatest feat was that I would pee my pants or throw up. Neither of which I am proud to say I did.
Coming in for our landing. Victor told me to put my legs straight out and I did. 
On the ground and laughing my ass off.
Back with my family! From the left, Kyle, Angela, Scott (behind Angela) me, Jerry and the one in front of me is Bridget our neighbor. It was a wonderful day and words cannot express how it feels to fly through the air. I highly recommend it to anyone who has been wanting to do it. 
