Hanging With Some Cool Cats

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On Thursday I got to take part in a bloggers' gathering that ended up being non-stop fun. Wayne Worden of Meandering in Lotus Land was returning from a cross country railroad trip and had a one day layover before heading home to Vancouver, BC. He arranged to meet with Chuck Pefley of One a Day - Mostly Seattle and me for lunch. Chuck was hosting a tour guide friend, Alfio, (also a photographer) who had just flown in from Sicily for a week-long gathering of all his fellow European tour guides. We met up at Elliott Bay Cafe (under Elliott Bay Book Company and supposedly the model for the Cafe Nervosa set on the long-running Frasier TV show). Great fun and great conversation. Chuck had to get Alfio up to charming downtown Edmonds to his hotel, so we all decided to go up. En-route we picked up Alfio's luggage at Chuck's and he gave us a tour of his studio which was so interesting to see. Then we drove north and hung out in the hotel lobby while Alfio stowed his bags in his room. There we met two other tour guides Chuck and Alfio are friends with and had very pleasant conversations. They invited us to a party being held for all the tour guides at the Tacky Tiki bar. We walked around the cute downtown taking photos, I made a purchase at a lovely cheese shop, and we visited the travel center that employs all the tour guides. Then we went to the party and it was lively, fun, and packed with internationals. What better environment for City Daily Photo Bloggers! :-) We said farewell to Alfio there and wandered through the rain toward the car but got distracted by a classic Mercedes in the rain, then some signs in a pet supply store where 7 cats were roaming free. Turns out we're all cat lovers and we clicked away and enjoyed petting the kitties. I thought all my company for the day were pretty cool cats!