More RI

or as my sister suggests:

A Gastronomic Tour of RI with a few asides.

As you may remember my reason for coming to the coast was the Coggeshall Fiber Festival yesterday and a good excuse to visit with my sister.

Last year we got up early to go set up but it was raining so hard we had to wait until after 7 to leave.  This year we had a space under the big tent therefore could get there by 6:30 as planned, even with all the fog.

Jim usually puts my cubes together so gave me a lesson the week before I left.  I then passed the lesson on to my sister and we did it together.  It took over an hour but was sturdy and we were very pleased with ourselves.

The SUV was off the field before 8:30 and we were completely set up by 9:15 or so with few bouts of indecision.  We had early customers which set the pace for the entire day.  

One person even commented on how great a team Ellen and I make at a vending.   We completely concur.

Ellen does not knit or spin but she is excellent with people and record keeping.  She handled check out, leaving me room to answer questions, do any needed explaining and teach a bit of spindling.   I just love meeting online customers in real time and also finding new people to send home with my hand dyeds.   Thank you to everyone who helped to make the Fair a success, organizers, volunteers and visitors alike.

This year there were 30 vendors including one with rock buttons, two with angora rabbits (I got my fix), one with angora goats and some huacaya alpaca.  Oh and a food vendor that had clamcakes, real clam chowda (clear broth) and stuffies.   I had my first ever stuffie -- a quahog clam shell filled with the clam chopped up and mixed with a bread stuffing then broiled.   Quite tasty.

We were probably the last booth packed up and out of there but Ellen had made reservations at the Lobster Pot so we had a reward waiting for us.

  We decided to order only what we loved.

Steamers (well, these are the leftover shells)

Onion Loaf and wine

Lobster stuffed with lobster and scallops

Lobster Stew (creamy lobster soup to you non Ro Dyelanders)

Plus apple crisp with chocolate ice cream for dessert which we ate too fast to take a picture.

Once home we changed into jammies and relaxed.  It was a delightful fast paced eleven hour day of wool, wool and more wool.  The accumulated breathing of fumes finally doing us in.