The Maui Stamper

Day One was full of adventure, Stampin’ Up! and otherwise!  I have lots of fun photos to give you a feeling for our day.

We were up pretty late last night, so we skipped the super-early call and headed over to the convention center about 9am to pick up our convention tee shirts and do some swapping.  TONS of demonstrators – Crystal met someone who turned out to be the cousin of a co-worker, and I met a fan of the Maui Stamper!

We visited but I have forgotten your name!!  Please leave me a comment and remind me of your name.   🙂

We left the convention center and headed out to complete yesterday’s unfinished business, namely a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc.  We got out to the wine store only to discover that THEY WERE STILL CLOSED.

Please don’t think I am a pathetic paper bag wino.  We are eating our main mean at lunchtime (European style) and are having a little snack in the evening, and a glass of wine is a lovely companion to fresh berries, a baguette and some cheese.  Oh, and perhaps a little chocolate.  Anyway,  we are standing outside the store with 25 minutes to go and it’s about 195 degrees outside.  Crystal looks across the street and sees the next best thing to the State Wine Store:

Gourmandise provided a divine cappucino, beautiful air conditioning and lovely, warm service along with my scrumptious chocolate meringue.  (Crystal had a rum ball, and she shared a little taste – also divine.)

The neon “Open” light went on across the street.  Third time was the charm and we accomplished our task and then headed to Trader Joe’s.  This is what people from Hawaii DO when we come to the Mainland because in spite of the fact that everything about TJ’s looks like the islands, they don’t have stores there.

Let me tell you something about walking around Salt Lake at high noon when it is 195 degrees outside.  It will turn you into a crazy person in no time!  You start standing in the shadow of the stoplight while you wait for the “WALK” sign to turn green.  You consider opening the bottle of Sauvignon Blanc in your bag and swigging it right there on the sidewalk.  And then you make the excellent decision to take TRAX out to the Red Iguana for lunch (which was actually the plan all along.)

I have never had a bad meal – or a bad Margarita – at this restaurant.  Today’s choice was the Mole Negro and it was delicioso!  Once we were happily fed it was back to the hotel for a quick break before the Opening Session.

There are 5800 demonstrators and guests attending convention this year and it took a while to get inside.  We found a couple of seats and quickly learned that our companions were from North Queensland!  LOVED sharing Opening Session with our beautiful Aussie friends!!  (Dearest Aussies, please let me know how to contact you so that I can send you a copy of this photo.)

Shelli shared some Stampin’ Up! history, we heard from Ronald McDonald himself about the impact Stampin’ Up! has made on Ronald McDonald House, and Pam Morgan shared some great stampin’ projects with us.  We also got our bags!!  Don’t know where my Convention Bag photo is now – I’ll share it tomorrow – but we have been assured that we will be heading home with plenty of convention swag.  There were TWO Prize Patrols and then Shelli closed the session with an All Attendee Giveaway of new stamps from the Holiday Catalog.

Next stop was the Expo with 5,800 of our best friends!  It was a little squishy at first, but things settled down a bit and we had the chance to see some great products and talk to some very knowledgable SU staff.  Fabulous new stuff coming in the Holiday catalog!

I was one of the very last people to add my card to the Guinness World Record Smashing effort – 2,984 greeting cards mailed from a single location!  And there’s that bag – a gorgeous backpack with beautiful Stampin’ Up! style.

It was a fabulous first day and I look forward to sharing more with you!  Check my Facebook page for updates during the day tomorrow and I hope to hear from you soon!