Dunava retreat

Dunava spent this past weekend singing, eating and bonding at our second annual retreat at Mildred's B&B on Seattle's Capitol Hill. We rented the whole house for 24 hours.

Some of us gathered in the morning at Molly Moon's's to celebrate International Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. I loved my buttermilk waffle, which I topped with one small scoop of salted caramel and one small scoop of coffee, chocolate chunks, a little hot fudge sauce, some vanilla bean caramel, walnuts, and berries. It was great with a cup of black coffee. (Rik had oatmeal with maple walnut ice cream.)

Dunava gathered at noon and launched into four hours of intense singing. We snacked while reviewing our recent new songs, learned one new piece, and started on another. By 5 PM we were ready to dance our way around the house. Our potluck dinner featured potato-corn-kale soup, eggplant lasagna, marinated mushrooms, cooked red cabbage, green salad, mulled wine, "fauxstess" cupcakes, white gingerbread, and more.

After dinner we found ourselves loudly singing Girl Scout and summer camp songs like Miss Mary Mack, The other day I met a bear, etc. (I think the mulled wine helped.) It was a real reach back into my childhood. Luckily I think I remember every song I have ever learned. Then we played some very silly games and watched Mary Poppins and sang along while eating popcorn. I think we went to bed around 1:30 AM.


In the morning our hostess prepared a fantastic breakfast of mushroom/asparagus crustless quiche, fresh fruit, coffeecake, orange juice and coffee and tea. We gathered once more around the piano to review some music and departed around noon, sated with good food, lively music, and some particularly good girl bonding.