Three Red Hatters Travel to San Diego

Friday - Monday, May 17-20, 2019

Carla Kerr aka Queen Ladybird, Trudy Reese aka Lady Sunshine and Gail Swineford aka Baroness Von Doolittle of the New Mexico Roadrunner Chapter of the Red Hat Society in Alamogordo, New Mexico traveled to San Diego to take part in Miss Kitty's Social Club, a costume chapter of the Red Hat Society led by Miss Kitty aka Jan Roberts of Platteville, Colorado. Members, a total of 60, came from California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Illinois, Texas and Canada to enjoy the fun.

Carla and her roommate, Elyse Soffer, arrived in the AM so they explored the block containing the hotel and finally discovered the Tequila Factory Restaurant where they grabbed some food since they had left home before breakfast to catch their respective planes.

Once checked into the Best Western Plus Hacienda in Old Town, we quickly donned our first costume depicting Rhinestone Cowgirls and boarded a trolley which took us to the pier to board the Hornblower Yacht that took us on a cruise of the San Diego Bay area. They served delicious
hors d'oeuvres and champagne. The DJ was excellent in that he played music people over age 50 could relate to for dancing those dances from way back when. Line dancing is also a favorite with this group and Carla got super enthused dancing to "That Old Time Rock And Roll" and singing it as well.

Elyse Soffer, Carla's FUN roommate from Phoenix, Arizona

Faun Ricks from Gallup, New Mexico

Chana Vernado is from Las Vegas, Nevada

L to R: Trudy Reese and Gail Swineford from Alamogordo, NM and friend

Samella Daniels-Taylor and Angie Pate from Las Vegas, NV

L to R: Nita from California and Connie from Tucson, AZ; Elyse and Faun

Janice Roberts from Las Vegas and Nita from California

Name not known and Marilyn Miravete-Smith from California

Tanyia Rawls-Junior with Angie Pate

Rhinestone Cowgirl Carla

Several "civilians" decided to join the group and the gals took over dancing with the young man and his date. Some younger girls joined us opting for the pole near the dance floor for fun!

Some of the girls dancing. Nora Sellards on the right from Arizona

A couple of the girls had these little walking ponies

Line dancing to "Achy Breaky Heart"

                                              Dancing "The Electric Slide"                                                    

This was a Latin dance and the girl is dancing with Nora and the guy is dancing with Nita

Carla looked out the window and discovered all types of sea birds

AND walruses with their babies

AND more sea birds

Before we knew it, the sun was setting below the Coronado Bridge

A gorgeous sunset as we head back to the pier

After a refreshing nights sleep and showers, part of today was "free time" so we found our way back to the Tequila Factory for breakfast. However, regular breakfast was over at 9:00 AM and the Buffet Brunch was the only thing available at $27.95. Thankfully, the hotel shuttle driver kindly took us to a small family restaurant where we enjoyed a lovely, reasonably priced meal. I had lox and bagels and thoroughly enjoyed them.

Elyse and I took a walk to Old Town State Historic Park and found a lovely shop called Johnson House where I found a hat I couldn't live without.

Elyse beside the headless manikin sporting vintage clothing in front of the George Johnson House, an 1870 home of reconstructed pre-fab wood frame that was brought by ship around the Horn.

Carla in front of the George Johnson House

On our way back to the hotel we discovered a girl walking a pig

It was now time to attend the melodrama "Pride and Prejudice" at the Cygnet Playhouse Theatre. This was so funny and very professionally presented. If you are going to San Diego anytime soon, I highly recommend that you see this. It was fabulous.

Waiting in the lobby to enter the theatre

As you can see, props and wardrobe are stored openly for quick use as needed

A more close-up shot of displayed props

The Red Hatters were scattered all over the theatre

My roommate Elyse was sitting above me

Trudy with Bobbie Goode

Time for another costume change, this time we are Saloon Girls and there are many variations on these costumes which made it so interesting and FUN.

Faun showing off her red garter

Gail and Trudy

The ever lovely Mary Stopa from California

Lori Pawlowski with our fearless leader, Miss Kitty

Don't know her name, but isn't she adorable

These two are sisters Lisa? and Nora

Don't know names, but aren't they cute

Two more beautiful Saloon Girls

L to R: Barbara Angel, Cindy Logston, Lori Pawlowski, Carolyn Carter, Nell Athouguia and Grace Bright

Tanyia Rawls-Junior and doesn't she look fantastic

Carla showing off her bloomers

Carla Saloon Girl being a bit more proper

We enjoyed a lovely dinner there in the El Pueblo Room at the hotel and we were entertained by violinist Jennifer Argenti. She played everything from classical to hoedown and is an excellent musician. Unfortunately, I was at the back of the room and did not get a photo of her.

It was a full day and we were happy to get back to our rooms for rest and relaxation so we could be up and ready to go to Miss Kitty's Bloomer Breakfast and Jewelry Show. This means Mimosas and lovely jewelry at very reasonable prices.

Faun in her nightcap and bloomers which she made herself

Shopping! Shopping! Shopping! The official Red Hat Sport

Mary and Janice are the money changers

That's Marilyn on the right having a discussion over who gets what

Don't have name for first on left, Candy, Nora and Ada

Aren't their bloomers cute

Time for another costume change so we all headed to our rooms to dress in our Victorian ensembles. We had to make various arrangements to get to the Victorian Cosmopolitan Hotel for our Tea Luncheon because it was raining. Somehow we all managed to get there (it too was in the park) without getting soaked. Everything was prepared for us and quite elegantly at that.

This photo just to give you the flavor of the event

Everything looked lovely and scrumptious

Gail and Trudy looking smashing

End of table is Nora, Ada, Carla and Elyse is half there

I do apologize for not knowing more of the names of everyone, but it is so difficult to remember them when you only get together once a year. Some of these Red Hatters I see at other functions so we've become more acquainted. It is a wonderful group of women who just want to have FUN. #POWERofFUN A good time was had by all.

Thanks to Janice for some of the pictures (in particular that I'm in) that she took and thanks to Elyse for capturing some pictures also. Thanks also to my husband, Doug for processing the pictures for me. If I got any of the names wrong, please don't hesitate to let me know so I can correct them.

This is all I have to say for now.