"A" is for Alameda

In June, I had the great fortune of taking two friends and heading for the Alameda Flea Market.
Let me just say, I Love, Love Alameda!!!

As an avid collector of everything vintage, this is the place to go. A dream come true. The pot of gold. The find of finds. The place you can go to find all of those delicious do-dads that bless homes in the pages of magazines like Country Home and Country Living.

Did I mention that I love Alameda?!

We took our Expedition. Stayed in Walnut Creek. Went to the movies and caught a cute chick flick. Ate at a wonderful Italian restaurant where we all ordered something different and shared everything (it was sinful). Turned in around 10:30pm and woke at 4:30 the next morning so that we could be "early birds" on Sunday morning.

Now the reason I mention we took our Expedition is that there were three of us. Three of us who all love similar things. Three of us on a mission. Three of us armed with a little money to have a lot of fun with. Three of us whose "finds" would have to be stuffed into that Expedition!

We shopped, scoured, haggled, searched, snatched and grabbed. One of us got a "Home Depot" style cart to hold all of their booty. One of us bought a very cute vintage shopping cart in which to carry all of her goods. Its wheels squeaked and rattled over the uneven pavement row after row. And as she passed, some people would comment about the terrible noise coming from that cute little vintage cart. Some people were actually down right rude and made snide comments about the cute little cart that squeaked even louder as it begin to fill with lots of other vintage treasures. (Ok, it was me...I bought the cart. One thing I can say about its noisiness is that it helped the other two girls keep track of me!)

By 3:30, my cart along with my friends' pallet-style cart and every arm available were full. All three of us had "large" objects set aside for us at booths located in various places.

I brought my car to the loading area and parked. We unloaded the carts and picked up our purchases at the other spots and stacked them up next to the Expedition. Then, we cracked up...Would we have enough space? It would seem we had not thought of space when we were on our spree? Hmm...

We attracted the attention of others loading their U-haul trailers and moving vans. People were walking by saying what great items we had. Some even wanted to purchase some of our items. (No Way!!!). Most seemed to be placing bets on whether or not we could actually get all of this JUNK (oops), good stuff, into this vehicle.

Well, we shocked and amazed those betting against us. We were women on a mission. Everything had a spot. Miraculously, all of our vintage goodness fit. Mind you there was absolutely no inch of that vehicle not occupied by something and I, being the driver was the only person whose lap wasn't holding at least two bags!

The car looked something like the one the Beverly Hillbillies came to town in! The picture at the beginning of the post is a little peak of my purchases.

Mom and Dad are coming in March and we are going to Alameda...Ooooh, I can hardly wait. :)