Life changing!

We joked about it all weekend: Seeing these HUGE strawberries was a life changing experience.

Who knew strawberries could ever grow this big?

(That is my decidedly not petite hand holding the strawberry in the picture above.)

Gail had purchased the berries just before I arrived; we both marvelled at the size of all the berries.

The big question: would they be sweet and juicy?

We tasted, using the green caps as handles. 

Hurrah!  Each bite was juicy and flavorful.

And even more fun: I discovered that when the green caps were removed, the opening inside the berry was found to be finger sized.

My years of sticking olives on my fingers at dinner had prepared me for this moment.

I slipped my finger inside and we both grinned like children at the silliness.

In case you are wondering where Gail found these "life changing" sized berries...the brand is pictured above and she purchased them at her Colorado Springs C*stco store.

The berries were destined for more embellishment and fun later.  We got lots of laughs with them the first night of my visit.   It was the first time I had visited Gail's new home and she gave me a tour while I ohh'd and ahh'd over the tile work she had installed and the cozy nest she had created for herself.  An empty nester, she had made the decision to downsize to a two bedroom/two full bath single floor townhouse, and was able to rent out the two story home where she raised her two children. 

The new place even has a view of the Garden of the Gods and Pike's Peak.  It is a glowingly happy place for her to live and a very welcoming place for me to visit.

As girlfriends always do, we stayed up late, talking about everything (even though we do call each other about once a week or so...we still had a lot to catch up on), until we both declared we were tired and ready for bed.

I snuggled into the quilt covered guest bed and had no trouble at falling fast asleep.

We had planned out our weekend carefully; I knew the next day would be busy indeed!

To be continued....