The winter blues were finally broken in anticipation of the first insulator show of the year at the home of Jack Hare in Seattle, Washington. Tim Wood left home at O dark thirty to arrive at the home of Nathan Lamkey to get underway by 5 in the morning. The first stop was Portland to pick up Caleb Thimmel and the Oregon convoy was on its way with boxes of sales stock. The show was scheduled to start at 10 but as most collectors know a show always gets underway earlier, Nathan set the cruise in his new Blazer at 70 and arrived at the show location by 9:30, enough time to get unpacked and check out the good deals waiting to be picked up.

As in years past, by 10 am a crowd of insulator collectors from all over Washington descended and the 14th Annual Emerald City Insulator Swap and Potluck was underway. Caleb Thimmel, Tim Wood, and Nathan Lamkey, were setting up tables in the spare rooms on the ground floor. Dale Rose traveled all the way from Idaho to setup a table with a nice selection of goodies. Bill and Darcy Burger from Spokane displayed a nice assortment of glass including a 133 California in purple that found a new home in the collection of Tim Wood.

Other collectors in attendance from eastern Washington included Bill Winters, Paul Zeimer who brought some really nice glass for Carol McDougald to photograph for their upcoming color photo book. Many other collectors from around the state attending included Don Lewis, David Bethman, Robin Harrison, Gil Hedges, Mike Spadfora, George Johnston, Jeff Hooper, and Win Trueblood. Rich Ager brought a few boxes of goodies and went on a selling spree like there was no tomorrow unloading a quantity of glass for whatever someone was willing to pay. Ron Yuhas came down from Montana to setup a nice selection of glass and showed off some sweet power pieces to keep Carol busy at her photography for her latest color photo book.

Carol McDougald taking pictures for the new price guide

After a couple of hours of frenzied buying and selling everyone headed upstairs for a very tasty potluck lunch. If you weren't too full from all the good dishes available you could finish up with large selection of desserts. The show slowly started to wind down after lunch with collectors standing around telling stories and catching up on latest news. A special thanks to Jack Hare for opening his home for the show and showing off his nice collection of glass.

Win Trueblood, Robin Harrison, Gil Hedges, 
Bonnie Trueblood, Carol McDougald, and Jack Hare