The Benicia Hoot! The Orange County Chapter put out an invite to all of the local chapters to meet in the small town of Benicia on August 17, 2002. And what a Hoot it was. While it was a beautiful day it was also quite windy so keeping our hats atop our heads was quite a challenge. But of course we were all up to it. Approximately 250 women all wearing their purple with red hats congregated at the park in Benicia around 11:00. There were, of course, numerous, ok many, cameras and just as many photo ops. From the gazebo all you were able to see were red hats! Everywhere there were red hats of all shapes, sizes and decor!

Soon little groups split apart and wandered the main street with the quaint shops. Around 2:00 The Dames of Vines and Roses met for tea at the Camillian Room. Turned out several other groups were also there having their tea.

Some fun stories of that day include a few of us sitting outside waiting for our table for tea when a woman pulled up in her car. Her son had called her and told her she had to get to town as the group she had been hearing about was there. She hurried down and stopped to talk to us. She was a local woman and was asking about whether or not there was a local chapter. There was and they happened to be in the tea house right then. She was so excited she went right in and joined up. What a great son to look out for his mother like that. And of course there were other tourists there that day who stopped many of us to find out what we were all about, which we happily told them of course.