Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting up with some great gluten-free friends at Panera Bread. Most of us had met up last year at Z Pizza for a gluten-free pizza party. Amy, of Simply Sugar & Gluten-free, was in town visiting family with her husband, Joe. Jay, from The Gluten-free Post was there, as was Mary, from Gluten-free Mary, & her Mom, Gigi and Alison “Chef Ali”, an amazing Glunten-free Personal Chef here in Columbus.
Jay brought his 2 boys along & I brought Hannah. The 3 of them were instant buddies. They all had their Nintendo DS’s or DSi’s. I have to give a special shout out to Jay, as all I heard about yesterday & this morning was how Hannah’s DS was no longer good enough. She now needs a DSi. Thank you.
I do have to say that I was very impressed that Jay’s oldest son, Zach, shook my hand when he met me! Very nice manners.
Here are some pics of the group:
Mary & Amy – bloggers or what? Cameras in hand!

Meet, Alison “Chef Ali”

The group: From left to right – front row – Amy, Kim, Alison, Mary. Back row – Gigi, Jay

The kids. They had a great time.

It was so much fun to meet up with these guys. I hope that we can have another tweet-up in the near future! Thanks for taking time out of your day to spend some time with us.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
You guys will be so proud of me – I was able to stay out of Trader Joe’s yesterday! This is harder than it seems, as it was literally right next door to this Panera Bread location.



My son and me, November 2000. This is before we were gluten-free/diagnosed Celiac.


So cool! Sorry I couldn't be there…would've been a long flight! Hopefully I'll get to meet my friends in "real life" sometime!
Kim – I laughed when I read the last part of this post. When I saw the picture of the kids and realized at which Panera location you met, I immediately thought that was also going to allow for an easy trip to Trader Joe's. He he! Think our family will have to make a trip there either today or tomorrow. We've run out of several of our Trader Joe's staples. Looks like you guys had a great time!
wow, you actually stayed out of Trader Joes! Comgrats! I had a nice time visiting….
PS WHY was PANERA, a BREAD place, chosen for a GF tweet-Up/ That Jay needs some advice :]
So cool! That looks like a lot of fun =D.
Joe is bragging about his picture taking skills…next time we'll make him get in the pic, too! It was so much fun. I have a give-away up today and Slightly Indulgent Tuesday is on Tuesday (of course) so I'm planning to post the pics on Wednesday.
I had a blast!! Everyone was wonderful – like we've known each other for years.
Totally wishing Erin could have been there, too!!
Gigi – that is a good question!!! LOL!
I wish Erin could have been there, too!
Michelle – that is too funny!!
Amy – I am hoping to participate in Slightly Indulgent this week. I have been so busy that I keep forgetting! LOL!! I do have a picture of Joe that I didn't post b/c he said he didn't want to be on the blog. I can email it to you.
It was so great to meet you guys!
[...] Kim (Gluten Free is Life) has shared several gluten-free pizza outings in the past, including this Gluten-Free Tweet-up. (Amy was there, too!) In the name of celiac/gluten intolerance/gluten sensitivity awareness, go [...]