Belated Summer Vacation Photo Journal
I had a wonderful time back in the States this past July and August, but have yet to post about it. Here's a beginning: a few photos and stories of some folks I reconnected with along the way. I'll post more about my summer in the coming days...

Columbia, Pennsylvania


My incredible cousin, Katrina Wyse, M.D., mother of ...


Tyree!


Tyree with Aunt Anna


My former Hiram College roommate Rebekah with energetic Lily. They drove up from Maryland for a visit.


Tavis and his parents came over for a visit, too. They live in a little PA town not too far from New Jersey, his dad's home state. Tavis is shown here with mom (that's Wendy to the rest of us).


Tavis with dad (Shawn to the rest of us). Shawn and I became friends at Hiram.


Tavis is quite excited to be held by me! (The feeling was mutual.)

Columbus, Ohio

 
(right to left) Joanna, Frank, Alison and I gather for a group shot after enjoying dinner together at The Cheesecake Factory. I'll never forget the four slices of cheesecake we shared for dessert. We each took a bite, then passed the plates around the table for more bite-taking. We continued this seemingly eternal rotation until each had had enough. My favorite: the vanilla bean cheesecake (which is really saying something, coming from a chocolate nut like me). Check out the full array of cheesecake possibilities here. The four of us met at Hiram College. Although I've seen Frank and Alison pretty regularly since, Joanna and I hadn't seen one another for something like 7 or 8 years. It was wonderful to reconnect with all three. Joanna is a published poet now, and promised to send me a copy of her work, which I'm eagerly awaiting. Go, Joanna!

Elkhart, Indiana

 
Above, friends from the Elkhart/Goshen area gather for dinner at the delectable Antonio's restaurant. All of them I met either at seminary or at church. (Not pictured: Esther, photographer extraordinaire)

Cloudy Blogging


At snapshirts, you can make a word cloud for your blog. The words that appear most frequently are the largest. I don't think mine is at all accurate, but the results are cool enough for posting.

Thanks to Brenda, who did it first.