old friends, new friends

(from 4/28/10)
one of the nice things about getting back from vacation on saturday afternoon is that we had time (and felt under control enough) to go up to sf on sunday morning to visit friends who were in town for a wedding.

the friends we were visiting were tara, phill and their son max. tara and i go way back - we were roommates our freshman year at ut and have been friends ever since (and know way too many fun stories about each other). after our first few years in college, we started crossing paths in the most interesting places - serendipity at it's finest.

when i worked for motorola in toulouse france the summer between my junior and senior year in college, it just so happened that tara was spending that entire school year and summer studying in toulouse. it was wonderful on the first night in my apartment there, i heard a knock on the door and there stood tara with boyfriend phil and friend stu, ready to take me out and show me part of the city and more importantly the local bar. that weekend, despite my ridiculous lack of supplies and lack of knowledge that you have to carry your own toilet paper to some places in france, i hopped into the car they rented and went camping on the coast. we had great fun that summer while we overlapped at local spots in toulouse, a trip to andora, etc., and i'll always be greatful to them for showing me around and giving me friendly faces while i got my bearings in a new city.

i can't remember the order of our next rendezvous points, but they included austin for tara and phill's wedding and a visit from tara and phill in san francisco, where i got to play a bit of tour guide and show them some cool local spots. after that, we met again in london and a weekend in oxford while i was on a project in london and they were studying at oxford. we didn't have the luck of overlapping in boston (where they live now), but maybe that will be the next destination for catching up...

though this latest visit in san francisco was short, it didn't seem to matter as we have known each other for so long, that we stepped right back into everyday conversation. this is the first time greta and max have met and they hit it off right away. it helped that we met in a park in san francisco, and the kids were all about exploring all the fun stuff as the parents took chances to catch up. they were even lucky enough to catch 4 rides on the carousel with the dads.

we ate lunch outside at the ferry building at what used to be taylor's automatic refresher (they changed their name and i can't recall what it is - not so good marketing i suppose) and we all enjoyed burgers, hot dogs, onion rings, fries and watching the people zip lining across the street in justin herman plaza. we parted ways after a leisurely lunch so the kids could get their naps in. it was a beautiful day in the city with some great old friends.