Two New Friends

I am telling you this blogging world has been such a blessing in my life.  I have met so many wonderful new friends through this medium and hope to continue to do so.

A while back I mentioned here how much I love to travel, how much I would love to go to Italy or France, or Spain, or back to England (the only place I have visited across the deep blue sea).  But how difficult it is because I no longer have a traveling partner.  Well, one of my blogging buddies contacted me and said she too would like to travel and would I be interested in visiting the Amalfi coast in Italy. She had been there before but would like to return again for cooking & photography classes.  My heart did a flip-flop, cooking & photography in one of the most beautiful places ever?  Oh my goodness.

Correspondence and phone calls began with plans to meet in person in the summer to, for better lack of words, size each other up.  Would we be able to travel together?  Would we be compatible?  After following Jeanne's blog for quite awhile now, I knew she and I had the same values, the same love of photography and travel, and we are fairly close in age.

Yesterday was our face to face...and bingo it was perfect, except for the weather.  Jeanne better known to you as Butterfly Tales: Metamorphosis from the Cocoon was born and raised here in my area and moved to Dallas, TX, I on the other hand grew up in Dallas, TX and now live here.  Jeanne was traveling with Sam, her grandson, and what a fine young man Sam is.  Sam is 10, and while we were together, he flagged down a cab for us, talked to the concierge at the Drake Hotel as to where we could get a cup of coffee, he even tried to stop the rain from falling with a little dance, a very mature, smart (except for maybe the rain dance part) & fine young man.
 

We met at the Bean....as you can see the sun was shining...it was a beautiful day.

We stopped for dinner and continued our discussions, getting to know each other, where we would like to visit in Italy, when we would like to go...etc.  But as we talked, the sky was beginning to darken, the winds picked up, and the rains came down with gusto.  We were drenched.  So much for making a good impression with a coiffed hairdo, but that's not what friendships are made of.  This is what I should have had, however no raincoat, no umbrella.

Our plans for attending the concert in Millenium Park were definitely cancelled and photography was a little dicey with the rains still coming down.  We caught a cab to Water Tower Place, wandered up to 4th Presbyterian Church, while the dripping continued.

At this point I was ready to seek shelter and have me a hot cup of coffee.  The Drake Hotel was right across the street, so off we went for coffee for us adults and french fries with ranch dressing for Sam.  Not exactly how we planned to spend our evening, but we continued our conversation and our getting to know each other over cups of hot coffee and a fry or two with ranch dressing.

It was time for me to grab a cab back to the train station to catch the 8:40 PM train that will get me home by 10:00 PM after spending a most enjoyable evening with 2 new friends.  See what happens when you blog!!

"I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.  I call God "Beautiful" for these gifts."  ~  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Until next time....