Coincidence ROCKS

When the fires were raging in So CA a couple of weeks ago, my cousin, Dru, emailed a photo that made me gasp. It was a shot of the Santiago fire taken from the west side of Lake Mission Viejo. The entire skyline was aglow and I thought I could see the home of some friends in the picture. Those friends were in Hawaii - so I had to send it to them via email and thought they might get it when they got home. No, they saw it before they left Hawaii. They were a bit frightened, but could see that their home was ok. I saw the shot on CNN later that night. Wish I could upload it to this post, but instead I'm including a photo of adorable Dru at the ranch party this past June (her husband, Larry, was on a nearby porch reading a book).

Today, Dru copied me on a message she sent to the person who took that amazing photograh. Turns out he is an old friend of ours - someone we knew and loved during our Chapman College "Semester at Sea" in 1970-71 aboard the USS Ryndam. In the past five years, Dru and I have re-connected with several people from the World Campus Afloat (WCA) here in So CA. When we attended, it was our sophomore year in college, and we were truly amazed to be there. We were both on scholarships and loans - and incredulous all the way, except that it was real. We have the memories and photos to prove it. We were known as "Frick and Frack" because we did almost everything together - a couple of naive teenagers out to conquer the world. I can honestly say that we loved every single minute of that life-changing experience. How cool is it that 37 years later, we are re-connecting with friends from that magical time in our lives? I'm grateful.