The fall of 1995, I arrived on campus, a lonely freshman, 4,000 miles away from home, desperate for friends and a family I could drive to.  Lisa was one of the first people I met when I got to college.  Happily, we were assigned to opposite ends of the same dorm floor and have been fast friends ever since.  Lucky for her, I’m from Alaska, a state she had always wanted to visit.  Lucky for me, her family lived an hour and a half away and they became the East Coast family I needed!  Our sophomore year, her mom drove down and brought me home for a weekend away that I really needed, while Lisa stayed at college. 🙂

Here we are, during our freshman year.  Don’t you just love our bangs? 🙂

Almost 18 years later, we can still talk for hours, keep track of everyone in our extended families, and help each other think through challenges in our lives.

We managed to see each other at least once a year from the time we graduated from college in 1999 until 2010.  Then, both of our lives got a little (or a lot) crazy and we went over three years having to exist only on [all too infrequent] phone calls.  The six hour drive between us seemed impossibly long.

Until last week!  The whole family came to town! They stayed with us and we had the fun of showing them the Inner Harbor.

This one for Ellie…

…and  this one for Mark!

They also spent a day in Washington, DC and a day on the Atlantic Ocean at Assateague Island.  Their last day, we spent some time at Fort McHenry and Marshy Point Nature Center.  It was an action-packed four days.

Eighteen years later, we have a few more people in our lives!

Caleb, Abby, Lisa, Ian, Ellie, Laura, Mark, Toby (just missing Nik and Ben!)

Ellie is still talking about “those kids” and we miss them already!  Let’s hope we don’t have to go three more years before we see each other again!