Good Friends: The Greatest Gift of All

This was our first stop when we arrived in Philadelphia... to the home of our traveling companions. We have shared houses on several Caribbean islands and in Mexico with them. We went on a barge trip in France with them. They came to our daughter's wedding in California. We went to Israel together, where we experienced an earthquake, floated in the Dead Sea, and climbed Masada. (Well, they climbed... I had to take the cable car up. It was hot!) They are wonderful friends. We continue to share happy times with them whenever we can get together, and plan to do more traveling together in the future.



This is our friendly host. If you stop at his house, you can be sure he will pour you a glass of wine!


This is my friend speaking in sign language with her son, who is brilliant and deaf, and has the three most adorable children. The next picture shows those three children, with their grandfather (our host with the wine).



Then, we went to visit our next-door neighbors. They are the best neighbors anyone could want. We visited on each others' decks in the summer and sat at their kitchen table in the winter. She looked after our cat when we went away, even though the cat frightened her. He was the type of neighbor who could fix anything... he fixed our kitchen sink, put a new chandelier in our dining room, and when our basement flooded he brought his own sump pump over to replace our broken one. She directed me to the grocery, the bank, the post office, and introduced me to all the other neighbors. They are a big part of the reason we loved our neighborhood. There I go, gushing again. Sorry, guys.



Also, sorry for the blurry pictures. It's not me... it's the camera (sure!). I took pictures of lots of other friends at the engagement party we attended but my flash didn't work, so I will just have to get together with them all again to retake them!