America, Take 1 - May 2010

After a fun brigade from UPenn in early May, I traveled for about two weeks to one of my favorite places, the Pacific Northwest. It was somewhat of a last minute trip, only planned a couple of months ahead of time. I felt myself needing a break and figured a way to see both my family and great friends while there. My endlessly generous relations Mike and Linda Ranz welcomed me into their basement yet again with open arms. I spent summer 2003 with them in Seattle and have been looking for excuses to get back ever since. While the weather wasn't quite as nice this time as it was back in '03, it was a much needed respite from Honduras. I spent the entirety of 2 or 3 days sitting in their wonderful kitchen getting caught up on a few things and drinking espresso from the espresso machine. I then headed down to Eugene, Oregon for a surprise visit to some of my best friends, Kirk and Kim Strohman. Kirk was graduating from Law School and I was glad I could make it to the festivities. It was a good surprise, Kirk came in from working in the yard to find a strange bearded dude holding his 9 month old baby, Sienna. His jaw dropped, gleaning the effect for which I was hoping.

Ben and baby Sienna. Adorable.

Snowshoeing with Kirk, a nice outdoor respite. So nice to see some snow.

The weekend was spent with his family and friends, enjoying good food and good times. I then headed back up to Seattle.

My parents flew in a couple of days later for a trip out on Mike and Linda's boat. This was quite the journey. They flew in late at night and we went straight down to the dock and slept aboard what some might refer to as a "ship" rather than a "boat." The plan was to head up through some of the San Juan islands, meet up with some friends, and eat A LOT. This was all accomplished with flying colors.

Mike Ranz multi-tasking: Setting course, building power plants and having a beer.

It was a quite relaxing few days. We went ashore to do some hiking and ice-cream eating, but most of my time was spent reading and eating in between beers. We met up with Penny and Lee Stycket, some old neighbors of Mike and Linda's, who were also out on their boat. They are fabulous folks and it's always a pleasure to get to spend time with them. Lee is an enviable pun-master, dropping lines left and right like "I kissed a nun once, but I just couldn't get in the habit."

Penny and Lee at dinner ashore. No seagull sandwiches here.

The whole crew classing up the yacht with cans of Natty Light, per Joe Ranz's special request.

After a couple of days in the islands, we dropped anchor for a night in Bellingham, a hippy college town a few hours north of Seattle. We hung out with some of Linda's family, visited her favorite college coffee joint, and also ran into a Peace Corps friend of mine, Anna Terry. Anna was participating in the "Ski to Sea" race which had its finish in Bellingham. It was nice to catch up briefly, we also hung out in Seattle for a night while I was there.

Upon our return to Seattle, a whirlwind 24-hour visit had been planned with my Ohio State pals: Kirk, George and Joe. These guys never cease to amaze me...upon hearing that I would be in the country they rearranged work and family schedules to squeeze in some quality time...the only 24-hour time period where it worked out for all of us to hang out. The boys came to pick me up at Mike and Linda's and we headed downtown where they had gotten a hotel room. We scalped some 2nd row tickets to the Mariners' game (nice work GW and Kirk) which was a good time. It turned out it was Ken Griffey, Jr's last game, which was a random coincidence since he was kind of my childhood hero. I don't think he even played, but still. We then went out for drinks and fried food, and spent the evening catching up. Taking a page out of our old OSU days, we decided we needed some late night food after the bar. With no Pita Pit in site, we made our way to a 24-hour grocery store where we purchased 2 dozen deviled eggs. We all regretted this choice the next morning, as did our hotel toilet.

We spent the day walking around town, enjoying the market and just hanging out. My parents came down to town that evening and we had an amazing meal at Anthony's on the Sound. I'd venture to say it was the most delicious seafood feast of which I've ever been a part. I was in a truly happy place, with my parents, best friends and delicious food. We took a walk along the water afterwards before the boys took my parents and me to the airport. And thus ended the journey to the states and began the journey back home.

The group along the pier after dinner. I look fat because I ate so much seafood at dinner.