surprise visitors

I had a couple of surprise visitors the last few days. First, my brother, Matt, and his friend, Juliet stopped by on their way back to Alaska. They are both working as researchers on the fishing boats up there and have taken a short contract beginning this week. I had a nice time with them. We had tremendously good Greek food on Tuesday evening at Cafe Akroteri. We also made a point to occupy some time at the REI store within walking distance of my apartment.

Yesterday afternoon, I also reacquainted myself with Toby. He was a friend of mine when we lived in Washington and went to a fair number of youth group retreats together. We scheduled a lunch and chatted about the various parts of the world we've each visited. It's quite amazing how two people from the same place can have such different life experiences! He deploys back to Baghdad at the end of this week as a Captain in the Army.