Thompson Family: Pacific Northwest friends

One of the best things about travelling around is seeing old friends we knew in various other places - usually college or grad school - who now have settled around the country and world. The Pacific northwest held its share of wonderful people we knew in past lives.

Vivek and Alisa

Vivek worked in the lab at BYU where Nephi spent several years doing research and where I worked for a summer. The last time we saw Vivek and Alisa was 13 years ago at their wedding, and it was very fun to catch up with them. Since then they've amassed between them (at least) two PhDs, an MBA and two children and have lived on two continents. They've got interesting perspectives and experiences to share! We first met them at the beach near their home in White Rock, then ate a delicious lunch at a local restaurant, and spent the rest of the day at their home where they put together the most incredible, authentic Indian dinner. It was a real treat.

Ken and Mindy

Nephi knew Ken from College Bowl days at BYU, and we were later in the best book club ever with both of them while we lived in Salt Lake a few years later. Our oldest sons were born just a few months apart when we lived there. We last saw them a few years ago when Nephi and I visited Washington. This time we met them in Bellingham, Washington where we ate lunch at the most delicious burger place, then took a nice hike at a state park before finishing the day off with some gelato. We loved hearing about their recent and upcoming travels and projects.

The hike we took had a large, pretty lake at the end of it. It was a chilly day and the water was freezing. My boys jumped in. Naturally.

The kids really got along well and had fun along the way.

Jen

Jen was my good friend when we lived in San Diego and we loved staying with her for a bit on our way home. Jen has a pretty rough few years, but there are all kinds of good things before her now. She is funny and real and I love being around her and talking about books, and my boys had a great time with her Lucy, a toddler playmate of Joseph's from long ago. She also took the opportunity to demolish both Nephi and me in Boggle. If you are someone who thinks you are pretty good a Boggle, I am sorry to inform you that you are probably wrong and I won't believe you until you beat Jen, even once. (Note: I did actually beat Jen once at Boggle, and in front of other people to boot, which might have given me a temporarily big head. By now, after years of her crushing me every single other time we've played, sometimes by orders of magnitude, it is clear that it was an absolute fluke.) She made us all kinds of delicious food - fluffy waffles with whipped cream, a pizza roll and salad fresh from her garden, a carrot cake, and cotton candy. I have to apologize that this is the only picture I have from our time there.

Brenda and Nate

We've had the good fortune of bumping into Brenda and Nate several times, first when we were all at BYU as students, and a few years later we met up with them again in San Diego where Nephi and Nate were in grad school. Brenda and I had little toddlers toddling around us while we book clubbed and writing grouped and playgrouped and beached together. It was a good life! (Although it sounds cushier than it was, really. Toddlers and babies and pregnancy, man. Unless you're in the middle of it you really can't appreciate the stress and frustration such little people can generate.) But we are now mostly past that, and it was fun to see where we all are now. Brenda and Nate are, currently, far more professionally ambitious than Nephi and I. It gave me a lot to think about. Nate was a superstar grad student and skyrocketed into legit top-tier scientist-hood very quickly, and he now runs a lab and does Real Scientist sorts of things, which as it turns out is mostly rustling up money, which is very challenging and time consuming and stressful, especially in this age of sequester and such. Brenda is a year into a top ranked PhD program and of course rocking it because that is her modus operandi. There is a level of professional awesomeness and accomplishment in their lives that I currently don't feel. But they were also very open about the high level of stress that their daily life tends to entail, and I also know that I tend to deal very poorly with stress. It is all trade offs. It is fascinating to have friends negotiating this stage of life differently.

And look at all the kids we've generated, and all so big!

Amy and Regan

Our last stop on the way back home was with our friends Amy and Regan, who lived briefly in our neighborhood in Colorado before returning to Idaho. They are currently living in Twin Falls, and I enjoyed our brief time there. Although Idaho is a strange place. It seems to oscilate between hyper-upscale-recently-developed-McMansion-and-fancy-shopping and wait-is-it-still-1983, both in aesthetics and general vibe. 1983 wasn't a bad time, mind you. If you miss it, try visiting Idaho. There are roller skating rinks there, and ranchettes, and friendly people with lots of kids and stay at home moms, and summer evenings jumping on trampolines and kids spraying each other with hoses and picking strawberries straight off the plants and running barefoot through the grass in the most perfectly lovely light as the summer heat fades and a light breeze floats by. The last part might be particular to Amy and her family's home, I don't know. It is surprising to realize that their family only lived near us for about a year and a half. Amy has a real gift for forming friendships, and I know many people who dearly miss her, me included.

Nephi also misses Regan, who was a great rock climbing buddy. They took the chance to rock climb for a bit in the morning along the Snake River before we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming in the river. The gorge carved out by the river through the volcanic rock in that part of Idaho is really dramatic and beautiful.