Kim and I spent the weekend visiting an old friend of mine from back in Newport. I should still be too young to say old friend but we realized this weekend that we’ve known each other for close to two decades now. The last time I saw Laura was in Spain more than two years ago. It doesn’t feel that long and neither of even realized it had been that long until we saw each other again and got to talking.
Kim and I drove up Saturday morning from Seattle to Laura’s current residence south of Bellingham in an unfinished house with a wonderfully crazy Scottish man named Scotty. Yes, Scotty the Scott. 
Scotty is an interesting character who is very friendly, very social, very talkative and will very willingly talk to you for as long as you’re willing to listen if not longer. After some brief introductions we took off for some climbing near Anacortes.
We took a few wrong turns but found Mt Eerie and started wandering around the summit looking for climbing. We mostly setup top ropes on fairly easy routes since Laura claimed that she had only been climbing a few times, but it was soon obvious that she climbed too well for the level at which we were climbing. We hiked down the power lines and found some more challenging routes. I led a route and then set up an anchor that gave us access to two other more difficult routes. Laura climbed what was probably a challenging 5.9 and Kim tackled a difficult 5.10 pincher router that I was never able to do. The first time I tried it I traversed over to do the 5.9. I was going to call it a day and forget the route but I had to go back up and clean the gear. While attempting the route a second time the sole of my shoe tore on a small ornery toe hold. I was pissed! Oh well, I guess they needed to be resoled.
None of us had eaten lunch so we feasted at a Mexican restaurant. Returning home we found Scotty with a bottle of wine watching Alien. After Kim recovered from the dizziness that 2 glasses of Sangria had given her, we passed out.
The next day we ate Mac and Cheese for breakfast since it was was all Laura had for food. Scotty chatted about plants, the economy, the weather, animals and many other subjects before we escaped to meet up with Laura’s friend Steve to go sailing. 
We took out what I believe was a twenty foot boat out on the lake for some perfect sailing weather. Kim and I learned about booms, jibs, jibes, tacks, lines and all those other fun sailing terms. Arrrrgh! What has eight arms and eight legs? Eight pirates. Steve and Laura were both great teachers.
We had beer and pizza back in Bellingham and got to know Steve better. Steve and Laura are dating even though Laura seems to have a hard time admitting it. Steve is from Pennsylvania and has been traveling around with Laura on her random adventures the last few years. After some ice cream we said our goodbyes and Kim and I drove back to Seattle.