Friends in Important Places

Once in a while it is important to stay home and catch up with family, friends, peers. Not to mention running the vacuum and dusting shelves.

Pope and I aren't ones for following the crowd, though, at least in regard to the staying-in-DC-and-doing-the laundry part. We like taking our social life on the road. (Or the river. Even, sometimes, on the sea.)

He is in western Washington visiting a fellow sailor, former Capitol Hill neighbors, and his daughter in college.

I am on Megabus returning from New York City after whirlwind visits with a fellow yogi, a former roommate, and a zydeco dancer. I like variety! I even mixed up transportation modes--buses, trains, subways, feet.

Anita, formerly of Yoga in Daily Life in Alexandria, now resides on the beautiful New England coast.

Can't seem to stay away from boats, even when touring as a landlubber.

Tea was served on a tranquil patio overlooking the Connecticut River.

Then it was back to the madness and mayhem of the Big Apple, where historic porticos vie with soaring glass and steel.

At midtown Macy's, $125 Michael Kors flats share the limelight with old wooden escalators.

Elegant HanGawi vegetarian restaurant is on Korea Way, aka 32nd Street, in Midtown. Maitake mushrooms and wild mountain roots were on the menu.

My fine-dining companion, Satoko, previously shared my home in Virginia and hosted me in Japan. Now, she runs the Newsweek Japan bureau in New York. My friends get around!

Then, it was off to Brroklyn for the night and a lovely breakfast in the garden with Leslie, a popular zydeco dancer in NYC, DC, and Louisiana.

One last subway ride, and a 30-minute push through crowded sidewalks, to catch the DC bus on the far side of Manhattan.

Ah, but it's nice to have friends in important places. Or should I say, important friends in interesting places.