We went on a hike today with a great collection of new buddies – some found us, we found others. For instance, Jan and Kristina and their little Julius were innocently playing on Kailua Beach when Ben and I got to chatting with them. They are from Germany, but had been living in Portland OR for a couple years on an assignment for Jan, and were between work projects so they vacationed here in Hawaii for two months. We got to take them on a couple hikes – all crammed into our truck (today Jan rode “Hawaiian style” in the back!!!). Brenda and her three kids found me on the beach – they recognized me and the boys from www.outdoorohana.org and told us about the hikes they’d enjoyed after finding the website. So we made plans to connect again and managed to follow through several months later. And Amy found me through Outdoor Ohana as well! We enjoyed a hike together several months ago and have stayed in touch since. So we had three Sams on the trail – 2 two-year-olds and a big Sam. What a great time together – the littlest ones did the whole hike on their own in record speed – all of us were prepared for a long time as they darted and checked things but they really enjoyed hiking along at big-kid speed. We’ll miss Jan and Kristina – they fly back to Ger tomorrow…Aloha!