Thursday we left the intense rain of Sydney to fly to sunny Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast. Mike’s favorite part was having breakfast in the exclusive, invitation-only Qantas Chairman’s Lounge.

Mike’s father was stationed at Brisbane in the ‘80s as the British consul general, so the kids came home from their boarding schools on vacation there. Mike also did a gap year, working as a hotel porter. He hadn’t been back to Brisbane since 1983.

We stayed downtown in one of the tallest buildings.

In the afternoon we explored downtown.

After our wanderings, we met up with a childhood friend of mine, Tim, and his wife Nancy. Both Americans, they have lived in Australia for 25 years.

Tim’s dad was my childhood pastor, and we were in the same confirmation group.

Tim and I hadn’t seen each other for around 43 years! But our brief time with them in the pub reminded me of why we were friends as teens. Tim is professor and director of the Andrew N. Liveris Academy for Innovation and Leadership, and Nancy is a clinical geropsychologist, neuropsychologist, and professor of clinical geropsychology at The University of Queensland. So fascinating careers and just good people! Seeing Tim again and meeting Nancy at last has been a highlight of our trip for me.

Next we met Mike and Ed’s family friends for dinner. Once again, Mike hadn’t seen most of them for 40 years! They were a family of four kids, and now they all have a passel of kids. We had about 16 in total at dinner. They were all great fun!

This experience of seeing people you haven’t seen for 30-40 years…it definitely makes you feel old…but it also makes you feel alive!