Antelope Island With the Zhangs

 Here is a hodge podge of pictures from my flurry of activity with my friend Kelin Zhang and his wife, Renee.  They came into town for a convention. I had lost touch with Kelin since we were in violin making school 20 years ago.  He tracked me down, and we picked up where we left off.

Not exactly where we left off.  There wasn't a buffalo at the violin making school.  Kelin was fresh off the boat from China, working hard to learn English, building violins at night, joking all the time that he was "President Kelin-ton."  He was a good guy.

Now he runs a successful shop in Dallas, his wife runs a school for the performing arts, and they have two beautiful daughters.  They are a dynamic duo.  Renee was fielding calls in several languages on her phone all day.  She's trying to set up an exchange program at their school.

I wish I could find a picture of us in school, but Kelin, for all his joking, was a serious student.  He rarely joined in on all-night parties at the Rainier or pool games up the street or dollar spaghetti night at O'whatever that place was called.  And in spite of all my socializing, I actually worked a lot too.  School from 8 to 4.  5 to 9 or 10 at Lamb's and 10 pm to 6 am at a bed and breakfast on weekends, then 6 am to 10 am at another bed and breakfast.  Don't worry; I still found ample time to get into trouble (which you're well aware of if you ever visited the Rainier.)  Not Kelin.  He kept his head down and worked.  It was gratifying to see him 20 years later, hugely successful, and more importantly, happy.

Showing Renee the hidden door at the office.

Renee sent me these photos of the previous day, via my new social media addiction, Wechat.  As soon as I signed up, all my Chinese friends' profiles came up.  It was funny.  I guess it's the Asian answer to Whatsapp.  Anyway, the Zhangs were staying in Salt Lake and drove down to Arches for the day on Saturday.  Those are my kind of people, that will drive 3 hours each way for a travel experience.  Antelope Island didn't disappoint, either.  We spent a great few hours driving the island.  Kelin bought us lunch at the buffalo burger place out there.  It was delicious!  I'd never been.