Meeting The Pirate!

I've been blogging for about 10 1/2 years now.  During that time I've met so many wonderful people online.  I've also had the opportunity to meet quite a few in person.
Last week I got to meet another long term blogging friend in person!
I've been following Jenny from 'I'm Having a Thought Here' for about 8 years.  Although most of our communication has been through our blogs, an occasional e-mail and a few phone calls over the years, we have a connection that I know many of you would understand, as it happens sometimes in the blogging world.
Jenny is a pirate fan, and my whole family knows her as Jenny the Pirate.  She lives in South Carolina, and that distance has made meeting in person difficult.  We always planned to go in that direction at some time so we could meet, but last week Jenny and her husband Greg were coming to Ohio.  She sent a message a few months ago, asking if we would be able to meet her halfway from there and of course we were thrilled with this plan.
And so it happened that on a somewhat cool and dreary Friday, Bob and I made the drive to Lansing, Mich.

We met at Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, a place I'd never eaten at before, but Jenny had been to one and liked it.  Not only was it a beautiful place, the food was very good too.
Better even than the food was the company!
I think we stayed for over two hours, talking, laughing and enjoying our time together.  Jenny is a "hoot" and had us laughing several times, but she's also the real deal and we talked about faith, family and our concerns for our country.  I felt I knew Greg already from the blog, and I found that he is exactly the gentleman that Jenny has talked about.  Bob and I really enjoyed our time together.

Here's Greg and Jenny after our meal.



Jenny was so sweet and had brought along a little package of goodies for us.

It included this winged pig, which was perfect for Jenny, because if you follow her blog sooner, rather than later you will read "when pigs fly"...  It's one of her favorite sayings and it makes me smile when I see it on our side table.

She also sent a gift for Alaina and Ruby - this string of popsicle lights for their room.  You can see that they were pretty thrilled with them.

Thanks Greg and Jenny for the gifts, but even more for the time together- it was a joy!