Hospitality and Friendship

Chicago, Illinois

Check out this beer collection!!

This is my friend Collin. He and I walked the streets of Chicago checking out interesting graffiti, wandered through a food truck festival, ate some pierogi, drank crafty beer together and managed to become good friends in a matter of two days.

It is funny because the whole back story of how I even got introduced to Colin started with a very similar and unusually instant friendship.

About five years ago I decided to spend my summer learning to be a cross country road bike guide. Me and twenty other like minds met up in Buffalo, New York. For the next five days the group of us wandered through New York and Canada hearing all the tools of the trade. That's when I met Mike.

Micheal Kogan is quite the character, we bonded over our common interest in unique foods and travel. I remember specifically deciding I wanted to be friends with him while sipping some melted chocolate drink in a cafe in Buffalo.

The training ended and we split our ways, Mike took his youth bike group to Maine while I took mine to Boston. Never did I think I would see him again, since I lived in Texas and he lived in Chicago.

And then the next summer rolled around. Mike sent me information about a voyage to an Island in the middle of Lake Superior, Iyle Royale, and all he had to say were the next words, "It is the most uninhabited National Forest in the United States ," and I was sold.

That trip alone has many stories, like how I got to see a moose while fishing and Mike was snoozing on the pond bank, missing the rare sighting, or how I got to lost for hours early in the morning while trying to go to the bathroom outside. Somehow I disappeared into the fog, screaming Mike's name, only to come back frazzled and shaken while Mike slept like a baby. Or how I ended up missing my bus ride back to Austin so I could sit in the basement with Mike and his friends and play Settlers of Catan and taste the finest and the worst of home brews.

The next summer Mike and I decided to keep our summer trip streaks going so he hopped on a plane to Texas and we drove to Big Bend National Park where we hiked many miles and ended up eating the best tacos with new friends in Boquillas, Mexico.

So, when Micheal set me up with his friends in Chicago, knowing he would be out of town, I should have known right away I would get along well with these fellas. But that assurance didn't come until I showed up at their door this weekend.

I was told no one would be home, but there was a hidden key somewhere on the back porch. Like a crazy person I was pacing back and forth looking for the key when Colin looked out his windows watching shadows going back and forth. He fierce-fully opened the blinds and I was startled. He opened his door and greeted me with an awkward, "Hello?"

"Uh, hi, do you live here?"

"Nope, just robbing the place," he later told me he thought, but pleasantly said, "Yesss...?"

And on we went, introducing ourselves.

Apparently, Colin didn't think I was coming until the next day and I had no idea anyone was going to be there. I entered a dark room with the television on. I was feeling as if I was inconveniencing him by showing up when he did not expect me and he was obviously way into his television series. But he turned it off, sat on the couched, I plopped down on another after a miserably long and confusing walk to find their home, and from that moment forward it was as if his plans stopped and the pursuit of hospitality and friendship began.

He asked me many questions, I asked him many questions and two hours later I felt like we had been friends for years.

Colin is a geologist who works for the City of Chicago, he has big dreams to help people with his work and see the impact in lives as he serves and protects people's resources. His dream job, however, is to have his own band, playing the music he is passionate about.

He has one of the most welcoming spirits that invite you in and make you feel special. He has a taste for the finest beers but every now and then throws in a rolling rock to keep himself humble.

I love meeting new people and a person like Colin, who is willing to get up early and take a stranger in his home through the bus and train routes to securely send them on their way, is the kind of person that truly leaves a lasting impression.

I hope our paths cross again one day. If not, I hope to treat a guest in my home the way he treated me in his.

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Bikes, Flowers and Bricks

City view from a quieter place

Cafes and Coffee