I was lucky to have a great friend visit this past weekend.  No matter that our beautiful autumn has passed and the colors are gone, we went exploring and hiking and got caught up on each others lives.  We headed north to the central lakes region of Minnesota and stayed at the historic Grand View Lodge on Gull Lake.  Two days before our arrival they had a couple of inches of snow, and although it was chilly the weather was fine for us.  In the morning we walked along the lake, and this scene truly seemed to represent a lovely late summer’s day (although in reality the temperature was 34 degrees and the wind was blowing).  I feel fortunate to have wonderful friends in my life, and this long weekend reminded me of a quote I read recently:  “You can always tell when two people are best friends because they are having more fun than it makes sense for them to be having (author unknown).”  And so it was for us!