The weekend arrives. I'm off but the wife works. What to do? Grab my camera and head to wheat country in north-central Washington, a three-hour drive from Seattle. I spend the day in the field. At dusk I arrive in Waterville, where I've booked a hotel room. Now it gets interesting. While waiting for a table at a restaurant in town, I'm invited to join two couples, total strangers. In this chance encounter I learn: the Canadian woman, in her 80s, is a world-class swimmer. Her husband worked on oil rigs in the North Sea. His ship nearly capsized from a 50-foot wave. Great conversation. Emails exchanged. I return the the historic hotel and find three guests  – Gary, Ron and Pablo – sitting on the front porch. I'm invited to join them. The friends, in their 60s, share hilarious stories about one another. I laugh so hard I'm about crying. Gary tells me he's friends with renowned photographer Art Wolfe and invites me to Wolfe's holiday party in West Seattle. I couldn't make this up (see postscript below).

CAMERA  MAMIYA 645 PRO TL  FILM   KODAK T-MAX 400

POSTSCRIPT – Was this all a dream? Wife Alisa and I made it to photographer Art Wolfe's catered holiday party in December. He treated guests to a slideshow featuring images from his new book, Earth Is My Witness. We got to briefly chat with him. He was friendly and funny. Below, Art poses with us in his basement studio after signing a book we purchased.