May of 2007. We still were living in Dallas. The last vacation we took from Dallas was to the Smoky Mountains. The girls were really young (9 and 3). Our live in nanny Nancy was traveling with us too.

On our way back home, we stayed overnight in a hotel in Atlanta. Next morning, Sandra met us in the hotel and introduced herself as the real estate agent assigned to us to help in our relocation to Atlanta. That morning was spent getting to know each other and trying to scope out what kind of house we would be looking to buy.

That started our friendship of two decades. The last time I saw her was probably when we had called the previous owners of the house and her over to have lunch with us in our house. After that, it was mostly phone calls – sending references, birthday calls and so on.

She then moved to New York and subsequently to St. Pete.

It was so great to see Sandra after such a long time. Like that first meeting, this time too she gave us a good lay of the land in terms of real estate in St. Pete. Also some more places to visit in and around St. Pete. We will hit those areas tomorrow before we head back home!!