Katharina our niece from Germany was 13 by the time we finally met her face-to-face and for years we could never be sure if we’d ever see her here in America. She’d gone to Niagara Falls and Florida some years back as part of an organized church trip but we weren’t able to coordinate being back that way at the same time. For the past 7 months, she’s been spending her gap year down in New Zealand where she’s been packing apples for some contractor that hires people looking for temp work. Not too long ago we learned that there was a good chance she was going to visit us in Arizona. Leaving the land of the Kiwi during the middle of winter and freezing temperatures to land in Arizona when it’s well over 100 degrees here seems a bit ludicrous but then again we enjoy those kinds of contrasts.

Sure enough, July 1st rolls around and Caroline is hearing from Katharina that she’s landed in San Francisco and is disoriented by the fact that she left New Zealand before she arrived in California, such is the magic of time zones and fast intercontinental travel. Five hours later and here she is with what amounts to her winter clothes. Her backpack ended up on some other flight and is hopefully being rerouted to Arizona where it will be delivered to us within a day or so.

Before dropping off Caroline back at her office we stopped at Valle Luna for our niece to try Mexican food because we’re in the Southwest y’all. Okay, that was way more Texas than Arizona but comic moments have to be found where they can. Being a vegetarian she opted for the cheese enchiladas and was far braver trying the salsa than I’d expected.

I still wasn’t done with my European backlog of blogging chores but fortunately for me, she was patient and sat with me until I finished and her aunt finished her day at work. We’ll go slow in case jet lag hits her and then on Thursday we’ll head out to Somewhere, America, and see what we can discover. By the way, Katharina is now 19 years old.