Father's Day

I hope all the Dads out there had a great Father's Day. Having grown children, two of which do not live close by, my Father's Day was pretty low key. A card and call from Daughter#1, a call from Daughter32 as she and The Son In Law and their dog/child Gracie headed to the Shenandoah National Park. Apparently yesterday was get into your National Park free day and they were taking advantage of it. I also received a text from The Son around 9:30. I guess better late than never. Ann also gave me a card and other...ummm..gifts. Since it was my day, I decided to go for a row. The plan was to complete Concept2's Summer Solstice row, which consisted of rowing (or erging) 21,000 meters. That's just over 13 miles. The plan was to row up river to where Bull Run enters the Occoquan. The forecast called for partly sunny, but winds 15 to 20 mph. I was hoping by going early (7:30), all would be calm and I could beat the wind. Unfortunately that was not the case. The water around Sandy Run was fine, but shortly after rounding the first bend the wind hit and the water was pretty choppy. I gave it a try for 3 miles and it kept getting worse. I decided rather then fight the conditions, I'd just call it a day. I rowed back and actually past sandy Run toward the race course as the water around Sandy Run was actually pretty good. I ended up rowing a total of 8 miles for the day, but it wasn't all that much fun. Ann and I finished of the day by grilling some ribs. Overall not a bad Father's day. Pretty quiet actually.

I did call my own Dad and sent him an ecard. He lives in the Orlando area so I don't get to see him that often. This year being a bit of an anomaly as I visited him in February for his 80th birthday and I also saw him at the end of May for Daughter#1's wedding. He looks great for 80 and is generally in pretty good health not withstanding ongoing problems with a pinched nerve in his back that forced him to give up golf and makes it difficult for him to walk any distance. But we caught up on what each of us was doing. I was interested in hearing about his time after the wedding. He and my sister drove up to Gouverneur, NY where my Mom is buried. Its the 25th anniversary of her passing from cancer. It's where she grew up. For a time my Dad and Mom owned a small cabin on Sylvia Lake, just outside Gouverneur. My sister took a bunch of pictures and it was nice to see. We actually vacationed on Sylvia lake when the twins were 3 so that was about 24 years ago. The lake is pretty and the water is so clear. It's also freezing, but it is upstate NY after all. After Gouverneur, he traveled to Rutland, VT and then on to Hartford, CT. Some old friends of the family from when we lived in NJ now live in Hartford. Our two families were pretty close. They had kids our age and we pretty much grew up together. I know he enjoyed the visit. So Dad is doing well I'm hoping to visit him in Florida later this summer and also get some beach time. Hope you all got to spend some time with your Dads and hope yours is as special as mine.