Dad, 1925-2010

My father loved adventure. I'm sure his greatest adventure was getting married and raising 3 troublemaker boys but it's the outdoor adventures that I'm thinking of. How he loved nature. How he loved facing challenges, and how he got us all outdoors doing something exciting whenever he could. He taught us all how to do some unique activities. Like crabbing from the canoe in the back cove. He would get so excited when he saw a crab hiding in the seaweed, it seemed like catching that crab was the most important thing in the world. And his excitement was contagious. It took me years to learn how to slow myself down enough to catch a crab without turning the whole canoe over. But I became an expert at it, just like dad, and the excitement stayed with me long after I stopped going to the crabbing cove. He had the same excitement, the same tone of voice, when catching a bluefish, skiing on a beautiful snowy morning, clamming, skating on a frozen pond, catching a storm wave bodysurfing, skinny dipping in the frigid water at East Beach in the Fall. It was his joy in conquering a challenge that made these things so special. It's the same joy that I feel now when I'm faced with my own adventures- raising my 2 boys with my loving wife, windsurfing on a stormy day, kitesurfing. I know I get my own love of adventure and challenge straight from dad. It's a part of him that is with me every day, and it gives my life an extra spark, a special joy. He is with me every time I lift my sail to the wind and step onto a board to skim across the ocean that he loved so much.