In the name of Father's Day this weekend, I will let this photo of me, hideous fleece sweater and all, be unveiled onto the Interwebs.
My family went pop-up trailer camping a lot growing up. I think my dad thrived on preparing for the ultimate mini-adventure. We never went anywhere too exciting: Lake Erie, Virginia Beach, (and Disney World, once) but it was nice to always have a familiar place to sleep when traveling.
I was probably 10 or 11 years old here, since my sister Ashley looks about four. I love that she's holding a burnt-to-a-crisp marshmallow on a stick, with her deceivingly cute grin.
Unfortunately, it's really difficult to find a good photo of my entire family. Looking back, it seems like my mom was always holding the camera. If not her, it was my dad taking photos.
Anyway, as many old family photos as I've pored through, there are few good photos I've found of us camping, even though it felt like we were camping constantly then.
While my dad and I aren't the particularly close, this is how I think of him at his best: Readying camp, building fires, doing goofy stuff. He installed a singing "La Cucaracha" horn in the van we used to pull the pop-up trailer. Once in awhile the horn got stuck. It lead to some amusing situations with people screaming at us in the middle of the night. I realize now that all those things he did while we were camping were ways of showing he loved us.
Do you have any favorite childhood memories with your dad?
