This last March a friend and I were driving up I- 26 west towards the mountains for a church men's retreat. We were having a good conversation about family and he mentioned a trip that he had taken out west with his father and brother. Man travel! As he was telling me about the trip the thought struck me that it had been quite some time since my father and I had spent some good quality time together. A little background - my father is a college professor. He is one of three children and the only of the three to get a college education and that while supporting a wife and two children. He worked many hard hours on his undergrad and PhD, which created a pattern of semi-workaholism - or maybe just really workaholism - that many times reveals itself by his absence on a family trip so our family trips would end up being my mother, sister, niece and I - the lone testosterone of the bunch!
I realized that my coming summer sabbatical provided a unique window of time and opportunity for my father and I to take a trip together. This Summer I also celebrated my 37th birthday and aging has a way of causing you to evaluate what and who you value most in life. Through this process I was drawn back to the significance of my family.
So in May my father and I planned a trip to San Francisco and Yosemite National Park. It was quite a trip! It started with an unplanned $55 taxi ride the mere 14 miles from the airport to the city. Our first day was spent walking the Embarcadero on the bay side and Columbus Ave. which is known for “Little Italy” and the City Lights bookstore which was a favorite of the beat poets. Friday morning we rented bikes and rode over 1o miles around the city, over the Golden Gate bridge ending in the quaint town of Sausalito. Friday evening we grabbed burgers at the Ferry building and headed out to watch my dad’s New York Mets take on the San Francisco Giants a few blocks away from our hotel. Saturday morning we drove up Highway 1 along the rocky coastline and then 4 hours to the destination I was most excited about - Yosemite National Park.
Driving into the park in the late afternoon was perfect as the sun was sinking in the West, the orange light washing across the meadows and reflecting off the high granite peaks of world famous El Capitan and Half Dome. It was a sight that captured the attention of Ansel Adams and became the subject of much of his photography. Over the next two days we hiked and biked miles through Yosemite valley and Tuolumne meadows, drinking in the exquisite beauty and serenity of God’s creative landscape.
Those five days with my father included conversation, food and fun, silence and solitude in wonderful surroundings, and time just enjoying being together. Time well spent!
