Dad

Luckily, he came at a pretty good time when Kelli and I had two long weekends to spend. We saw some great things that are detailed below, Normandy, Paris, London, Baden-Baden etc., but I think the best and most fun days were the days that Dad had nothing on the agenda and I was upstairs working.

It just felt good to have him here, drinking all of our coffee, putting a dent in our Splenda stash and just being Dad.

He spent a lot of time relaxing but every day took a walk into the city, armed with nothing but a little cheat sheet of the numbers from one to ten, "Hello", and "How Much" translated into phonetic German. His walks took him further and further from the house every day. He even went to a restaurant and didn't know what he ordered until it came. (He did not like it)

They way he attacked the city no holds barred with his "If I am myself, I have nothing to worry about" attitude allowed me to learn where I got my version of it from. The balls to move here with nothing but my wife I got from you Dad.

Dad was amazed at all of the American things that could be found here, even though he is convinced that the Starbucks tasted differently here (I disagree). Not one Burger King, McDonald's or KFC made it past us without Dad pointing it out and saying how unexpected that was. His marveling at the fact that we have 5 different types of Heinz ketchups to choose from at Wal-Mart was nothing but smiles for me.

Watching Dad get up and dance to an oompah band at the festival with Uli his new best friend displayed one of my Dad's best features; unparalleled kindness and the willingness to just smile, lay himself out there and have a great time regardless of the fact that the only communicating you did with the person you are dancing with was spoken into a wadded up piece of paper in German.

We miss you very much Dad. It was great to reconnect and learn a little more about myself. You make it so easy for me to feel better about myself with your eternal pride, justified or not, it is always unconditional.

You will always be the best teacher I have ever had on the subject of how to be a man.

Happy Father's Day