It was a good choice for me to work at Camp Morrison in McCall Idaho in 1993, 94, and 95

Reasons to agree:

1. I learned how to row. 
2. I got good at canoeing, small boat sailing, and snorkeling.
3. I met some cool people.
4. I learned how to Eskimo roll in a kayak.
5. I learned how to live on my own, and take care of myself. 
6. You get a sense of who you are living alone and in a new place. 
7. You get to know people pretty well living with them. I met a lot of cool people (Gomer, Lumpy, Bryan, Brad, Nathan, Emily, 

Reasons to disagree: 

1. I made less than minimum wage. I worked more than 8 hours, but got paid minimum wage for an 8 hour day.
2. I met some cool people, but I didn't spend time with the most important people in my life, my family and the people I was going to school with. 
3. Rowing, canoeing, small boat sailing, and snorkeling are not marketable, or used very often. 

I worked for 3 summers in McCall on the aquatic staff of Camp Morrison. While in McCall I:

• mounted a potato gun to our sail boat
• A potato gun is made with PVC. A small section with a large adapter. You spray hair spray, or other combustible material (not sure if hair spray is as combustible any more) into the large section. Using a lighter ignite (we used a kerosene lantern igniter) shoots the potato that is crammed into the small end. Mount this to a sail bloat and you are a fricken pirate. 
• broke helmets while wearing them,
• Above Fall Creek McCall are some very steep trails. Going off jumps on these mountains causes you to go up in the air, at the same time that the mountain falls out beneath you. Go to the peak, and you'll go past the jump that I broke my helmet on. 
• worked as a life-guard.  Taught: Canoeing, Row-Boating, Small Boat Sailing, Swimming, Life-Saving, snorkeling
• played a lot of hackey-sack, 700
• rode my bike 2 or 3 miles to every meal, 
• used an outhouse and took a shower in the outdoors, 
• chased deer, 
• listened to a lot of Nirvana, Primus, 
• had my first room-mates,
• recorded my first sleep-talker
• and constantly feared running into bears when ridding back to my tent at night on dirt roads

Below are some photos.

On the way to Kayaking down the Middle fork of the Salmon. 0 for 3 combat eskimo rolls. This truck had an 8-track, that played Nirvana nonstop. The year Kurt took his life. 

The row boats tied to the dock. The lake is very smooth, as it typically was this time of night. A troup could borrow the canoes and go to Cougar Island. They could take their tents and backpacks, or just go for the evening. We would help them get into the canoes, and shove off.  

Chris Gonzales trying to look tough. He was the aquatics director after Gomer Williams. 

Me trying to look tough

Me with cosmetic glasses made from spiral notebook and the
shirt that Megan and I picked out from Sadie Hawkins

Me watching a snorkeling outing on North Beach

There was a hill on the beach with a log and a table to sit and draw, and
write. It was a great place to think about stuff.. 

The entry to the water front. The buddy system/swimmer board, flag pole,
look out tower / storage cabinet.

I'm the 2nd from the right. Adam ?, Nathan Fisher, Brad Bishop, me, Bryan Rich

The Canoes looking @ cougar island. Lake is usually calm like
this in the morning. 

A couple of family of geese on the calm lake

Bryan, behind the life-guard tent

Summer Vacation to visit the family can be hard but are important

Assertion #1: Summer Vacation to visit the family can be hard...
Reasons to agree:

1.     It is hard to travel with kids that are younger than 2.

1.     Young kids have separation anxiety.

2.     Young kids may have problems sleeping in new places. 

2.     Kids have a hard time getting out of and into routines. 

3.     Traveling is hard

1.     Traffic can be annoying

2.     Being in a car for a long time is hard, especially for kids. It hurts my lower back.

4.     Our kids always get sick on vacation.

1.     2012

1.     J through up on a mattress, and in bed two days before we left.

2.     P through up in bed.

3.     My wife was sick, and we got a late start. 

4.     I didn't get sick until Idaho, luckily. 

5.     2-year-olds cry all the time.

Movies that agree:

1.     National Lampoons Vacation

Assertion #2: ... it is important to visit family.
Reasons to agree:

1.     It is good to try to spend time with their grandparents. Kids need as many positive relationships with safe adults as possible. Grandparents usually have love, interest, and motivation to help their children. Spending time with grandparents helps answer the question of "where did I come from", and "who am I". 

2.     Going on a family vacation can be disorienting because you get out of a routine but some times it is important to get out of a routine and look at your life differently. 

3.     When kids see their cousins they can see that people live lives 

2012

I'm writing this from my parent's place. As our family has grown in size, the economics of flying with more people has suffered. And so our 2012 Summer Vacation (AKA: Trips to see family in Idaho) started off with a 1,700-mile drive with 3 kids in a car.

Below is our adventure-packed "travel laug." 

Day 1, Drove to Nebraska

We planned to leave on Friday and drive for 11 hours. However, on Wednesday (or Thursday?) P threw up in our Bed, and J threw up on his mattress (which got thrown away). Wife wasn't feeling good and so we didn't leave till 2:30pm. We ended up driving 470 miles (8 hours) and making it to Omaha Nebraska. It turns out they had the Olympic swimming qualifications in Omaha, and some college sports, so most all of the hotels were taken. The Days-In hotel was very musty. I didn't get to sleep until after 2pm...

Day 2, Drove to Utah

We arrived in Salt Lake at 1:30am, after waiting for 2 hours in Nebraska when the Highway Patrol shut down the freeway, while they life-flighted some people away from a 6 car pile up. There were very bad winds, very hard rains. Because of all the lightning strikes, the power was out at one of the gas stations we stopped at. Garmin told us to drive up a dirt road, but we ignored it and got stuck in traffic for 2 hours.


2-hour traffic jam in Nebraska


Day 3, Drove to Nampa Idaho

We slept in @ Uncle L' house. Visited Wife's Uncle and brother, on the way to Idaho.

Day 4, Sick

I was sick and slept most of the day.
Went to fireworks @ Granny Janie's.
J stayed the night at Amy's house


Day 5, Drove to McCall Idaho

Packed up again, and headed to McCall.
Stopped at the Cascade Water Park to watch the kayakers surfing.


Day 6, In the woods and on a lake of Northern Idaho
My daughter and youngest son saw deer on a hike with Grandma and Grandpa.
Went on a hike with my brother.
Went with my brother and their family to see the McCall fire works.
Spent time on the beach

Day 7, Still in the woods
My brother and the cousins left. Read. J was bored.

Day 8, Woods
Wife cleaned on the atomic scale. Ate at My Father's Place in McCall. Went to Ponderosa State Park. Saw a deer. Returned home.

Day 9, Drove to Nampa (again), time with Family Watched Men In Black 3 with my brother (thanks Amy for watching the kids).

Day10, Family Church.
Anita Kay, Greg, and Steve's family came over. It's great that the kids got to play with their cousins.

Day11, Family Wife's mom fixed breakfast.
Used quickcrete to fill in a sinkhole in Granny Janny's yard, moved some rock, got stung by a wasp.
A quick wind storm knocked over Dad's crooked willow. We borrowed Bob Barton's chain saw to cut it up. It was probably about 1-1/2 feet across. Got stung by a 2nd wasp.
Visited with Wife Aunt and Cousin from Texas.

Day12, Dad took the tree to the dump. Only cost $4.
J wanted to fly a kite, but there was no wind. Grandma said we should fly the kite behind grandpa's ATV. It worked great. J wanted to fly the kite on the way home, but it got stuck in a tree.

Day13
Day 14
We went to Wife's uncle, Richard Chadwick's funeral. He sounds like a great guy, father, and husband. I only met him a few times. Wife and I watched his kids one time at their home in Meridian, when all the kids were little.
Dinner with Wife, my Brother, and his wife.
Softball with his church softball team.

Day 15 Went to the Zoo Boise, which was not too bad coming from Chicago. It was a great day outside (the day before had been in the hundreds).
Went to the Morrison Knudsen Nature Center. Saw a whole bunch of stuffed animals, a living deer in the parking lot, sturgeon in the pond, small and large rainbow trout, and some sort of crane or egret.
ATV w/ J and A.

Day 16 Grandma and grandpa went to a grandaughter's singing performance
Wife took the kids to visit a cousin
I got packed, and updated this

Day 17
Flew back home

2011
Steve and CoraLyn watched Pip while we took J and Ason to Yellowstone.

Steve was going to Jump Creek and took J and I with him.
Its cool taking J to some of the places that you went to when you were little.

July 2006. A 5 months old

Christmas 2004 soon after J was born (2 months old)