Now That's a Father's Day

Father's Day in America has become like so many other Hallmark Holidays. Although meant to spend time with family, too many of us head to the stores to try and find what we can buy dad. I personally am tired of these consumer based holidays. For my Father's Day this year I wanted quality time with the family, and I got it.

The day started off at 5:00 am. I know rising at 5:00 am might not be every dad's ideal start, but today I was up to see my nearly 15 year old daughter off to Europe. She is leaving the country with her mother and her 10 month old sister for 15 days, so I got up with her to spend a bit of time with her before she headed to Chicago and Boston and eventually Paris.

Next week she is going to spend a day in a French classroom giving a presentation to a bunch of 15 year old French students. She is excited, although this did create a bit of work for her. She put together a neat little picture portfolio of her high school and classmates here at Madison West High School. It was fun to help her put the finishing touches on the project. I'm guessing she is going to be able to add a bunch of friends on her Facebook page.

I then helped her create a blog, mainly so we can stay in touch while she is traveling abroad. We took a few pictures, had a breakfast together, and talked about her trip. She's a great kid, she had a terrific freshman year, and is incredibly interested in cultures and languages. Even though I will miss her, I am excited for her and this opportunity.

Later I took the dog and headed over to Elver Park for a nice long stroll through the woods. I left the house, was inside Elver within 10 minutes, and was able to hike for about six miles, only backtracking at the very end of the hike. This urban park is also amazing simply for the manner in which I am able to isolate myself. I was gone for nearly 90 minutes and after I got beyond the frisbee golfers I didn't see another soul.

These trails sit far away from city traffic, and run completely through a woodland forest. The trails in the photos are wide enough to bike on, although only foot traffic is allowed in the summer. In the winter months these trails are filled with cross-county skiers. Madison has a large cross-country skiing population as many skiers use these trails to train for the American Birkebeiner. Yet the beauty of these trails is that within 15 minutes of my front door I can be away for the people and the traffic. Today it was a great hike.

After returning home and grabbing a quick lunch, my wife and I then took our youngest daughter to the neighborhood pool. Our five year old could not swim as of last SundayBut after spending a week in the water and taking a couple of lessons she is cruising all over the pool. Watching her figure out how to swim has been really cool. The smile on her face says it all as she absolutely loves playing in the water. I have a feeling we will be at the pool nearly everyday this summer.

Now that's a Father's Day to remember. No commercialism, just kids.

In Search of Trillium

Today I am hiking an ATV trail in Sawyer County, just south of the Chippewa Flowage, in northern Wisconsin. It is just me and my dog. The forest surrounding us is a deciduous mix of hard and soft trees, interspersed with patches of white and red pine. It is early and the sun is just starting to stream through the upper canopy.

My attention however is not towards the sky, but instead towards the forest floor. My eye is in search of the wild and fragile trillium. Today they are sparse, much more difficult to find than I expected. At times I come across small patches, but nothing like I have encountered in the past.

Many times in my life I have been lucky enough to stumble upon large patches of these inspiring flowers. The most memorable happened seven years ago on the Memorial Day weekend my wife and I got engaged. We were camped near Crandon, WI. and our campground was flush with trillium. On Saturday of that weekend we were met with a late May snowstorm. As depressing as it was for us, for the lively and vibrant trillium it appeared to be devastating. Bent over with the weight of a heavy spring-time snowstorm, I still recall Carri commenting how sad and dramatic those trillium looked. However the next morning we awoke to sparkling sunshine and terrific warmth. Not only were our spirits high, we were also inspired by the trillium dancing happily in that fresh sunshine. By the way they sparkled that morning, who could tell that only the day before they were cowering under the weight of cold, wet snow. Their toughness, oh so apparent then, has forever stayed with me.

This beautiful and simple white flower is unarguably my favorite. Although my wife and I have three small clumps of trillium growing in our poorly managed garden, it is the trillium of northern Wisconsin that always catch my heart.