Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Father/Son Campout 2008

I finally got a chance to upload these pictures from the Father/Son Campout 2008.

Through a few little trials (or potential trials) like the fires surrounding Big Sur, flooding in the Brennan home, and a very brief lightning/thunder storm; we had a GREAT time!

If you know nothing about this, every year for the last three years a few of us Dads take our sons up to Pfeiffer Big Sur campground during a summer weekend. It's a great time for some male bonding, as well as some teaching.

This year I got a few calls from some moms about the fire in King City. After a little bit of checking we realized the fires were far enough and heading in the opposite direction; so we headed out. I got to hang with Sean Brennan who drove us in luxury in his Toyota Sequoia...trailer full of gear in tow.

When we reached camp at 2pm on Friday it was 90 degrees...in Big Sur! So we left all of our gear and headed for the river gorge. The water must have been in the 60's it was wonderful.

The rest of the weekend was filled with: dips in the river, Eric Fitler jumping off the man cliff into the river, Sean and Steve jumping off the Superman cliff into the river, exploring the gorge, attempts at squirrel catching, smor's and deep fried pancakes, Steve teaching on being quick to listen and slow to speak/slow to anger, the Ring of Fire where we affirm our sons, I taught on how Joshua (from the Bible) was a hero by being a servant, humble, and responsible.

As we left Big Sur we found out we were under a voluntary evacuation due to a lightning strike forest fire a few miles south of us. Also due to that fire, Hwy 1 was closed going south. So we had to go around Monterey and to the 101. If you look at the slides I took some pictures of the billowing smoke behind us. The weird thing was we were maybe 2-3 minutes north of our campground. That smoke sure made the fire look a lot closer to the campsite!

Thanks to Rob Fitler for taking most of these pics, risking his sweet Canon for posterity. Thanks to all the Dads: Sean, Steve, Christian, Tom C., Tom H., and Rob. It was great to share the weekend with you men!

2 comments:

Thomas Cook, CPA said...

Patrick,

Thanks for all the time and energy you put into the planning, execution and follow-up. These are memories that are going to be shared between fathers and sons for the rest of their lives.

CoachZ said...

Always a pleasure Tom. Thanks for being into it every year!
pz