Reminisce

I took this picture at the beginning of an awesome trip last summer.

My parents came to visit for the fourth of July (which I only sort of talked about a couple of times) and I got to spend a few days actually taking a break with two people who also needed that break just as badly.

Until that weekend, I had never spent any particular time just hanging out with my parents as an adult -- and that was something it was well past time to fix.

I don't think they realized they were getting their picture taken when I snapped this one ...

These are the people who raised me. They're also the ones who taught me to appreciate good wine, craft beer, intelligence, and a solidly built bridge. They're the ones who have listened patiently as I've put myself into one weird situation after another, or as I've taken up strange hobbies.

Heck, they even go along with a few of them. In fact, this was taken between geocaches ... and shortly before I tried to lose a fight with a tree. (I still have the scar to prove it.)

These people are the same ones who supported my brother as he got himself to Africa, and my sister as she moved to South Korea. They let me take up backpacking in middle school and go to Russia in college, laughed as I told them about my bizarre new coworkers after I moved to Wisconsin and expressed some kind of jealousy when I started taking tango lessons.

And the ones who, after raising three fairly adventurous kids, finally went on their own adventure and visited China.

My parents are pretty cool people.

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