Happy Father's Day!

Yesterday my Dad and I celebrated Father's Day a little early.

My gift to him:  Time

I could have gone to the store and bought him another shirt or another book or another CD.  Or I could have thought ahead and tried to make a present for him which I used to do a lot when I was a child.  One year I wrote a poem to him and cut out pictures of fathers and daughters from a magazine and glued the pictures all around the poem and then bought a frame from the drugstore.

But this year I decided to give him something you can't buy anywhere and that is the gift of time.  My Dad doesn't drive anymore so I picked him up early yesterday morning and we took a road trip to some of his favorite places in southern Maryland.

The weather was beautiful: low humidity, a slight breeze and the sun was shining not too brightly.  We went south to the Chesapeake Bay area and checked out some of the different places that he likes near the water and then drove to Broomes Island for lunch at Stoney's Seafood House (www.stoneysseafoodhouse.com).

Stoney's is right on Island Creek in Calvert County and is also home to some of the best crabcakes ever!  It's been there for over 20 years and you can drive there or come up to it by boat.  It's just one of those scenic out-of-the-way places where people slow down and sit and talk and listen to each other while letting their tired spirits gain strength from the area's quiet beauty. 

I didn't hear a cellphone ring the whole time we were there! 

It was a day of letting my dad do the talking about anything he wanted and listening to stories he wanted to re-tell.  It was also a day of just sitting and enjoying time with someone who is the best Dad in the whole world.

Happy Father's Day to my Dad and to all the other Dads out there who work hard to make their children's lives a lot better.

And to those whose Dads are no longer with them today, I hope you have many warm memories of you and your Dad and time well spent together!