My father and grandfather are both in town for a visit! This is their first trip to Oregon and we have had a slow paced visit. As I have gotten older, visits with my father (whether at his house or mine) have consisted of several trips to the toy stores. No, not "Toys R Us", the "grown-up toy stores" like Home Depot or Best Buy.
On our way home from picking them up at the airport, one of the first questions out of my dad's mouth was, "Do you guys have a Home Depot where you live? Or Lowe's? Or Best Buy? Or anything like them?" Clearly, already trying to plan our visit.
Along with providing hours of Father-Son bonding time, these places have also been a point of reference when giving directions...."go up the road until you see Home Depot then take a right....etc..." This long running joke comes from a couple of projects he helped me with at our house in Florida. The most memorable was building an office in our garage. This required sectioning off the garage into office space with, what ended up being, a "Hurricane" proof wall. This wall was just supposed to divide the garage in half, but due to a mathematical error, ended up being glued and screwed to the walls with studs every 14", with R30 insulation and blue board on the outside. I'm convinced, a Category 5 hurricane will come through and tear down the entire house, and that wall be the only thing in the area left standng. :)
Our first trip to the toy store (this visit) was just a short one to look at some difference ideas for projects around our house. No major purchases, only a moose that sings "Fly Me To The Moon" and light-up reindeer antlers for each of the kids, courtesy of Papa, of course. We did discuss possible projects and had a good time catching up! I have come to enjoy and look forward to these trips, as I learn a little more each time and enjoy the time to reconnect with my dad.
