One of my favorite memories with my family is from my early adulthood, about two years after the Marine Corps. My Brother and his wife at the time had planned a trip to go visit her family in Vancouver, Washington. He had invited my Dad to come along for a deep sea fishing adventure and I mentioned I was a bit jealous and interested in what they were doing, so my Brother invited me to come with. She was only my girlfriend at the time, but at this point she had moved in with me. It was us two, my biological son, my parents, and my brother and his wife all caravanning to the coast.
My Father emphasized that he was not going to pay for anything for me and I was on my own, I don't know why the need to do that to me all the time, I always expect to pay my own way, do I need help and welcome it, hell yes, but I hate asking and hate people assuming I want them to cover me. The lady and I decided to make it longer trip and planned to go to Vallejo to visit my grandmother after we got done on the coast.
We spent the 4th of July that summer watching the fireworks along side a riverbank, all of us and my ex-sister-in-law's family. There were a lot of us. There were a ton of people along this bank watching, and some young kids next to us were being very careless in setting off their own fireworks that they fucked up and one of their rockets flew right at us, and stuck me on the right calf, exploding, and leaving a small scar. I also happened to use the in-law's restroom when we went to their home and they ended up needing to snake their toilet because of me. My Brother was incredibly offended by me just using the restroom, not like I clogged the toilet on purpose.
We happened to stay at the Hampton Inn in Astoria, Oregon. From there we went to the rainforest at the Lewis & Clark National Park, visited the Goonies' House, and climbed every step of the lighthouse. It was an awesome trip. The deep sea fishing wore me out, but we all caught our one sturgeon limit, to include my son. We spent something like eight hours on the water, sober, LOL, but it was a great experience. My father picked up the tab for the fishing and canning of our catches.
From there we parted ways and I went down to visit grandma. First stop was a water park, where we got too sun burnt to enjoy doing anything else, but for my son's sake we sucked it up and went to Marine World and the Giant's game. From there her and I drove back to small town Nevada.
I tried booking a deep sea fishing excursion for my father and I a couple of years ago but my mother's breast cancer surgery got scheduled during it, then the following year we invited my buddy but I fucked it up with my mental illness shit, so I doubt I will ever be able to go with my father again. I would be willing to sell everything and move to the Oregon Coast, I could live there.
I hope you all have a blessed day.
Thank you,
Mikey