The tension was getting pretty thick as Rebecca and I drove up Interstate 5 on Saturday. She has had a number of very exciting experiences this summer, but none seemed to carry with it the expectations and enthusiasm she had for her six-day backpacking trip in Yosemite’s high country. It was a special event put together by the recreation department at UC Berkeley.
Rebecca after we parked the car and walked next door to the backpack trip rendezvous point in Berkeley.
The whole thing is fraught with significance, especially for dad. It’s Rebecca’s first backpacking excursion, and it comes just before a huge academic excursion called college. The structure where we parked is on the site of the rooming house my father lived in when he was a graduate student at UC Berkeley in 1946-48. And the street is one I walked daily forty years ago. Yeah, there was lots of history happening between the car and the meeting spot, which was about a hundred yards.
But the big thing I had to contend with was being sure not to embarrass my daughter. I thoughtfully snapped this picture (with Rebecca’s permission) right outside the garage, so none of the other backpackers would see us. And when she met up with the group, I waited only long enough for her to get her pack off so I could hug her and then be on my way.
Yeah, who needs parents anyway?
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One of your primary duties is to embarrass your daughter. Don’t let her tell you otherwise
Normally, my very existence is embarrassment enough to her!
“You can go now”.
My daughter’s parting words as we toted her last box into her UCI dorm room .
This too shall pass, Paul.