Father's Day 2025 began with the kids taking me out to brunch, as one does.
It was a most excellent time with the both in town.
Leah got me a present:
How she managed to get that is the subject of the next post.
Hope all the Dads out there had an awesome Father's Day!.
So yesterday we headed to Ann Arbor to hang spend Father's Day with Abby.
Leah declared she would chauffeur me and off we went. She's become quite a good driver so there was a minimum of screaming involved even though she really needs a bumper sticker that states "Curbs Fear Me".
We met with Abby, and we then headed off to the secret location for my Father's Day.
We drove along and soon found ourselves, to my surprise, at Willow Run Airport.
Knowing me well, they had decided to take me to The Yankee Air Museum.
So they paid the admission fee and we went in and wandered around.
Quite a few aircraft in addition to the gorgeous F-4 Phantom II are on display.
An AH-1 Cobra, a Spad, Harrier, F-84F in Thunderbirds colors and an F-18 Hornet in Blue Angels livery, and an A-4 Skyhawk.
There was also a nice exhibit on Rosie the Riveter and women in the war effort, as well as many other small things to see and some hands-on exhibits as well.
The kids had fun in the cockpit of the KC-135. As they "flew", I adjusted the frequencies on the radio stack to Detroit Approach and Willow Run's Tower, and set the Nav aids for the ILS approach for accuracy.
As well as a neat display of military rations from 1907 through the issuance of the MRE.
Combat Tea apparently was a thing:
It's a very nice small museum, the docents are friendly and knowledgeable, and it was a great time.
After the museum, we headed back into Ann Arbor and went to Tomukun for Korean BBQ, which was fabulous. They bring you the meat and you cook it at the table yourself on the table top grill. We had the thin sliced brisket and the marinated bulgogi beef as well as veggies and some great appetizers. Simply amazing.
I then took them out to ice cream to finish a great day. We then walked Abby home and drove back.
A fantastic Father's Day with two of the greatest kids ever.
Q. Where does 007 invest?
A. In the Bond market.
Happy Father's Day to all my fellow dads out there.
Father's Day started with coffee being brought to my bedside so I could human.
It then got even better with breakfast in bed of homemade Eggs Benedict. Much yum.
The kids' present to me is apparently on order and yet to arrive, so it will get here when it gets here.
Meanwhile, the dogs chipped in to get me a Father's day Gift.
Apparently, never forgetting to feed them gets you good dad points.
First off, Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.
Father's Day here was excellent.
It started off with some coffee and the kids bought me some new cargo shorts and a new cover shirt both form Columbia at an outlet mall, which was very nice of them.
And of course the card:
Touching card it was, yes, hmmmm.
Then we headed off to Kensington Metropark for a nice couple hour hike.
After that, we had built up an appetite so we had a delicious lunch at O Sushi Japanese and Korean Restaurant, where we barbecued meat Korean-style right at the table which was awesome, tasty, and perfect.
Then we headed to Barnes and Noble to browse the stacks for a bit as we were early for our next activity.
The next activity:
Axe Throwing.
Yes, axe throwing.
Because there's no better activity on Father's Day than to have your kids learn how to throw lethal weapons with skill, grace, and style.
Axe throwing is harder than it looks, and a heckuva lot of fun to do. The kids got it down before we did, but we managed to stick a few in the bull's eye as well. So it was a very fun family activity and highly recommended.
It was a fantastic Father's Day. I hope all you dads out there had a great one as well.
A very nice day for Father's Day.
Rain and thunderstorms were predicted but they've held off all day so far.
I received breakfast in bed and some nice presents from the kids.
Then, it was off to the Metropark for hours of kayaking and stand up paddle boarding.
It was a hot day and the tons of aquatic growth made paddling a tad difficult most of the time so it was a god workout as you could feel the weeds dragging on the kayak most of the time.
Then we hit the beach at the Metropark for a quick dip, changed and headed to Black Rock for a proper father's day dinner - a 12 oz Sirloin steak served raw on a 755 degree hot stone and you cut into the steak and cook the pieces yourself on the stone. A bit of a wait as they're at 50% capacity, and a limited menu, but it's good to get to a restaurant again. Yum.
Then home for a Zoom call with my dad and family to wish everyone a Happy Fathers Day.
It was a good one.
Father's Day was off to a rather rainy start.
Leah and Natasha were out of town so it was up to Abby to wish me a happy Father's Day.
She did so, and even walked the dog which is my typical duty, which was nice. I also called my dad and wished him the best of the day as well.
Then she made me breakfast:
Then there were some presents:
Yes, the socks are a gag gift. The Two Left Feet brand may refer to my dancing skills, but girls do think it's hilarious to have their dad wear pink socks with green toecaps and diamonds on them, go figure.
After that I got to work on the ribs I had prepared and covered in a rub the night before and got the smoker going.
There was quite a bit of rain going on.
The chorus from Singing Smoking In The Rain was heard.
But with all that I got the smoker going and then did some stuff around the house, including working on a project I'll blog about later when its done, and after about 3 hours on the smoker I tucked the ribs into the oven covered them in foil and with some water and apple cider vinegar to keep them company, at 225 degrees for awhile.
Then Abby drove me to lunch which didn't cause any coronary health checks, even as we drove through a roundabout that happens to be declared Michigan's most dangerous intersection. The kid did good.
Then she drove me as we did some errands and shopping for the house, including through the same roundabout again, then back home.
Leah and Tash soon arrived and we had dinner.
The ribs came out great.
So good they didn't even need a sauce, but there was sauce for those who wanted to add it.
I had mine with a Moosehead lager I had brought in the duty free store when I came back from last weekend's Toronto trip. A rather perfect pairing.
An excellent dessert followed, and then a nice long night drive with Abby just to have her drive around in the dark for awhile to get some hours in. She's certainly improved in quite a short time.
It was an excellent Father's Day indeed.
I hope all you dads out there had a great Father's Day day as well.
For Father's Day I had a request to take Leah flying again.
How could any father refuse such a request?
The weather was excellent for it, albeit hot and humid.
A few clouds at 4,000 and then clear up to 20,000. Winds 6-7 knots from 260-280. Can't ask for much better than that.
I signed out Warrior 113EJ, did the preflight.
Then and we headed off first to the northeast. You could tell the density altitude was high as the Warrior took forever to climb to altitude. The extra 20 horses under the cowling of an Archer do make a difference.
For Father's Day I wanted to do something special.
When we got up to 3,000 feet in the practice area and cleared the area it was time: I let Leah fly the plane.
She had lots of fun doing it and did some turns and enjoyed herself.
I took us on a course towards the house.
We then flew over West Hills Middle School and Leah got a nice picture of it:
School is out for summer, all right.
While we were flying and taking pictures, someone was taking pictures of us:
Yes, we flew over the house and did a few turns around a point with the house being the point and Natasha got a few photos.
Look who's waving:
After flying over the local lakes a bit and watching the many boaters celebrating Father's Day on the water, we headed back north for a bit to the GM Proving ground:
I let Leah fly the plane some more and then we headed back to Pontiac.
I did a nice right base entry for Runway 27R and did another excellent landing, which was happy making. I even got some applause from my passenger.
Back at Pontiac and parked at DCT we saw a helicopter doing some maneuvers:
Another great day flying, and she wants to go again.
We went home for some lunch, and now I'm just relaxing after a great flight, but I'll be working the grill for dinner tonight.
1.2 hours and 1 landing.
Father's Day started off nicely meeting a few fathers and not-yet-fathers at Union loake for a serious dive. The plan: We split into two groups. Group A with scooters heads out 18 minutes before those of us without and scouts a new location and picks up some other items previously placed, to move the scuba tank boat (memorably named because it has a scuba tank on the bow) to a new location farther out on the line, planned to be in 50-60 feet of water. Group B by fins enters 18 minutes after, kicks to the Scuba Tank Boat (STB) and awaits Group A's return.
It was rather hot out so we got in our gear and decided to just hang in the water until it was time to go.
We started our dive as scheduled and headed to the STB and awaited Group A.
Visibility wasn't all that great with quite a bit of particulate in the water.
On the way to the STB, we saw this interesting pattern in the lake bed:
While it looks like an underwater alien crop circle, it is caused by crayfish skittering along the bottom - which they do backwards and rather quickly. Interesting to see such a large pattern.
Then we arrived at the STB:
We had a while to wait so we swam around a bit then did an ascent practice to conserve breathing gas consumption as we waited for them. In very simple terms, the shallower you are, the less pressure there is and as a result you use less gas with every breath you take from your tanks.
Group A then arrived and we got to the process of trying to lift the boat. Unfortunately we only had one 500 lb lift bag and the boat did not want to cooperate.
While it started to move a smidge when the bag was inflated, it wasn't enough to break suction from the mud and get it going. After trying for a bit we called it and headed back.
Considering the amount of time spent at depth, Group A had to do some mandatory deco stops and we stayed along with them doing the same. Group A had brought along deco bottles (Aluminum 40 cubic foot tanks) filled with 100% O2. I switched to my deco bottle of 50/50 (50% oxygen, 50% everything else, mainly nitrogen) along with them to both use it up as its time for it to be visually inspected, and to just get a theoretically more effective series of safety stops rather than just using air after such a long working dive. We did a stop at 20 feet for 5 minutes and a stop at 10 for five minutes follow by a slow ascent to 5 feet and after hanging around at five feet for a minute or two, to the surface. Then we got out of the water and headed to the local watering hole to chat and enjoy the rest of the morning.
Bottom temp was in the mid 50s, my dive time was 78 minutes, max depth 47 feet.
Next on the agenda some family time and some good steaks to be grilled for a fine Father's Day dinner.
Happy Father's Day!
After a breakfast at the hotel we headed to the Gaylord Regional Airport for the Wings over Gaylord Airshow.
We arrived nice and early, got a front row parking place and took the shuttle to the show.
The Yankee Air Force's B-25 Was there, and we made a donation and toured around inside her.
Then the show kicked off as the Canadian Forces CC-130J warmed up on the tarmac.
The props are actually spinning full blast, but the iPhone's camera is actually capturing it so quickly each of the six blades is distinctly shown but appear bent. Very cool.
The CC-130J sprang into the air after a very short takeoff run. Carrying the Canadian Forces Skyhawks parachute demonstration team. After some streamers were dropped so the ground crew could judge the lower altitude winds, as they were acting up, the performance began.
A classy way to open the show, with the narration by the Canadian Forces captain and the formation jump was done to both the Canadian and US National Anthems while carrying both nation's flags.
The jumpers landed at the ending of the anthems right on the center of the drop zone even with the shifting winds, and made it look easy.
Then to keep up the Canadian stereotypes and Canadian content, they went to the Tim Horton's tent for some coffee and doughnuts:
Both the B-25 and the C-47 did some flights around the field, as did an SNJ.
There was some amazing aerobatics by Susan Dacy in her modified Stearman "Big Red":
After a stunning aerobatic display, she parked the aircraft, got out and chatted with the crowd and signed autographs for the kids.
The kids were thrilled to actually get to talk with a real stunt pilot, and a female one at that.
Susan Dacy isn't just one helluva talented pilot, she's also a class act all the way.
And then there was formation aerobatics by Team Aerostar in their YAK-52s:
Now I want a pilot's license and a Yak-52. Oh bother.
In addition to planes, there were informational exhibits by the Air Force and National Guard and quite a number of military vehicles both historic and current to be seen.
They also demonstrated some very cool forward air controller video-interlink gear. Suffice to say, they can seriously rock the battlefield.
Sadly, they wouldn't let me take any of the toys home.
The kids got to look at the Army Firefighting vehicles and saw a demonstration on some of the Army firefighter rescue techniques:
The firefighters let them try on the helmets and other gear and climb in the trucks.
The airshow portion of the show then closed with another jump by the Skyhawks. After that there was a chance for helicopter, B-25, and C-47 rides but the kids were completely fried so it was time to go.
It was a fantastic day indeed and we headed home very happy after what was the best Father's Day.
