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Before becoming parents, René Brask and his wife Sophie traveled around the world in search of waves to surf. The pair from Denmark found a fine place in Bali, a mountainous Indonesian island just south of the equator in the Java Sea, and returned to it every year for five years running. As it seems to always go, one day they learned they were going to have a baby . . .
9 days after crashing on a halfpipe in Park City, Utah, four-time X Games female free ski champ Sarah Burke died on January 19, 2012. She was 29. Sarah took a spill after pulling a fairly easy trick by her standards, a flat spin 540, and hit her head. There are four main arteries that supply blood to the brain, and sadly Sarah's fall ruptured one of them . . . Camera: Canon 5D | Lens: EF16-35mm f/2.8L | Setting: f/14, 1/125, ISO 100 I stopped and looked around for another way. He, on the other hand, rolled by me on the passenger side, draped a wrist at 12:00 on the wheel, and entered the sludge at a creep. Life as we knew it unfolded in slow motion. The front tires touched the water and went down. They didn't stop, but they sank with such a dreamy, cartoonish pace that those of us watching had enough time to process, react, and theorize. So, we laughed . . .
When Stuart Wickes and Kirstie Pelling got married, they honeymooned for six months in South America. Actually they rode their bicycles through South America. Not a bad way to celebrate the blissful bells that mark the blessings of becoming ball and chain. Six months later they arrived in Tierra del Fuego. As you can imagine, this was one incredible adventure honeymoon full of sweet memories. For example, the pair took a week's work as a crew on a yacht, negotiating the fjords and island clusters of southern Chile. It was no ordinary vessel. You could say it changed their lives . . . Camera: Canon 5D | Lens: EF24-105mm | Setting: f/4.5, 1/100, ISO 100 She found the tree with the right branch, but it took some time to find. As you can see, good, strong branches that are close enough to the ground yet far enough from the tree are few. But that's exactly what you need for a proper rope swing. My wife found the one that worked. I lassoed the branch, tied off the webbing, tied a big figure eight on a bight . . .
If it's one thing Adventure Parents is all about, it's the parents. Not the kids. They're spoiled enough, right? The Sealander amphibious camping trailer just slid into my inbox from a friend, and, the way I see it, it's far too small for a family, but just right for the blissful consenting couple. It's barely more than a water-going cottage in which you can snuggle up . . .
It's road trip season, so raise your hand if you grew up in the back seat of some car bound for a National Park or Disneyland or your long lost aunt's house across the country in which you witnessed a few throwdowns between your parents who were trying to navigate with a paper map on a Summer road trip.
In May of 2004, Brooke and I had been married for a year and the notion of me being a father was still, you know, alarming. We spent the weekend of our first anniversary down in Sonora, Mexico kayaking on the Sea of Cortés near the little drinking village of San Carlos. The day she and I left, I met my friend Brian at a seedy dive in Tempe right on our way out of town, sipped a chilled Patron, and he cornered me again about some band he liked. This time he came armed with a freshly purchased copy of ¡Americano! by Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers and he made me promise that we'd give it a whirl. I lied and said okay because I was so focused on getting to Mexico and putting a paddle in the water.
While we all wonder at certain necessities like, "uh, so where am I gonna poo during our camping road trip?", there's another event near and dear to the same anatomy (I said near) you're wondering about, too. How do you have intimacy, a little s-e-x, with your partner on a road trip with kids? Whoosh! And there goes decency right out out the window. Stick with me, though. Or don't. Or maybe you're saying, "Road trip? Sheez, dude, I can't even figure this out at home." I get emails and Facebook messages about this, and the old 80s band Heart sang it in, "How Do I Get You Alone?" So? What's the answer?
There's no lingerie here because I happen to believe that many of the offerings in outdoor clothing have a more sophisticated way of suggesting the woman in your life is beautiful and irresistible. Read on, read on.
Watch their intro video for a little bit of wacky inspiration.
Here's something you don't know about me. I'm constantly thinking of ways to take our experiences, our trips, what I know about my wife, what I know about my own child, what I know about me and distill it all into cute, simple, five-point digestible tips that could sum it all up and expose the answers to how to get outside with your family, too. You know what? Despite the requests, I just can't do it. I don't believe I should hold the beautiful idiosyncrasies that makes my family my family over water and heat until I expose the tangible, consumable parts. If there are any to be found. Here's the biggest problem of all. I've spent a lot of time reading up on the outdoor-family advice that exists out there, and you know what? It's all an utter waste of your time, really boring, or way too obvious. "Plan ahead down to the last detail!" "Go slow!" "Don't expect too much from your kids!" "Let your kids be kids!" "Your kids can handle more than you think!" And on and on. I conclude one thing . . . . . .
You find out that she's outdoorsy - what ever that means - and you get excited. Don't blow it, bozo. Here's what I did, not that this works for everybody. Maybe you'll get a nugget of truth in this somewhere. Believe it or not, we're in the throes of our seventh year of marriage now.
Mark, remember our first anniversary in San Carlos? We had a lot of great times our first year of married life, but that trip was exceptional. I remember sitting on a patio with the sun setting over the Gulf, talking and eating fresh seafood. The strolling mariachis and flower vendors spotted us a mile away and came over to see if we were total suckers in love. Maybe we were, but who cares on a date like that? I still don't think you fell for it, though...Later on that trip, we snorkeled, went kayaking, and played in the water. Perfect 3 days of Mark and Brooke time. |
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AdventureParents.com is here to toast the fun parents who see value in taking their children out; whether it's around the world or around the neighborhood. So check out Jenny and Rolf: they're going to take a year off to travel the U.S. with their 17-month old son. They say they're doing it "to bring America back to nature by using our family as a model to inspire, motivate, educate, and empower others to get out and enjoy America’s wilderness areas."
Let's say you're meeting her for the first time; the girl of your wild dreams. Maybe you're at the coffee shop or at a party. It doesn't matter. Something about her draws you in. It is good.
