Dad was watching

I was blessed with the chance to visit Islamorada in the Florida Keys twice this year with family for fishing, visiting, and generally having a ball.  My siblings have been doing this for close to 20 years!  It's always a mishmash of assorted siblings (I have 6) with in-laws, out-laws, nephews, etc. mixed in.   Distance, money and work frequently prevented me from joining them.  I just returned from a trip there, and the strangest thing happened this time.

We were hours into our second day on the water, in a lull from successfully landing a few fish, and lazily trolling on the way to another favorite waypoint on the GPS.   I was gazing at the cloud-filled sky as it was spitting rain on us, but noting how warm the air felt.  Suddenly I got the funniest tingling down my spine, and the hairs stood up on my neck like a cool breeze had blown, and an image popped into my head of my Dad - with a big grin on  his face.   That image made me smile as I got a very clear feeling that Dad was happy to see me on the water with two of my brothers, one sister and a nephew.  I didn't say anything to anyone, but later that day one of my siblings commented, "I hope Dad's watching us and is happy."

You see, Dad died in 1988, but our love of the water, boats and fishing was started with him.   I can imagine he would be happy to see us together, doing something he enjoyed and had planned to pursue full time until his heart gave out on him just days short of his retirement.

Here's the pics of the trip.   It's very cool to feel he was with us, no matter how crazy it sounds.

Tight lines.