What a weekend!

This was a great weekend.

It's been a very busy summer for the Packman family. We've either had guests stay with us (we do live by the beach!) or we've been away just about every weekend since memorial day, and to be honest we were all getting a little tired of it. Finally, we had a weekend to ourselves, with no plans or responsibilities.

Saturday morning dawned with a cloudless sky, and I headed off to drill with the rescue squad. This is my normal Saturday morning plan, and I usually spend from 8-11:30 or so drilling on water rescue or EMS skills and maintaining the equipment. This Saturday, there was a memorial swim for a fallen firefighter taking place off of Far Rockaway, so we took our new rescue boat out to pay our respects and keep an eye on the swimmers. It was great to be out on the water!

When I returned home, it was time to do one of FBS' favorite activities: go to Costco! It is a bit embarrassing how much he loves going to warehouse stores, mostly because there are very nice people who will let him sample all kinds of glorious junk food as we walk around the store. Funny kid, but I must admit that the chicken ravioli in pesto sauce they were handing out were quite tasty.

The shopping done, it was time for some adventure, and this was one I had been looking forward to for a very long time. When I was a kid, I really enjoyed going fishing. At summer camp I was always looking for an excuse to go to a stream or lake with a rod and reel, or even a handline. My grandfather at one point managed a fleet or swordfishing boats out of Cape Cod, and when I visited him as a teen he would often charter a boat for the day and we would go after blues and stripers. I spent many hours looking through fishing catalogues and organizing my tackle box, dreaming about the fish I would catch on my next trip out of New York City. You could say that I was an enthusiastic, if quite unsuccessful fisherman.

It was time to take FBS fishing for the first time.

I had been accumulating gear on his behalf for some time. He had a spider-man fishing rod, which I had taught him to cast in the backyard. He had a lifejacket to wear in the unlikely event he fell off the dock into the water. He had the fickle enthusiasm of a three year old ready to try something new.

My plan was to keep it to a short trip down to a dock to cast for fluke. I wanted to keep it short so that FBS would not get bored. I didn't really expect to catch anything, but I didn't really care either. I just wanted it to be fun. If we caught anything, it would be gravy.

It was fun!

FBS and I spent over an hour on the dock, which for a three year old is a long time to do anything without getting bored. We fished with his rod, we lay on our bellies and watched small baitfish swimming around, and we were not skunked - I caught many small see-through jelly fish with my hands and let FBS play with their slimyness, which he really liked. (These were non-stinging jellyfish, or I would not have been catching then or handing them to my kid!)

FBS had such a great time that he refused to take a nap. He actually said to me, "no daddy, I don't want to take a nap. I don't want to miss all the fun!" How cool is that?

The evening was a bit difficult, as the kids were overtired, but it was an OK tradeoff in my book.

Saturday night brought another adventure our way: Mrs. Packman and I hired a babysitter and went out to a dinner of Thai food in NYC, followed by a party at the home of some good friends. It's good to have an "adult" evening every once in a while, no matter how much fun you have with the kids.

Sunday morning started much earlier than I would have liked, considering my 2am bedtime after the party. At about 6:30 my rescue squad pager went off with a report of a pedestrian struck by a motor vehicle. It was my first major trauma call with the squad, and I handled myself well and learned a huge amount as we got the poor guy to a trauma center in Queens ASAP. We really made a difference in this guy's outcome, and I felt really good about being able to help.

The rest of the day was spent on some of our favorite activities. We spent the morning at the beach:

Playing at the beach

Staying hydrated at the beach is important

We grilled hotdogs for lunch, and then FBS asked to go fishing again! Of course, I took him :)

In the evening after a delicious dinner of tacos, we headed out for our traditional pajama walk along the boardwalk near our home.

Evening pajama walk

My beautiful wife

All in all, this was a great weekend. We really need to spend more time just enjoying ourselves, rather than over planning every summer weekend ahead of time.

Stay tuned for more adventure to come, including The Great American Road Trip!