When I was a kid my uncle had a sailboat (28\u2019 Sabre).\u00a0 His children were grown and really didn\u2019t have time to go sailing with dad so he adopted me as his crew.\u00a0 He kept the boat on the Delaware River.\u00a0 We used to race all the time.\u00a0 We\u2019d sail down to the Chesapeake and spend a week or two visiting various ports.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As the kids got a little older I bought my second sailboat, a 26\u2019 Hunter, the Leaky Cauldron. \u00a0Between soccer and scouts and music and school and other activities, finding any time to go sailing was a struggle.\u00a0 We just couldn\u2019t justify the expense and we got rid of the boat. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019ll get another boat when my youngest, Caroline, heads off to college.\u00a0 Sailing will just have to wait for now.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Backpacking\/Camping I used to backpack and camp with my oldest, Nicholas, when he was involved in Boy Scouts.\u00a0 That was a lot of fun.\u00a0 Some of the trips were downright brutal, but the experience was incredible.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always thought that, if you want to see the greatest sights nature has to offer, you have to be willing to walk further than most rational people.<\/p>\n My last, really great, backpacking trip was with Nicholas to the Philmont Scout Reservation in Cimarron, New Mexico.\u00a0 We did about 110 miles through the Rocky Mountains at elevations anywhere from 8,000-12,500 feet over a period of 10 days.\u00a0 From the wild life to the scenery, I can\u2019t tell you how many times a day I said, \u201cWow, look at that!\u201d\u00a0 Even with proper training, a trip like this is brutal but the experience was incredible.\u00a0 I took a fall and cracked a rib on day 4.\u00a0 Everything from putting on my pack to simply rolling over in my sleeping bag was really painful but I was NOT going back to base camp!<\/p>\n This will sound kind of silly but, between work and raising four kids, I really haven\u2019t had much time for my own interests.\u00a0 For now, my interests revolve around my kids interests.\u00a0 Whether it is taking Sean or Caroline to a soccer tournament for the weekend, going to a marching band competition with Emilie, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-85","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P43ZBH-1n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mdoyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/85","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mdoyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mdoyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mdoyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mdoyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mdoyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/85\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mdoyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mdoyle\/files\/2011\/10\/IMG_0001.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Before we had kids I bought my first sailboat, a 27\u2019 Hunter.\u00a0 We used to race and cruise on weekends.\u00a0 When our first child came along we discovered that babies and boats just don\u2019t get along.\u00a0 We tried to make it work\u2026everything from mounting a car seat to the rail on the stern to netting all around the cockpit but, in the end, we just couldn\u2019t make everyone comfortable so either the boat had to go or Nicholas had to go.\u00a0 I called \u201cheads\u201d, my wife called \u201ctails\u201d and we decided to sell the boat and keep Nicholas.\u00a0 I wonder if that was the best decision???<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>Nicholas earned his Eagle, turned 18, and went off to college.\u00a0 None of my other kids are the least bit interested in these types of adventures.\u00a0 As time permits, I\u2019ll get back into backpacking and camping.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"