Dear Jack: We Visited the 2016 Progressive Nashville Boat and Sportshow

5 years, 1 month.

Dear Jack: We Visited the 2016 Nashville Boat Show

Dear Jack,

I have lived in Nashville for over a decade now and didn’t even realize we had a boat show here. But sure enough, because of my blog, I was provided complimentary tickets for our family to attend the 2016 Progressive Nashville Boat and Sportshow, so we did.

Dear Jack: We Visited the 2016 Nashville Boat Show

My agenda the whole time was to simply follow you around with a camera, as would demonstrate what kind of fun a 5 year-old boy could have there, so I did.

Dear Jack: We Visited the 2016 Nashville Boat Show

One of the places you spent a good amount of time was the Drake’s Creek Marina exhibit. You loved being able to explore boats, as well as yachts.

Dear Jack: We Visited the 2016 Nashville Boat Show

As long as your shoes were removed, you could go explore each one.

We began to explore beyond the boats and a man making balloon animals was the first to catch your attention. He was with the Nashville Boat Club. You smiled as he made you a “white dog” by your request.

Dear Jack: We Visited the 2016 Nashville Boat Show

You also really enjoyed being able to go fishing. There was this big tank full of real fish and you were given a fishing pole with real bait on it.

Dear Jack: We Visited the 2016 Nashville Boat Show

It just so happened that you were one of the few kids there who, within just a couple of minutes, had a fish bite. We quickly pulled the fish out of the water together.

You were so happy. That made the first time you had ever caught a fish; you’ve always been intrigued by the concept of fishing.

Dear Jack: We Visited the 2016 Nashville Boat Show

Thanks to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, there also was an area where you got to shoot a bow and arrow towards a floating ball. You liked that a lot!

From there, we stepped inside a trailer that featured the skins of forest animals; like a fox and a wolf. That really impressed you.

Dear Jack: We Visited the 2016 Nashville Boat Show

The place was packed. Here I had no idea the Progressive Nashville Boat and Sportshow even existed, and yet all these other families already knew, since they walked among us.

Dear Jack: We Visited the 2016 Nashville Boat Show

I have a feeling our family will be going back next year!

Love,

Daddy

Dear Jack: We Visited the 2016 Nashville Boat Show

Dear Jack: We Who Live on Dry Land are the Minority

5 years.

Dear Jack: You Got to Go on the Southern Star Dolphin Cruise in Destin!

Dear Jack,

Last month during your “destination birthday party” Mommy and I had for you for your 5th birthday party in Destin, Florida, you quickly took to the water.

The thing about it was, it wasn’t a warm, sunny day. Instead, it was the beginning of a windy, chilly day.

Yet you didn’t seem to notice at all that the climate conditions were not idea for swimming. As I pointed out in an Instagram out of the event, it must be your genes that enable you to be able to have that much fun.

Must be his traces of Norwegian blood on his Mommy's side keeping him warm. You won't see me in the water this morning...

Must be his traces of Norwegian blood on his Mommy’s side keeping him warm. You won’t see me in the water this morning…

As for me, I’ve never been that interested in descending too far into water that I can’t see the bottom of.

We as a family love being at the beach. But whereas Mommy and I are perfect content barely letting the later graze our toes as it washes up on shore, you would rather be in it.

You’re not concerned with jellyfish or cold water or whatever else is in that ocean. You have the ability to just enjoy playing in it.

Lexus GX 460 Family Road Trip: My Son’s Destination Birthday Party in Destin, Florida

Though we as a human race seem to forget this, we who live on dry land are the minority. Only about 1/3 of our planet is land, but about 71% of Earth is actually water.

The ocean is the most unknown part of our planet. Without proper breathing apparatuses and/or means of transportation, we can’t survive very long in the ocean; especially not down deep inside of it.

If we don’t drown, or starve, or die of starvation, or are crushed by the air pressure miles below the water, then we easily serve as prey to sharks.

Sure, if you take a shark out of water and put it in the middle of a busy street, it’s not much of a threat.

But that same analogy reversed shows how physically vulnerable we are out in the ocean.

Ocean animals, whether fish or mammals, are created to not only survive, but to thrive, naked in the ocean.

Dear Jack: You Got to Go on the Southern Star Dolphin Cruise in Destin!

Not us humans. Our survival rate out in the ocean is solely based on how not naked we are out there.

We humans live on about 1/3 of the earth’s surface, while all marine life lives on 2/3s of the planet.

I’m sorry, but ocean life is superior to us who live on land.

Even as we overfish and pollute the ocean, it only hurts us in the long run.

But as a 5 year-old, you’re not concerned with such grandiose concepts. All you know is, you love playing at the beach.

Love,

Daddy

Lexus GX 460 Family Road Trip: My Son’s Destination Birthday Party in Destin, Florida