70 Yrs Old! & NO BANANAS!

Wow. My dad’s 70! He is in great shape and the smartest man I know. He started Weight Watchers with my mom this past winter while they were snow birding in Texas. He has now lost 50 lbs and is at his lowest weight ever in probably 20+ years. Not only is he eating right, he’s exercising. He swims at the gym a few times a week in addition to his work on the tree farm. Even on vacation, he keeps to his regimen and adds biking and walking. I’m very proud of him. He’s had some health concerns and this is the best thing he could be doing for himself and his family who want him around for a LONG time!!!


Dad’s birthday was officially August 7, however, most of the family would be together in Grand Haven this past July. As I’ve come to be known in my family as the “get together planner,” I started plotting a surprise celebration for my dad 5-6 mos ago to take place in Grand Haven, MI. With the help and coordination from everyone, we had a great day planned for him. My dad isn’t a fan of the beach, so he usually sets the camper up in Grand Haven, stays a day, then returns home while mom stays 2 weeks. He’ll come back to pick her up and hang out with the family for a few days. The only hard part of planning the surprise was getting dad back in Grand Haven in time for the Charter Boat fishing. It came down to mom sacrificing her Grand Haven time by making a deal with him: Dad comes back by Thursday (celebration was on Friday), and she’ll leave GH 3 days early to go camping around the top of Lake Michigan (one of their favorite things to do). Thanks for making the deal, mom! It worked! Dad hitched a ride with Jeff to Grand Haven and they arrived Thursday night around 9pm.

July 16 was the day of his celebration and started with a 5AM wakeup to go Charter Boat fishing with his 5 sons: John, Jeff, Tom, Ed, and Jeff Leiting. Unfortunately, Mike was not able to make it. The charter boats have been coming back with an average of 13 fish a trip. We were counting on a large catch because Lake Michigan fish were the MAIN COURSE for dinner and we had to feed over 30 people! That day, the water was the roughest it had been since we arrived in GH. I was naseaus just watching the charter boats leave the channel! We packed a cooler full of beverages and goodies for the guys on their trip. At the last minute, thinking there weren’t very many healthy food choices in there, I threw in a bunch of bananas. Now, if you are an avid boater, here is where you are GASPING at the thought of me throwing bananas in the cooler for the boat. I, obviously, was completely ignorant to one of the most important rules of thumb: BANANAS ARE BAD LUCK ON BOATS! As the boat was heading out of the channel, the captain became aware of the bananas and told them to throw them overboard!

And so I am blamed along with the bananas for the low count of fish that were brought back. Here is an account of their fishing trip:
Dad – first up, fish on, line snapped
Dad – up again, fish on, at the same time, another fish was on, John was up at the same time as dad reeling in their fish.
Dad caught the first King Salmon
John pulled his in almost at the same time, 2nd King Salmon
Jeff S – line snapped
Tom – difficulties reeling in his fish, must not have had enough muscles to pull his in
Ed – line got tangled
Jeff L – line got tangled
Dad – lost another one
Ed – brought in the last one

Here is a short video of “little-muscled” Tom trying to reel in his fish (this is from my brother's fb page so not sure if everyone can view?:
Tom's Reel Problems

I believe there were a few more tangled and snapped lines in there but I was not on the boat and am trying to recall what I heard. The captain was disappointed they had such horrible luck with tangled and snapped lines – and of course, he blamed the bananas. If they didn’t have all the tangled and snapped lines, they most likely would have come in a dozen fish. An average King Salmon feeds 10-12 people. We had over 30 for my dad’s party at Ole Boys’ Brewhouse that night. I told the boys, we need at least 3 fish to feed everyone, and they complied with a total catch of exactly 3. My husband recently found this website about bad luck fishing: Fishing Superstitions
Shockingly, the website highlights 3 of the biggest reasons fishermen have bad luck and they had ALL 3!
#1 Bad Luck Omen is a woman on board (their first mate was a girl named Aly!) #2 Bad Luck Omen - Bananas. #3 Bad Luck Omen - Never fish on Friday's (they did)

After some beach time, we all met at the Brewery for dinner where Dad was surprised by extended family and some good Michigan friends waiting to celebrate with him. My mom baked his favorite and her best Texas sheet cake. The weather was perfect for a party on the deck, and we even had a great one man band playing for us who was great acknowledging dad’s 70th birthday. It was a lot of fun.

Here’s a short video my brother Jeff put together of the great day: Dad's 70th Birthday Celebration