man by a river

Make Father’s Day Meaningful

Father’s Day is Sun­day, June 16

Talk to any­one about this and they’ll agree: Men are the tough­est peo­ple to buy gifts for. Even men will agree.

What a lot of men will admit is that when they want some­thing, they go ahead and buy it. So it’s tough to look for the per­fect thing that never in his wildest dreams did your dad think he would like.

So is it any won­der that, with 3 weeks to go, I’ve already heard rum­blings, stress­ing & anx­i­ety about what would be the per­fect gift for that spe­cial guy.

I thought I could find good hints by look­ing up the top bucket lists for men. I’m not sure that look­ing through bucket lists helped clar­ify Father’s Day plans but it sure did show men’s wishes in all of their var­ied and com­pli­cated forms.

There are count­less vari­a­tions of buck­ets list themes. I found this excerpt in an Esquire bucket list for men:

No. 12: Leave your­self a let­ter in a library book. Look for it twenty years later.

Pick an obscure biog­ra­phy in a col­lege library, since no one there wants to insult obscu­rity by decat­a­loging a book, and the library will most likely always be there. One page. Be dis­creet. Type it on erasable bond, tuck it in the back, and hope that no one ever notices. As for con­tent, skip the hopes and dreams. Men­tion the weather, tell your­self what you ate that morn­ing, make a list of your friends, note how much you weigh and whether you feel fat, remind your­self of a secret you want to keep.

I’m not sure how many men would actu­ally try this lit­tle note idea. Plus how do you give that to dad for Father’s Day?

Other wishes that men listed had a com­mon theme: out­door adven­tures. Some guys wanted to fly air­planes, some wanted to sky-dive and oth­ers wanted to go on all-men camp­ing trips, watch the sun­rise and sun­set all in the same day, drive the Cal­i­for­nia Coast Highway.

Another com­mon theme was that men wanted to express gen­eros­ity or kind­ness in some way. There was a sort of sweet­ness to this theme: to do a truly phil­an­thropic act, pay the toll for the car behind him, walk his daugh­ter down the aisle, see a baby being born.

fathers-dayMore and more men are find­ing the great­est hap­pi­ness from expe­ri­ences & build­ing rela­tion­ships rather than acquir­ing “stuff.”

So, instead of wast­ing time tear­ing through malls to find the per­fect  “stuff” to wrap for dad this Father’s Day, how about plan­ning a great expe­ri­ence … like raft­ing, for example?

The best thing about a raft trip with Jasper Raft Tours is that ours is a “Class 2″ trip. That means the river is gen­er­ally tame with a few fun areas where you could get splashed so it’s suit­able for all ages. Our expe­ri­enced guides can make the day fun & mem­o­rable for the entire fam­ily. We even take expert pho­tos for you to give dad as a keepsake.

If dad prefers, make it an all-guy event: book a trip for dad and his friends.

Father’s Day is less than 3 weeks away so book your trip now & make sure you also book a din­ner reser­va­tion at one of our great restau­rants. It’s likely the restau­rants are going to be pretty busy on Father’s Day & I’m sure you don’t want to be disappointed.

Choose to make this Father’s Day an entire day of mean­ing­ful, fun-filled memories.

(Photo “Man by a River” cour­tesy of Sander Hoogen­doorn on Flickr)

Other sto­ries like this one:

mother and babyMother’s Day Sun­day May 12th