Although it may sound a tad dorky, the person that I love traveling with the most is my Dad. Perhaps it is because we share the same off-beat sense of humor that others can enjoy but never fully understand, but I have never met anyone who can make me laugh the way that he does or finish my jokes before I do. Two years ago I went through a series of challenging things that most people either never have to confront or at least not until they are 40 or 50. Initially I chose not to confide in anyone, until I finally opened up to my dad. Eventually when I felt comfortable talking to my friends about these events, I received a lot of mixed reactions and discovered who my real friends were. But most importantly, I learned what unconditional love really means through the compassionate and non-judgmental eyes of my father. He taught me how to love myself again and showed me how to find strength when it feels like you have nothing left. We recently drove from San Francisco to Los Angeles together, a grueling drive that I am used to making by myself to return to school. I can honestly say it was the most amazing road trip that I have ever taken with another person because we just talked for 6 hours straight, despite our 5 a.m. departure and my initial desperation to fall asleep for the whole ride. Instead we turned the music down and reveled in one another’s uninterrupted company, laughing and crying through all of the things we never said to each other. In an even more resent conversation that we had, I found out that my dad has only been out of the U.S. once, if you count Canada. After everything that he has given me in my life, I would love to be able to give him the opportunity to revisit his youth and reawaken his undying thirst for adventure. I can only imagine the amazing conversations we could have while adventure traveling in a continent that we are both dying to see. The photo is of a fly-fishing expedition that we took together in which my waders were constantly filling up with water. Instead of going through the hassle of taking off my waders to empty the water, we developed a handstand method that was much more efficient and fun!