Best Fathers Day Ever.

Why was it the best Fathers Day Ever? Well that story begins almost 9 months ago on a Sunday evening when I am over at my friend Dean's house playing some board games and watching movies. I get a phone call from my mom and she tells me that my dad has just been taken to the ER. At first it didnt appear to be anything super serious. It wasnt until later that we found it was rather serious and he ended up having quadruple bypass surgery. He had about 99% blockage in some of the arteries they bypassed and the fourth was over 50% blocked. I came so very very close to losing my dad that day. I am thankful for the men and women at the various hospitals in Vallejo and Oakland that allowed me to still have a dad today. So fastforward to Father's Day 2009. My mom and I decided that for Father's Day we were going to get tickets for the NASCAR race that is at the Infineon Raceway. The raceway is about 30 minutes from my parents place so it was perfect. So yesterday my dad and I drove out to the raceway. First thing we did was have access to Pit Lane. We got to walk up and down the Pit Lane taking pictures at each of the pit boxes. It was really cool to see. After we did that for just short of 2 hours we had tickets to a Q&A session with driver Kevin Harvick. It was only about 15-20 minutes long but it was so much fun. I was actually able to ask Kevin a question and I got probably the longest answer out of all of them (Mine was a much better question than other folks ask in my opinion). After that was over we got the opportunity to be right in front of the stage for driver introductions. This meant that we got to be out on the track in front of the main grandstands and the start finish line. That was such a fun experience to be right there in front of the stage hanging out with my dad watching our favorite drivers come out. After that was over it was time for the race. There is absolutely nothing like the roar of those engines. When you watch NASCAR on TV the sound even when they do the "Crank it UP" doesnt even compare to being there. To give you an idea of the level of the roar of the engines, after they fired up their engines there was a flyover of a Coast Guard C-130 (rather low) and you could not hear the sound of his engines over the roar of the cars. So the race starts and it was a lot of fun. There were some awesome wrecks and some great comptetive racing. After the race was over my dad and I got to go out on the track (again) and walk the track. That is something that about 8 months ago it didnt look like would be happening anytime soon. The track is almost 2 miles and there is a climb that rises some 160 ft at a rather big angle. My dad made it around the track like a champ. I am so proud of him. I took lots of pictures of him walking around the track. It was such a wonderful time spending the day with my dad enjoying watching one of our favorite sports in person. It truly was the best Father's Day Ever.