One of my favorite holidays has always been Memorial Day, which in many parts of the country not only honors our veterans but also signifies the unofficial start of summer.

In our house, Memorial Day means taking the kids to a parade and then at least one full day on the water. which water was the question, as we were fortunate to have many water choices, with bountiful lakes and rivers close by and the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean just a short drive away.

The past couple years we’ve chosen to join my parents at their home on the river. Their summer house has plenty of extra beds and linens, and the boat dock has a variety of boats, from a kayak to a ski boat to a john boat to a sailboat. And this year my brother towed his 30′ cruiser to the public ramp and put it in for the guys to go fishing on Sunday.

Knowing that he was coming with the cruiser, I bought a special gift for him – or rather, his boat. I remember last year how we had taken the cruiser down the river one weekend and just slept on it over night with the intention of waking early and throwing in the fishing lines at daybreak. Well, it was a great plan but when we woke there was so much fog that we couldn’t see anything for hours and to be honest it was downright frightening to be out on the open water unable to see more than a foot or two in front of the boat.