My 1st Father's Day as a dad

After 35 Father’s Days celebrating my own dad (usually with him grilling burgers and brats), today was my first one celebrating me. I got to choose the day’s activities, and it was kind of like a 2^nd birthday. I kind of loved it.

I still celebrated my dad. I sent him a card from Ozzie and me with a lottery ticket inside. He won $20 on it too, so I gave him $20 for Father’s Day. For my day Megan, Ozzie, and I went to Sarna’s for brunch. It's in Columbia Heights on 39th and University. We’d never been to their brunch, and it was good. They had all kinds of food, breakfast and lunch foods. Brunch.

It turns out that I’m more of a breakfast person for breakfast time. We had 10:00 reservations, and that’s weekend breakfast time for me. I had French toast, eggs benedict, bananas foster French toast, a lot of bacon, cheesy potatoes, and a few chocolaty desserts. Megan sampled the lunch offerings  (ham and ribs, Brussels sprouts, potatoes and gravy, etc.), but I didn’t have any interest. I was full to the brim for 7 hours.

It was really rainy this morning. I even called off what the day’s activity was to be, Canterbury Park. I thought how we’re going to have Ozzie in the stroller, and they’re probably going to be busy for Father’s Day. But it was nice and sunny as we left the restaurant. We called the park and the races were still on, so we went.

I’m glad we went, despite the crowd. It was packed. The line to pay to get in was a block long, but it moved really fast. We got up to the window and I paid our $8 each and got 2 programs with admission. Minnesota lottery was giving away $1 scratchers to the first 5,000 in attendance. Mine was a dud, but Megan won $2.

I bought a $2 tip sheet on the way in, and used it with the tips in the program to make my bets. I don’t know how Megan came up with the bets she did, but she would write down her (usually) exacta bets for me to go make for her while she sat in the sun with Ozzie. An exacta is picking the top two finishing horses. Boxing them (so thy can come in either order) is only a $2 bet.

I bet 50-cent trifectas and 10-cent superfectas. Trifectas are picking the top three horses, and boxing the 50-cent is only a $3 bet. Superfectas are the top 4 horses, and boxing the 10-cent bet is only $2.40. We bet on races 2 through 8. For the first couple of races I was running inside to place the bets and got them in with about 1 minute to post time.

The lines were long to get to a teller to make the bets. It was very stressful. Not making the bets, but when I’d get to the teller I’d look behind me and there was a line of about 10 people waiting for me to bumble my way through. They have touch screen automated tellers where the lines were shorter, so I tried them twice, but I didn’t want to hold up the lines anymore, so I went back to the live tellers.

I got smart right after the 4^th race. I went to place my bets right after the race ended. It was empty at that time. I could (kind of) take my time, and breathe. It was so much better doing it that way. I even made my bets for the next two races. Megan never hit on her bets. Two of my superfectas came in getting me about $15. You have to spend money to make money at the track. If I upped my 10-cent bet to $1 the bets would’ve cost me $24, but winning the two I did would have pulled in $150.

It was nice to sit in the warm sun. Ozzie was a perfect baby in his stroller at the track. He was smiley and taking in all of the sights. I love the track announcer, Paul Allen. I love his radio show and he calls Viking games; he’s also the perfect horse race announcer with his signature “rrrrrrracing” at the start of each race.

Megan got me some grilling accessories for Father’s day. One’s a gage that tells how much gas is left in the tank that I’ve wanted for a long time. She also put together a calendar full of pictures of us (mostly me and Ozzie) that starts in July. I’ll proudly display it at my desk at work.

Being a father to Ozzie is my favorite thing in the world. Now being a father on Father’s Day is pretty cool too. Maybe going the track will become a tradition.