My superhero dad turns another year older today. He’s in China on a long business trip. This year, for your birthday, we’ve decided to take you away from your family for three weeks at a time for the rest of the year! Happy birthday.

Bitterness on his behalf aside, he is an adventurer at heart and probably more excited than he lets on. I don’t think he’d have an issues with being shuttled around if my mom didn’t have a job of her own that required her to stay behind. He’s grumbled a fair bit about how unexcited he is about the food. He was supposed to have a similar assignment in Brazil last year, but that never panned out. He was super jazzed about spending so much time in Brazil.

His plan was to get to his hotel and take a good long nap before navigating the metro. I can call my dad from any city in the continental United States and say, “Hey, I’m lost. I’m a tthe corner of X and Y. Help me get to Z,” and he’d be able to give me directions. Thanks to GPS that doesn’t really happen these days, but I could.

So maybe today won’t be spent with all the people he’d most like to spend it with and maybe that burns a little. But as activities go, I’d like to hope that spending a day learning to navigate a strange place is at least partially his idea of a good time. Maybe he’ll even call up a coworker for drinks. But only if he feels like it.

I love you, dad. Happy exploring. Bring us back some more foreign coins, OK?

Happy birthday.