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SHANE'S HIKING JOURNAL - JANUARY 1, 2006

NEW HAT!

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This isn't particularly a trip report.  I haven't taken a trip since Katrina, and I won't get to take one until April at the earliest.  But I was so excited about the Christmas present that Andrea and Virginia made for me, that I thought I'd share it here. 

To tell the story, I have always wanted a Tilley Hat.  Unfortunately, there were two things standing in the way of that.  One, Tilley doesn't make a camouflage hat, and two, Tilley hats are more money that I normally have in the hat budget.  We were talking about this on the Kampfire list, when Rick suggested that I let Virginia color in a Tilley hat with markers, and presto it would be camo.  Of course, letting a four year old loose on a $70 hat seemed like just the crazy idea I had been looking for.  (Thanks, Rick!)

I found a Tilley hat in my size on eBay for $50, and Andrea agreed to get it for Christmas. 

We found some Sharpie permanent markers in earth-tone colors (imagine that!), and they proceeded to work on it, and I started to wonder how long it could possibly take to let a 4 year old scribble on a Tilley hat.  The worked on it for HOURS for several days. 

The end result was something much better than my original idea.  Here's the front.

 

And the side.

And the other side.

And the back.

My mother-in-law did the hearts on the back.

 

Virginia did some flowers.

 

On top is the whole family, the sun, a heart, and a tree dropping leaves.

 

More flowers on the front, and a big heart and some little hearts.

 

Some snails, and various bugs.

 

Andrea drew the symbols of the five elements that are engraved on my wedding ring, and Virginia was keen to do it too.
As Virginia said, "Symbols are important to our family."
Andrea wrote things like that on the hat itself, as you can see.

"The Sun, the moon, & the stars, always.", is something between Andrea and I.
That's engraved on the inside of my wedding ring.

 

A dinosaur.

 

All around the hat, Virginia very meticulously made dots of various colors, and then circled them all.

 

She then said, "These are the footprints the stars make mama when they dance around the moon."

 

She drew a house, a tree, and the sun...

 

...and then drew the ocean.

"I've got to draw the ocean of course.  The ocean is really big."

 

Inside...

It's not just a work of art, it's a work of heart.

I'm very excited about it.  It looks good on me too, and it makes me happy to wear it.

Pictures of that some other time...

Shane

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