So 15 years ago, I got invited to give a talk at the BBC in London.
I asked my dad (80 at the time) if he would like to come along - he said yes.
Yay! Dad & son trip!
Entirely orthogonally, I heard about a home in Kent that sounded cool, and (being me) reached out to the homeowner/architect to see if they'd be okay if we came by and gawked at it.
The homeowner graciously invited us to stop by if we were in the neighborhood.
My dad and I tried to figure out if that would be possible...
Remember, this was early days of iPhone and maps, and data was expensive. I had bought (for a trip the year before) an SD card worth of Garmin data (I think it was $299) that covered the area south of London, which Kent was in.
So long story short, after my BBC talks, we got in a rental car and headed south.
For an American, driving in the UK generally is terrifying (wrong side of the road for us), but in London it is especially awful, as it's all so quick - roundabouts, etc.
So in London, we used the iPhone, and it was great, but driving was terrifying. I honestly don't remember which of us was driving and which was navigating, but the whole thing was harrowing.
I will say that I am my father's son, as my memory is that we laughed the whole time, and if my father had been with my mom, or I had been with my wife, it would have been way less funny…
Anyway, eventually we left London and were where we needed to turn to the Garmin data.
The homeowners/architect were so generous with their time, explaining all the decisions, prototypes, etc. it was super awesome and inspirational to us.
My dad (the handsome guy on the left - still hale and hearty in 2024) and I had a great time with them.
Richard (homeowner & architect of Crossways) is in CA and stops by MEM (we don’t have a cool name like Crossways, but we refer to where we live by our three initials), and I get to show him around our compound - much less sprawling than theirs, but a fun small payback for his family's generosity to my father and my imposition all those years ago.
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