YOU NEVER KNOW WHO YOU MIGHT MEET ALONG YOUR PATH!

It just so happened that my son, Casey and his wife Natalie, arrived in the Destin area for vacation the night before our departure. It was simply awesome to meet them for dinner at Cantina Laredo, a very good Mexican restaurant.

I’m going to take this moment to talk about the amazing man that I get to call my son! Casey has done some really awesome things in his life……many things that most of us will NEVER experience.

Much to my chagrin, Casey LOVES scuba diving. One of the first great expeditions that he went on was to go hours off of the west coast of Mexico to a very small deserted island where he spent a week of diving with the great whites!

Another expedition took him to the Cooper River in South Carolina where his diving resulted in finding megalodon teeth. His most recent diving takes him into underwater caves. Is that bad enough??? No, he particularly loves diving at NIGHT!! I’ve earned every one of these grey hairs!!!

Casey has been planting the scuba diving seed in his nephew (my grandson), Garrett, age 10 who, with Casey as his mentor, is currently working to obtain his scuba certification. Garrett has completed all his classroom training and most of his diving but still has one more dive ahead before reaching his goal. He has to dive down 40 feet and complete a bunch of tasks, like breathing from another O2 mask in the event his would malfunction or run out of O2. Now have two to worry about!!!

Casey has just recently completed 25 years with ABC Chicago News where he started as a videographer but is currently working as a managing editor. Along with his usual responsibilities to get the news delivered, Casey has become a licensed drone pilot for the station. Many of those awesome aerial shots you see have most likely been shot by Case.

Casey’s work at ABC has been recognized as exceptional on many occasions as he has won several Emmys for his stories showing his talents in filming and editing!!!

Casey has spent many enjoyable hours volunteering at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago as a diver in the Caribbean Reef tank feeding the sea life.

This amazing guy has surprised me and Howie on a trip to Disney by coming with Garrett so we could experience Garrett’s first time at Disney together. One of the best surprises, EVER! ABC is owned by Disney so an employee perk is free entry into the park – the employee has to be present so we got to enjoy this perk as well – thanks, Case!!

Of all these tremendous accomplishments, none are as great as one……….marrying his wife, Natalie, ranks as his number one, “BEST EVER”! She’s his perfect “other half” and she keeps this crazy kid grounded!!