Doctor Marten...paging Doctor Marten

I remember my first pair of Doc's fondly.  It was a rite of passage, when I was a youth.  It was when the villagers all gathered around, animals were sacrificed and I was hoisted into the air and it was declared that this day, I was a man.  In the 80's, you were not punk rock until you had a pair of Doc's, you were "new wave".  I worked my butt off to buy them.  Which in hindsight, seems odd.  I started working at an early age, then spent a huge chunk of it on boots that would portray my image as "working class punker."

My favorite pair of Doc Martens were Ox Blood steel toe oxfords.  These were discontinued.  This left a large, foot sized whole in my heart.  My wife knew of my heart ache, so she was ecstatic the day she found out they were re-releasing these shoes.  Not only were they making them, they are using the original factory and techniques.  They are available at the Doc Marten store in San Francisco.  I needed to make this purchase and this needed to be an event.


There can only be one solution...ROAD TRIP!!

Packed the family into the van and headed north.  It truly was an adventure.  We visited friends and family.  Went to all the way up to Redding (big), Alameda Antique Flea Market (huge!), loaded up with music from Amoeba, San Francisco (epic!!), blew out a tire (buzz kill!!!) and went to the greatest place on earth...THE DOC MARTEN STORE (LEGENDARY!!!!).

Every place we went to was a destination of it's own.  Roll them up in a bundle, you have one hell of an adventure.  To top it all off, in keeping in the Doc tradition, I have a story about my shoes.

So when I am asked if I had a good time during my vacation, my eyes roll back and a smile crawls across my face.  Yes, I answer, yes I did.