My amazing dad.

I received this email from my dad yesterday:

I was checking out Twitter, because I didn’t understand how it worked. I came across a gymnastics site that was asking for Handstand pictures, so I sent one. I received a reply from Amy van Deusen saying she wanted to feature it on her site. The result http://gymnastics.about.com/ scroll down a bit.

dad

The article on about.com features the picture of my dad in Peru last December.

Photo of the Week: One of the Highest Handstands in the World
Wednesday April 22, 2009

Above, Jon Parker, 72, does a handstand on the Inca Trail at 13,800 feet.

Parker started gymnastics in 1949, and did all-around (including a rope climb) for Georgia Tech. He sometimes competed on a hardwood or even concrete floor, "which sounds awful," he says, "[but] the skills done were not up to the level of today." Parker took the all-around gold in the Southern Intercollegiate Gymnastics League in 1957, and became the first gymnast to be inducted into the Georgia Tech Hall of Fame.

Though Parker retired from competition after college, he continued to work out, and now goes to the Houston Gymnastics Academy. His goal? To do giants, "in spite of somewhat painful shoulders."

Parker has hiked coast to coast across England, the Milford Track in New Zealand, the Grand Canyon, the Teton and Wind River Mountains, and many other trails. He jokes, "Don’t be too hard on the big arch [in my handstand]. My arms will not go straight over my head, and the straight body handstand was not critical in my era."

Note from Eloise: My dad's athletic ability and love for hiking are, sadly, completely missing from my genetic code.