It's been a tradition since the beginning of humanity for adolescent children and young adults to make fun of their parents. It's natural, it's healthy, it's often funny as h*ck.
That tradition has now moved online, because young people live their entire lives online, and the Internet has since decided that there is no more fascinating creature in nature than a dad in his natural habitat.
And, as any of us can attest, no Dad is more Dad than when he's Dad-ing on vacation. As a veteran of many vacations as a Dad, I think a number of ingredients combine to create this cocktail. The omnipresent instinct to spend your time and your money as efficiently as possible. The confining of a family that typically runs in a million different directions at a time into one car and/or one hotel room for a week at a time. The ability to pair your boat shoes and your favorite T-shirt of the past 30 summers knowing no boss, client or family member can stop you. The unavoidable pressure of knowing how much money you spent on this dadgum trip so you're by God going to get along and have some fun, a'ight?
Right now, a college student joined her family on a midsummer excursion. (Judging by the evidence we see in a video below, they may be in Italy; a source tells FootballScoop he's "pretty sure" they're in the Rome airport). This college student happens to play water polo at Michigan. Her name is Grace Harbaugh.
Grace has, uh, graced us with a chronicle of her trip on TikTok, which is really just a series of updates of her father experiencing the family vacay.
Here's Jim getting ready for the trip. As any Dad knows, you've got to mow the lawn so it's in tip-top shape while you're not there to see it, so that you can drop the bags and immediately hop back on the mower the moment you return.
Here's Jim soldiering through an 11-hour airport layover. An extended layover can get the best of any Dad, so props to Jim for not losing it on a gate agent or a well-meaning family member like they're a referee that just called pass interference on the Wolverines.
Who orders corn on the cob at the airport? Why is his wrist in a brace? These are questions you ask when you vacation with Jim Harbaugh.
Good: Jim Harbaugh reading "Lose Yourself" lyrics off his phone, for reasons unexplained. Great: Jack Harbaugh absolutely loving it.
What's your stance on vacation reading? Many people bring a book related to their field, viewing it as an opportunity to get ahead of the competition, to move ahead even as they're standing still. Others, myself included, like to read something unrelated to their field, because vacation is about taking the mind and the spirit to new places, not just the body.
It should come as no surprise Jim Harbaugh is of the first group. It should also come as no surprise Jim Harbaugh wears his shirt in the pool.
We are in Italy to COMPETE.
Yup.
Attacking the family excursion with enthusiasm unknown to mankind.
I'll continue updating this post as long Grace Harbaugh takes us along the Harbaugh clan's trip, until my own vacation next week.
I will not order corn on the cob at the airport.