My Head Is Full of Books: Sunday Salon -- Preparing for Grand-Adventure 2.0

"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Saturday, August 23, 2025

Sunday Salon -- Preparing for Grand-Adventure 2.0

Grand-Adventure 1.0, June 2022.

Weather: HOT! But we are heading to the Washington Coast where it should be quite a bit cooler. In fact sometimes when it is hot inland, the coast can be downright chilly and foggy. We'll see.

Grand-Adventure 2.0: Monday we head out with our grandsons for an overnight at the Washington Coast (Grayland, WA., to be specific. I hope the name is not a prognostication of the weather to come.) Grandparents and grandsons having an adventure together = Grand-Adventure. We're calling it 2.0 since we did a similar adventure with the boys three years ago when they were nearly two and five. The weather didn't cooperate that weekend at all. It rained 2 inches in 24-hours. Digging in the sand and flying kites in that kind of weather is just not fun. (See the photo above of the boys playing indoors on big stuffed toys and dismantled water pistols.) This time we plan on doing the same stuff, minus all the rain.

One of my favorite moments from Grand-Adventure 1.0

Shopping list: We made a list of fun foods and food we think the boys may eat then went shopping this morning. Of course we ran into friends we haven't seen in years and stood and visited for a while, self conscious of the marshmallows, chocolate bars, graham crackers (for S'Mores), doughnuts, and veggie straws in our cart. Ha! 😅

Books for the adventure: We are helping Jamie read through a list of '100 books every kid should know before kindergarten.' I checked out a pile of 10 or so books from the list to take with us. Ian, who is a good reader for his age, will bring a book from home. I did check out a little "I Can Read" book about zombies in MineCraft for him. I proofread it and approve but won't push it if he isn't interested. I'm reading a YA collection called Banned Together -- YA authors and illustrators talking about their experiences with banned books. Don is reading Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. I've checked out four audiobooks for consideration. As we get underway a choice will be made as to which book we want to listen to. Our choices: Peter Pan; How to Train a Dragon; The Wild Robot; or Henry and Ribsy. Don and I are listening to Candide when we are alone in the car and I hope we get a chance to finish it enroute to pick up and after dropping off the boys. Clearly I always make plans that involve books.

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