School is out, and the kids are too. Please remember to drive
carefully. They don’t always look where they are going.
PPP
Since many of you will be going off on trips, I feel compelled to
offer you all some tried and true tips for family travel.
If you are traveling with children, take along the makings of a
scrapbook for each one. The old-fashioned paper types are best, but any kind
will do. Take the books, markers, glue sticks, or tape. As normal kids,
they will acquire postcards, brochures, doodads, and general stuff at
every stop. Let them.
Between stops or in the evening, get them to put the stuff in their
scrapbooks. They can decorate the pages, maybe even write what they liked
best about the day. This keeps them occupied, keeps the trip litter
somewhat corralled, and gives them a really cool souvenir of the trip. It might even
do for Show and Tell, “What I did on my Summer Vacation.”
Another good thing to take along is postcard stamps. You can
always find postcards and mailboxes, but finding a stamp or an open post office
is virtually impossible. Trust me on this one.
If you are a musical family, I congratulate you. If you are not, DO
NOT SING on this trip. Thirty-five renditions of ANY song will drive the
average person up a wall and off the road. This same person behind
the wheel on a family trip will suffer blinding headaches, cramped
fingers (clenched on the wheel) and a general desire to desert at the next rest
stop and take the bus home.
Never leave a rest area without a head count. Most states take a
dim view of leaving children behind at potty stops.
For the sake of your marriage, do not mention anything that has
annoyed you in the last 10 years. Don’t mention that the cow in the pasture
up ahead looks just like any member of your spouse’s family. Do not say
that the World’s Largest Ball of String reminds you that you can’t get into
the garage without fearing for your life because
somebody never throws anything away. This is a time of
forced togetherness. Be pleasant, even if it kills you, and it might.
I hope you all have a pleasant trip. It really can be fun, and some of
my fondest memories are of family trips we took when I was a child. Even
if my mother swears I spent one entire trip laying in the back seat of the
car with my feet out the window, making my only comment, “Gross.” I’m
sure I was much more pleasant than that, but I was 13 and that is a difficult
age. Bon Voyage!
PPP
Several of you have asked about the “lucky” fishing shirt. I have
worn it fishing on two occasions and we have gotten skunked. I did catch a
sturgeon last time out, but it wasn’t big enough to keep. It is early in the
season, and I hope to do better. If not, the “lucky” shirt may turn into
“lucky” rags.
PPP
One thing we did see several times was a school of baitfish being
discovered by seagulls. This is quite a sight. If you are lucky, you will see
the churning of the baitfish before a seagull spots it, but more often
than not your first clue will be a seagull diving down and coming up with a
tiny silver fish. This is the signal for every bird in a six-mile radius to descend
on this small patch of water. Gulls, terns, cormorants and even an
occasional pelican show up, diving and screaming like a bunch of harried
shoppers at a Blue Light Special.
As the fish continue to move, the cloud of birds follows them until
the whole thing is just a swirl of wings in the distance. The baitfish schools
are a good sign, because the bigger fish follow them into the river. But
the birds are more fun to watch!
PPP
On Wednesday, July 5, at 7 p.m., join Payne Fifield of Payne’s
Magykes for “First Year Wizards Orientation
for Bogwart’s School.” Travel back to Medieval England with a master
of magic. Fans of Harry Potter will find this program a real treat. Part of
the Summer Reading Program at the North Bend Library, this program
is for all ages.
PPP
Thought for the Week: If you have a dream, follow it. If you catch
a dream, nurture it. If your dream comes true, celebrate it.
Please submit items for
North Bend Nuggets to
Pat Simpson at P.O. Box 857,
North Bend, WA 98045,
or by e-mail to patsimps@hotmail.com,
or drop them by the library.
