Finally, a good recorded book

And then it was time to go home. We said our good-byes...

D. and his cousin who have kind of an identical cousin-thing going on.


and spent a little more time with our baby nephew who will be much bigger the next time we see him...

and drove home. No one really wanted to leave, but it's probably better to leave while everyone still wants to be there (and your hosts still want you there!)

The trip home was pretty uneventful, but the constant question-asking was absent because we finally found a good book to listen to. I heartily recommend Stowaway by Karen Hesse. It is a fictionalized account of Captain James Cook's voyage on the Endeavor when he circumnavigated the globe. It was very well done and the author kept as much historical accuracy as possible. It was one of the rare books that held everyone's attention (OK, not the 3 year olds or the new English speaker, but they also tend not to talk when something is being read). The college student enjoyed it just as much as the grade schoolers. 

We are all now a little bit obsessed with the Endeavor and its voyage. Good thing we went to the library yesterday. I found a great book called, The Ship: Retracing Cook's Endeavor Voyage by Simon Baker, which is all about the trip a group of people took on a replica of the Endeavor retracing Cook's route. It has pictures of the modern trip, but also lots of photographs of the people and the journals from the first trip. It really helped to fill in a lot of questions we had after listening to the story. Plus, it's always nice to see what the actual people looked like once you feel as though you know them. The trip was also a BBC series, which I can only find reference to. Evidently it is not available on DVD, which is most disappointing.

So we're now all back at home and nearly unpacked. It was a great week and I suppose I have to start thinking about the upcoming school year. I even broke down and bought a calendar, so September will actually occur now.

Thanks so much to the other Currys for hosting us! It's no small thing to have 12 people descend upon you for multiple days. We had a wonderful time and wish very much you lived closer... or we lived closer to you. (You do have the better scenery!)
_____________________
Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

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