Camp Aunt Patty Day 1

Camp opened early this year.  The local kids were given a heads up around the 3rd week of June.  They were told that they better see what they wanted to do and let me know.  As for the St. Louis gang, they were not coming east this summer.  So I transported myself to them.  Getting a date with all of them home - no small feat!

A little snafu with travel - my luggage didn't want to do the camp thing and took another vacation.  The airline was good about tracking it down, scolding it, and getting it to me some 9 hrs later.  Thank you AA!  Thanks Pete!

Knowing I'd be driving around quite a bit, I rented a car.  Thrifty was the choice for this trip and other than finding the 'stand' for them to pick me up, it is a company to do business with.  The front desk folks suggested that if I needed to get back to the airport for my luggage, come by their lot and they would shuttle me over and back for no fee.  Now that is really nice!

L to r - Taylor, Chris, Me, Shelby & Jessica

Unfortunately the car rental place couldn't take care of the weather.  Just as I was ready to pull onto the highway - the heavens open up and I drove in torrents of rain almost all the way to my brother's place.  My GPS, Agnes, yes we named her, worked like a charm except for the flooded roads and finding PF Changs.

Of course, with all of this, I'm delayed in getting to their home.  My dear sister-in-law, Denise, has made a feast and was so worried that it was drying out.  Never mind for me - it was the darn best chicken I've had in a really long time.  Great enough to ask her for the recipe. 

The rest of the evening went well.  We were getting caught up on what has been doing in their lives, figuring out which kid had me for which day and what we were going to do. Continuing checking in with AA to get my luggage.

At the crack of dawn, I'm up and having breakfast with Chris and Shelby.  Taylor & Jessica are already at work.  Shelby is working on a school project- Now this kid has determination - she makes you proud.  She has to write a project and begin the research for it over the summer so they can get a kick start on day 1.  She picked Rosa Parks, and a few others.  I threw in William Wilburforce just in case the various other people she picked didn't pan out.

Then it's 9:15am - yes - what are we doing - I'm off with Denise and Chris to see Percy Jackson & the Olmpians - the Lightning Thief.  It was a great movie and quite the experience to watch it with my nephew, he'll dispute my review.  It's about two hours long and since Chris has the book committed to memory, I received a full dialogue on the differences between the book and the movie.  While the action and graphics would knock your socks off, I'll admit to Chris the book sounds like it had all the soul of the story.  Oh, since my luggage arrived, Chris and I got to share Gluten Free pretzels - yum yum.

You may be thinking a movie at 10am in the morning?  Well, in St. Louis, many of the movie theatres have a free movie, in the morning, once a week during the summer vacation.  That's pretty good and a great public service. 

Back home after the movie so I can get ready for Taylor's day with me.