A fish out of water

We're back into the swing of daily life and a new school year, just after completing what may be our last "vacation" for a long time (if three days away from home in a small-town Best Western counts as a vacation). Finances and the pending loss of all paid days off have conspired to kill pretty much all non-essential travel for the next year or two. Or three. Or more.

We journeyed to the Ozarks, where I grew up, for a river-rafting trip. I'll try to post some photos in the next few days, although they may only be photos of us preparing to launch our watercraft (a big thanks to my sister and her boyfriend, who, as the only remotely outdoorsy people in either of our extended families, lent us their great raft and saved us $100!). It turns out that I, in my zest to rid our life of unnecessary clutter, threw out the disc that came with the cheap little waterproof digital camera I purchased for the trip, and the software download that was sent to us by the kindly manufacturer isn't going smoothly. But before setting out, we did get a few photos of the river and the raft, along with (of course) Elijah.

For those of you who are just dying to know how the little guy liked his afternoon on a remote river surrounded by miles of national forest with hardly a single man-made structure in sight, I'll just say that his limited repertoire of questions has grown exponentially: "Where's the hotel?" "Where's the car?" "What happened to the streets?" "Where's McDonald's?"

In short, he's his father's son.