Write about: the adventure.
Because Max is very much into declaring things like 'It's an adventure day!' these days. Also: whenever we're on a playground and there is a steering wheel to be found, he will spin it and say 'We're going on an adventure day!'
Speaking of playgrounds, we took Max and Natalie to our favorite local park this afternoon. It was a ridiculously nice day for this time of year - if I'd been just a little more confident in the temperatures away from our deck I would have been in t-shirt and shorts. As is, I grabbed a sweater (which was left in the car the whole time) and went with t-shirt and jeans.
The kids enjoyed climbing and swinging and the usual assortment of fun, but of course we ended up on the beach throwing rocks into the lake:
I had a good time too, running into a few parents and children we know. But the period when Kat was off buying groceries and I was left in charge of two toddlers was... challenging.
Mine:
In the end, it was Daniel who asked the question that officially marked our outing as an adventure.
We'd left home shortly after sunrise that morning, venturing out into the woods that bordered the southern edge of our town. Our bags were stuffed full of food and water - we weren't idiots, despite all other indications - and a cloudless sky looked down on us.
The trails we followed had been beaten flat by countless animals, both large and small, predators and prey. It wasn't long before the trees blocked the nearest houses from sight. That was my favorite part of all our treks, that sense that we were the only three people on the planet.
We didn't talk much. I don't know about the others, but I honestly felt like I had nothing useful to say. I'd rather listen to the birds and the wind playing with the leaves. So that's what I did. But, eventually, Daniel broke the silence. Someone had to, sooner or later, and it might as well be to confirm the day's activities were absolutely, without question, an adventure.
"Where are we?"
4 comments:
Adventure days sound like fun! You should try this with Kat as well: pick things up at random that she's trying to use and declare an adventure day :) The picture is great, and I like the idea that the kids prefer concussing the local waterlife to playing on the toys provided. That's a bit like them playing with the box the present came in instead of the present on a birthday.
I was intensely curious as to what Daniel's question was going to be all the way through the story, and though it was a simple question it didn't let me down! I can quite see how that marks the start of an adventure, hopefully a fun one!
Your descriptions of the environment and atmosphere are very evocative, and with the picture above them already in my mind, became very vivid.
The adventure
The theatre was filled with the squeals and snarls of the orchestra tuning their instruments and, in one case, opening an entire case of beer-bottles for "the boring bits," as the triangle-player liked to describe the violin parts. Up in the second circle, where the seats were still sticky from last night's performance of "The Pantomime of the Opera", Agnes and Betty were sat side-by-side peering alternately at the stage and the programme through opera-glasses.
"Is this part of the show?" asked Betty, seemingly oblivous to the fact that the rest of the audience were still coming in and finding their seats. Agnes peered at the stage, and then tried again through opera-glasses.
"The curtain's still closed," she said at last. "But the music's definitely on. Do you think maybe they turned it on too soon?"
Betty put her ice-cream cone down on the seat next to her, where it started to melt over the seat cushion, and peered at the programme.
"I think this bit might be the adventure," she said, squinting.
"Do you mean overture?" asked Betty, who had been to see Mamma Mia! when it went off Broadway.
"I can read, thank-you," said Agnes. "The closed curtain symbolises the mystery confronting the audience, and the atonality of the music serves to confuse and disorient them, placing them at the beginning of the adventure, ready to proceed."
"You're making that up," said Betty, but there was a note of admiration in her voice.
"I never am," said Agnes, reaching for her ice-cream.
Which had been sat on by an eighteen-stone man in opera-cape and bone-white mask, so Agnes's questing hand instead went somewhere rather personal, a little adventure all of her own.
Oops, sorry about that; Agnes and Betty must have swapped seats in my head about half-way through that story!
The adventure:
I stepped up onto a solitary rock and scanned my surroundings. Huge, thick trees were all around, shrouding my sight beyond 50 metres. Several feral noises echoed through the forest, suggesting that a wide variety of wildlife was abound.
'Three tigers....' I thought.'On top of that, these are man-eaters I'm hunting, too...'. I took out my trusty rifle and held it steady, for what seemed to be an adventure of sorts. Certainly, the mounting thrill and excitement was making my heart thump faster.
'But first, a drink of tea to soothe myself' I decided, as I removed my headphones and ventured into the kitchen. These new-fangled video games really get one into the heat of the moment...
Greg - yeah, I don't think that would go over so hot... :P
Haha, I quite like these two. I'm not sure I'd want to be at the same performance as them, but I do like reading about what happens while I'm elsewhere!
Nikhil - haha, I was not expecting that ending at all. Also: I kinda want to play that video game now.
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