i agree. keeps books around and encourage reading for benjamin, but.... -----Original Message----- From: Cleveland, Kyle E. To: [log in to unmask] Sent: 8/27/2002 1:54 PM Subject: Re: kyles back Yeah, I was pretty mad at those folks myself for "baring" themselves in front of the boy until the real "bear" showed up. I would have gladly taken my own clothes off if I thought that would scare him any faster! ;-) I didn't hear about the black bear in NY mauling a little girl until yesterday. It really brought home how dangerous they can be. Usually they run from humans as fast as possible, but since we're encroaching on their habitat so quickly, they are fast losing their fear of people. I imagine there will be more frequent episodes like that in NY as time goes on and more people move into "bear country". I was thinking about my kids and their reaction to the scenery vs. what Kat and Mags said about their own experiences when they were kids. I think when we were young there wasn't as much overt stimulation to be found--no video games, no "cartoon channels", very few "action figures", etc. We had to use our imagination more. There was no cable TV, so we read. My eldest (18) discovered the joy of literature when she was well into her teens. Many kids never make the leap at all--and the suffer dearly, IMHO. -Kyle -----Original Message----- From: Elizabeth H. Thiers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2002 7:21 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: kyles back This is one of those stories that makes me glad I don't drink coffee in the morning. Just imagining all those naked people yelling at a bear and the father probably not knowing what to shield the kid from. Too funny!!! Beth T. Subject: Re: kyles back I'm back, but very tired. I'm not sure how much jet lag you encounter going from the Pacific to Eastern Time Zones, but we got home at 1:30 this morning. Unfortunately, there was a message waiting from my boss begging me to be here at 7:00 this morning for a press conference briefing. It's now 1:15 and I'm still waiting on the news crew to show up! Grrr! :-( British Columbia was incredible! We took a digital camera, so I'll post some pix as soon as I get rested up a bit (and figure out how to dump them off the camera! LOL). It was a pretty stressful holiday, all in all. I think our expectations were a little high for the kids. We thought they'd be stunned by the scenery, as we were, but they'd have been just as happy playing Nintendo back at the room. <snip> We were all so relieved to see the bear go, I forgot to scold the ladies for stripping down in front of the boy! Other than that, it was a fairly uneventful vacation. ;-) -Kyle