Dear John

John Muir at 34, an 1872 portrait

We started the morning off with a story - "John Muir and Stickeen." I'd pulled it off a Seattle Public Library shelf a week or so ago because I recognized Muir's name, as there is a school named after him in the Rainier Valley area of Seattle.

The book was about an adventurous man and his dog (Stickeen) crossing a glacier in Alaska. The illustrations (especially of the dog) were a bit odd (in our humble opinions), but it was an OK read. It wasn't until the last page of the book - an afterword - that we learned Muir is/was a Really Big Deal.

Truth be told, I figured Muir must be a local hero of sorts from yesteryear, and was looking forward to learning a bit about him. Now, I feel really stupid that I didn't know him by name before. Born in Scotland, as a lad Muir and his parents moved to Wisconsin. He was a gifted industrial machine designer, but his passion was elsewhere. After an accident nearly robbed him of sight in one eye, he decided to set out to see things he'd always wanted to see - including the Yosemite area. The rest, as they say, is history.

Muir has been called "the first environmentalist," is a founder of the Sierra Club and is considered the father of the United States' National Park system.

After reading and talking about the book, I wanted the kids to see what the real John Muir looked like, so we hopped online. We found some photos on Wikipedia (including the one above), but the real treasure trove was the University of the Pacific's digital collection of Muir images. There, we even found a photo of him with a dog named Stickeen 2. (The Sierra Club also has many Muir images.)

We watched a preview for an American Masters episode "John Muir in the New World," which debuted just last week on PBS. (Fortunately, if you missed that, you can see the whole episode on PBS' Web site. Gotta love the Internet.) We didn't watch the whole program yet, but we did view a 20-minute movie produced by the National Parks Service. It was informative, well done and kept the kids' attention. Afterward, they each wrote a paragraph about what they'd learned about Muir today.

Annabelle wrote, "Jhon Muir saved some national parks and made the Sierra Club. Jhon also took part in the fight for the waterfall. Jhon got lonely after that. He was also born in 1838 April 21 (but he's older than CeeJ). Now everyone is trying to help the enviroment!"

CJ wrote, "John Muir is very adventrreis. John Muir made a park but some peopole cut the trees down. Jonh Muir was born in 1838. Jonh Muir did not use any eletronics on his jorny."

(And, yes, we WILL be working on spelling a little more in the days/weeks to come!)

REVISITING RIO: Though I wouldn't plunk down the $30 to take the kids to see the movie "Rio," I did spring for $2 to rent the Wii game based on the movie. I was pleasantly surprised.

It's really a collection of mini games, and there are a couple of fun music related ones that I really appreciated. In one, a gorilla was playing some bongo drums and the kids had to replicate the beat pattern. Another game was a bit like musical chairs. Music would play and the kids would dance, but as soon as the music stopped, they had to freeze.

NAMESAKE: Naturally, we had to visit the namesake school this afternoon when we were in Rainier Valley for yoga. This photo is of the backside of the school. These drums had a really nice sound to them.
The kids both liked this bench.
BOOKISH: Before yoga, we stopped in the used bookstore next door. Last week CJ had requested a copy of the original "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." (He's read two other books in the series.) Happily, the book was in. The downside was that then he didn't want to do anything else (like play chess or go to yoga). He was too engrossed in the new book.He started reading it in earnest about 5:30. He finished it (about 200 pages with medium sized font) just before 8 p.m. Yowza!

Have I mentioned we're SO happy to see him take to a novel like that? He reads a lot, but most of it is nonfiction, and mostly that's technical stuff that's video game related. Or MAD Magazine, har har. Not that there's anything wrong with those things, but it's great to see his interests broaden.

LOL: Late this morning for reasons that still remain sketchy, CJ spit a mouthful of water all over the wall behind the bathroom sink. I was nonplussed, as was Annnabelle, who began barking orders at him about how and how quickly to clean it up.

After she finished spewing her directives, Annabelle turned to me and, without missing a beat, said, "And I bet this is about the time you tell me I am not the boss."