Hi, Reader,

Lucien and I had the most amazing whirlwind trip of a lifetime. It started out as a trip to the SLAM Festival in Tampa, FL. And, then the BAM Festival in West Palm Beach, FL asked me to go. Of course, I had to say yes. Then a school and library in Lewiston, ME asked for an author visit. We were driving from Florida to Montreal to visit my son, so of course, I had to say yes. Then the Sharjah Children's Reading Festival in the United Arab Emirates asked me. The UAE! So of course I had to say yes. Then since we're flying all the way over to the other side of the world, we couldn't just fly back immediately. So we decided we had to say yes to going to Rome and Florence for a few days before flying back to Montreal to head home.

We dropped off our dog Aria CocoPuff with Bobbie Peyton. I'm so grateful she took care of Aria while we traveled. There were so many times during the trip where we couldn't have left Aria in the van while we did our thing. I'm so excited that Bobbie has a book launch for her debut picture book Dancing the Tinikling on August 26 at Treehouse Books in Ashland, OR at 11 am Pacific Time. We'll be there to celebrate with Bobbie.

After dropping off Aria, we were off to Florida. On the drive, we overnighted at a couple of alpaca farms in our camper van. The alpacas are absolutely darling. At Sawdust Alpacas in Fallon, NV, our hands sank into the most plush, luxuriant fur. We cuddled alpacas at Enchanted Mill and Ranch in Stanley, NM. They are so cute! We eyed our van to see if we could fit in a couple of them. Can't just have one since they're pack animals. :)

We also overnighted at the Lake Mead National Recreational Area and later at Ft. Pickens at the Gulf Islands National Seashore Park. You can see our kitchen setup on the picnic table. I was going to bring my Instant Pot to make stews but Lucien didn't want wet food. He wanted dry food. So I brainstormed and came up with the idea to get the Instant Pot air fryer. It is my best camp kitchen idea ever! I could make our entire meal in the air fryer which only took 10 to 15 minutes to cook. Everything was crunchy and delicious. And, because I'd gotten liners for the basket, there was also no cleanup. Win, win!

Ft Pickens was gorgeous with its sugar sand beaches. Totally unlike our rocky beaches in the Pacific Northwest. I loved seeing the pelicans fly just barely above the water as they searched and dived for food. They were so graceful and powerful. This pelican seems to be looking at us and saying "just hanging out."

I love stopping at places to try out their specialties. Local foods aren't just delicious but can tell us so much about the history of a place. New Orleans definitely meant chicory coffee and sweet, fluffy, just out of the fryer beignets. So so good.

Way back when, making coffee meant roasting the beans in a tiny metal roaster then hand grinding. It was not only time consuming but the green beans were also expensive. Adding chicory to the coffee was their solution. And as I discovered, very delicious.

It was a multi-month trip so I'll stop here. In my next newsletter, I'll write about the Florida and Maine author events.

Thanks so much for reading all the way to the bottom!

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