Passion, Adventure & the Wild

I love reading. As a girl I especially loved adventure-experience books. Here's a few: The Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London, Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (*note this is not The Blue Lagoon...), My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, and of course the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

And as a married mom of three, I still love adventure-experience books: Shane by Jack Schaefer, The Endurance by Alfred Lansing, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and any Dirk Pitt adventure written by Clive Cussler.

Over the years I've had similar adventures, of a different scale, to those stories I loved in print: -While not a wolf pup, we do have a lab named Sherpa. - I swam with dolphins twice. - A hawk likes to visit my front yard (photo). - As kids my mom made us matching Little House dresses for Christmas. - I like cowboys, especially cowboys with rosy cheeks. - We survived the Storm of the Century while visiting the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. - We traveled the U.S. via Winnebago (see top photo). Though we didn't bring Rose of Sharon, or lose a grandma overnight, we squeezed in many relatives and friends for trips across the U.S., complete with break-downs and emergency repairs, similar to the Joads. - Dirk Pitt adventures are wild. My grandpa loved Clive Cussler and my dad, husband and I do too. We don't have much real-life in common, but I'll refer to wild situations as going all Dirk Pitt.

ON TOPIC - Check out 23 Feet, a documentary on simple living and outdoor passions. - Read about the Family on Bikes and their completed 20,000-mile trip along the Pan-American Highway. See this post to experience how windy the land of fire is. - Breathe Magazine looks interesting, it's geared for those who participate in adventure and endurance sports -- me! - And read my espnW.com feature about Kat and her adventures locally and globally through Impossible2Possible.

- I did rent Into the Wild, which combines Alaska, campers, adventure, busses and bears! I've been to Alaska & came very close to a Grizzly in Yellowstone (photo). My Youtube clip here. Questions for You: - What experience-adventure books do you love? - What books relate to your life? photos by me