This part of Caitlin's adventures really happened. It is not normal life, but it is real life. Sometimes an exhaustive account of real life. Only the names have been changed.

All punctuation, spelling, and formatting transcribed as written.

Chapter III —
THE BEGINNING OF THE TRIP

Caitlin (okay I freaking hate typing this name it's as bad as Ariliea from my fantasy trope horror) sat in the living room, deep in the vivid breath-taking sentences of THE LAST BATTLE. But part of her was alert, waiting for the door to open. Two weeks earlier, her mother had surprised her by saying, "Would you like to go on a two-week trip with Jessica and Katy Carpenter?" Of course she had said yes. Now, two weeks later, she was sitting in the living room with a light jacket on, waiting for Mother to come home with Mrs. Carpenter from Bible Study. The Carpenters would drop Mother off, and pick her up.

Although she had been waiting, she started when the door swung open. There were some last-minute flurries (a hat and jacket for the windy city of Chicago) and they were out into the cool May night. (Okay what the flippin' pancakes. It wasn't May, it was November. Apparently this was another deliberate discrepancy to tie this in to the last chapter's timeframe) After a ten-minute-or-so ride, they came to the house, where Caitlin was introduced to the Stonwells, the children's grandparents. She liked them immediately, and simply called them Grandma and Grandpa.

(This was actually the norm with older couples in our church. They were always somebody's grandparents, and it felt logical for we who weren't related to adopt the title our peers gave them, though generally with a specified surname. Plus, with three or four generations in the same family, it gets complicated when you try to refer to "Mr. Rubingh".)

She had brushed her teeth at her own house, but she waited to get P.J.'s on until the other girls brushed their teeth. Then she followed them downstairs to their basement, where a surprise awaited her. The Ping-pong table was covered with blankets! Katy explained that since relatives had come over, including Grandma and Grandpa, they were "camping out" under the ping-pong table! "Hope you don't mind," Katy said. "No way do I mind!" said Caitlin, laughing as she ducked under a "door" and into the tent. (I mean literally camping out under a ping-pong table with friends is the pinnacle of childhood) She dropped her bag right outside the door (a.k.a. blanket) nearest to the bed she picked. Jessie came in, and they talked for a while until Katy emerged into the tent, carrying a paper bag under one arm. "This was going to be our Christmas present to you, but we decided to give it to you now, as a present for the trip."

Caitlin eagerly took the bag, and tore the tape off. Inside lay an adorable 18-inch doll, with soft, silky black hair and blue eyes. She wore a blue, white-and-green checkered no-sleeved dress, and a matching headband. She stared at it for a minute. She could hardly believe her eyes. "Thank you," she said softly. "I always wanted an 18-inch doll!"

N.B.: If the illustrations hadn't made it obvious, Caitlin Wright did not look like me. She had black hair done in perpetual pigtail braids, lacked glasses, and also lacked several of my personality quirks that I found undesirable (picky eater...). I made the doll match Caitlin because I was obsessed with American Girl doll magazines where they would show pictures of the dolls with owners who matched. My doll did not actually have black hair, much less match me. She was a used Battat doll with red hair and deeply tanned skin. I adored her wholeheartedly and would actually never have traded her for one that corresponded to my appearance.

These days, she plays Inspector Dickson in the Ceristen Series movies by Buchanan Family Productions

Anyway... back to the story...

Katy and Jessie smiled. "That isn't all," said Katy. "Look again." Caitlin did so, and she found a sleeping bag, a duffel bag and an accessory box. In the duffel bag, there was a popcorn box, a pretend radio and 2 CD's, and more clothes. In the accessory box there was a toothbrush, toothpaste, a hairbrush, 2 barrettes, hand soap, a hand scrubber, two hairclips, and a nail file.

Katy went out and Jessica beckoned her over and showed her a black cube. "What's that?" asked Caitlin. "It's a movie camera. Our friend Lisa wanted to know what happened when you opened your present." They listened to it, and Caitlin said, "I think my voice sounds funny on a movie camera." "Mine does, too." said Jessie. "LIKE THIS." Then she turned the movie camera on again. Caitlin heard herself say, "I think my voice sounds funny on a movie camera." She shook her head at Jessie in mock anger. "I'll bet you're going to record my sleep!"

Katy ducked in. "I had to get something," she said, and then "Whatr'e you two laughing about?" They told her, and she laughed. "Oh, bye the way, what are you going to name your doll?"

Caitlin looked surprised. "Oh, I forgot about her! What should I name her? I think she should be named.... Chrissa." (A.k.a. the American Doll Girl of the Year. This name is unchanged.) "That's a nice name," said Katy. Caitlin put Chrissa to bed and, since it was late, they turned the light out and soon fell aslleep, lost in the land of dreams.

***

Caitlin turned over slowly. Mmm, she thought. I'm tired... all of a sudden she realized the importantness of the day. Katy woke up beside her and pointed to the last sleeping figure. "Jessie sleeps late." Jessica sat up, shaking her finger at Katy. "I heard that!" "Anyway," said Caitlin, pulling on a shirt, jeans, socks, and sneakers (NOT true: I was wearing a striped pink jumper (not the English kind) and pink shirt that day), "lets go to breakfast now." There was bacon, toast, and cereal for breakfast. Afterwards, they got ready to go right away. Caitlin, Katie, and Jessie dressed their 18-inch dolls. Katy's was named Sara and Jessie's named Ruthie. They got jackets on, and put their bags in the car. Caitlin's first attempt at riding a mountain bike was a failure, and she quickly jumped into the car between Katy and Jessica. Chrissa she placed on a ledge above her head. Grandpa started the car, and as they moved slowly out of the driveway Grandma snapped a picture of their (Katy and Jessie's) older brother Alex. Then they were out on the road. The longed-for trip had begun!

It's funny how much more candid the narration in this chapter is. All the digressions and back-and-forth dialogue instead of the carefully scripted behavior and concentration on whatever details progressed the story. Before, I was writing a story. Now I was remembering.

Chapter IV —
WISCONSIN

Caitlin shuddered with delight. It seemed almost to good to be true, like a dream — but how could it? She told Katy to pinch her. "Only if you do that to me," said Katy, with Jessie joining in. Katy pinched Caitlin, "Ow!" who pinched Katy "Ow!" and then Jessie "Ow!" I guess none of us are dreaming," laughed Caitlin, and the others did likewise. They sat in silence for awhile, writing swiftly about last night's and this morning's events. Suddenly Caitlin gave a sharp exclamation of surprise. "Can I believe my eyes! Look at this!" Startled, everyone looked out a window and saw rooftops covered with a thin layer of snow. They all snapped pictures of snow on housetops — except Grandpa, who was too busy driving. He didn't have a camera, anyway. They stopped at Gaylord to get camera batteries, cotton candy, and sketchpads. As they came out of the store, Grandpa made a snowball and threw it at Katy. After thy were moving again, Grandma passed cotton candy to the girls. Caitlin had never tasted cotton candy before, but, as she had a large sweet tooth, she liked it immediatley. Jessica and Katy were surprised to hear that she had never tasted cotton candy before.

My one-time cotton candy experience. :')

After about 4 hours, they came to the Mackinack Bridge. Photos were taken of the amazing structure, and Grandma said that once they were in the U.P. they would eat lunch. They ate at a Big Boy restraunt. Caitlin discovered that she had found her favorite reastraunt. (My valiant efforts to spell restaurant are cracking me up) An hour later, they were back in the car, and then Jessie figured out how to look at Caitlin's pictures. Caitlin was so happy she almost forgot to snap a picture of the intresting landmark, the Blue bridge, as the others called it, because of it's pale blue-green color. Grandma and Granpa's hometown was less than an hour away from it. They played car games from A to Z and 0 to 9. As they found a 9, they turned into the Stonwell's driveway. Caitlin was delighted that she had not got bored once the whole trip.

Immediately the two Carpenter girls took Caitlin downstairs to the basement, where they would sleep. There was a bathroom and several other rooms in there, the largest of which they would have. It had bookshelves, games, a game table and chairs, and several other things, but only one double bed, so that Grandma and the girls had a very hard time moving another in, but finally they did it, and the girls explored the house while Grandma fixed walnut, chocolate chip, and plain pancakes for supper. After supper, they played Sorry in the girl's bedroom. Caitlin had never played Sorry before, but before the game was over she was an adept player. The children called their parents over a snack of ice cream, were in bed before 9:00, and soon fell asleep.

***

Caitlin woke earlier than she did at home to the sound of Grandma putting dishes on the table.

[two pages are missing, alas. The girls & grandparents head to Milwaukee to visit the museum of who-knows-what because apparently it wasn't worth documenting. Probably natural history or something.]

... to escape.) Each of the girls had their picture taken sitting on a large model of a beetle. They looked at the streets of Milwaukee, a market place in Latin America, scenes in Africa, the Arctic, Asia, the Pacific Islands, and more. At 3:30 they were at the IMAX theatre to see THE WILD COAST. It actually seemed like they were flying. Caitlin drew in her breath sharply when it looked like they would crash into a cliff, and closed her eyes tight when a wave rose high in the air, ready to crash down on everyone.

There were six people in the huge auditorium, and they were five of those. The sixth was a teenage boy, who came in halfway through it and fell asleep before the movie was over. Afterwards, they went back to the fourth floor and looked at more pottery, pueblos, and other residences of the Southwest USA and South America. Caitlin loved the escalators, and whenever there was a choice of stairs, elevator, or escalator, the three girls usually voted for escalator.

They were home by 6:00, and after supper they played Sorry. Snack was cake leftover from Grandma's birthday. Grandma read them Heidi's Children, chapter one, after they were in bed.

It should be noted that to supplement my own memories, I had a booklet of the compiled journals that my friends and Grandma and I had kept during the trip. Whenever you are treated to an exhaustive list of minutiae, such as the final paragraph of this chapter, or anything to do with specific numbers/hours, it is probably a compressed edition of the journal. XD

Caitlin woke up. Looking at the sleeping form of Katy beside her, she thought, I wonder what we'll do today?

She poked Katy. "Wake up sleepyhead!" she whispered, and hurried to the end of the bed to get dressed. After cereal for breakfast, and devotions, the girls played house and sewed doll clothes.

Later, Grandma and the children walked down to Hobby Lobby. They picked out four small tote bags, three for the girls, and one to decorate for the Carpenter's aunt, who would be visiting them on her birthday. When they got home, the girls worked on the bags for awhile.

After lunch, they drove to the Rahr West Museum. There were Christmas trees and silent action items. Katy's favorite tree was called In excelsis Deo. It was white with black decorations. On the second floor of the mansion, they sat on the floor and drew what they saw. Katy and Jessie both chose a sculpture of rearing horses, Caitlin a painting of a deer in the woods, and Grandma a bird next to a tulip with a bug on a leaf. Caitlin's and Grandma's drawings were the most admired, but for awhile no-one knew which of the many things in the room Grandma's was, because none of them knew what she had picked to draw.

They got backpacks with art supplies and spent the next few hours in the basement, with Grandma reading to them, and coloring, drawing, and taking pictures. Caitlin colored her picture of the deer, and everyone agreed that it looked beautiful. Grandma told her it was a very good picture. (I will make no bones about it, I was a vain child. I still am, I just try to curb it now.)

They came up at 4:15, and got home around 6. After spaghetti and tossed salad for dinner (hello, omniscient journals), they played Sorry and worked on the bags. Then the girls played house. Caitlin was the naughty baby, Katy the so-so baby, and Jessie the mom. (Man do I remember getting chucked on the bed by "mom"... those were the days) Caitlin learned how to play Foozball, and also mastered how to win both Sorry and Foozball.

The girls called their parents, and snack was wafers and malts. Grandma read them Heidi's Children, Chapter 2, before bed.

***

After devotions and prayers as usual, they went to the John Michael Kholer Art center, because a girl who had an English tutoring classes with Grandma canceled the class. They stayed at the Art center until 12:30, doing activities and crotcheting for the bulletien board. There was a huge room with crotched items in it, some huge themselves. There was a crotched circle (I'm dying) about 8 feet in diameter, a crotched tent, blankets. Some things in the museum were just weird. One room had a display of buckets with holes in the bottom. And Caitlin even saw a skull in another room they passed! She had no idea why they would have those things in the museum. They went home and finished the tote bag. Grandpa brought the Carpenter's great-grandma over and they had lots of fun playing games with her. She had brought prizes for the winners, and Caitlin won orange juice, candy, and a pencil. In fact, every girl chose orange juice for a prize!

(I'm skipping the rest of this chapter because I'm so done with the minutiae of dinner and bedtime rituals)

Chapter VI —
THE ZOO AND CHURCH

After a breakfast of bagels and eggs, Grandma and the girls picked up Grandpa from a Bible Study, and they spent the whole day at the Milwaukee Zoo. It was sunny and warm, a beautiful day for the zoo.

There were elephants, lions, hippopotamuses, kangaroos, flamingoes, snakes, turtles, gila monsters, and other reptiles. Then there was the bird house with all sorts of birds flying overhead. It was a maze of color and Caitlin, whose last time she went to a zoo was before she could remember, was delighted.

At noon they went back to the parking lot and spread the table cloth between the back of their car and the front of another. It was a "great lunch" according to Caitlin, with the rather odd, but fun, picnic spot, and plenty of food — fruit cups, sandwiches (lunchmeat and PB&J) cookies, chips, fruit juice, and chocolate milk.

After lunch, there was more birds to look at, and then one in another section that Caitlin could imitate easily and did so from time to time (a screechy noise). Katy and Jessie were amazed when she first did it and tried to make the noise themselves, but failed. They went on to look at the monkeys and apes. There were 2 special animals at the zoo — an orangutang named Tom, and an elephant named Ruth.

They saw wolves walking through the farm as a shortcut, and also the "Arctic". They thought that the polar bears were not out, but then went to have an underwater view, and saw a huge shape brush past the glass. They hurried back up to the balcony and saw the polar bear come up out of the water. There were also seals, in a seperate section so that they could not be eaten by the polar bears.

After getting home, there was baths, supper, calling parents, and as usual, Heidi's Children before sleep.

***

After breakfast, they went to Grace Church. The girls went to Sunday School classes. Jessie and Caitlin went with another girl to her class, and Katy went with the girl's sisters. They stayed for a little snack and then went home to a (NO. I'M SO DONE WITH THE FOOD DESCRIPTIONS. PLEASE) huge dinner of poppyseed chicken with rice, veggies, peas, and rhubarb sauce. And for dessert there was hot chocolate, crazy chocolate cake, and vanilla ice cream.

After lunch, they walked along the river front (or rather, the girls tried to see who could get there and back first) and went to 4 different parks. They spent the most time at the last park. There were many things to hang from, including monkey bars and revolving hanging circles with spokes, sort of like circular monkey bars, except they revolved. Caitlin tried to master them but failed. She was determined to do it again sometime, though.

They went home and Jessie, Katy, and Caitlin raked leaves into a pile, wrapped their faces in scarves, and jumped from a tire swing into the pile that they had made, trying to see how much they could get buried.

Evening church was followed by hotdogs for supper, foozball, and calling parents. Before bed, they packed for going to Chicago!

Chapter VII —
CHICAGO!

Caitlin got up early, filled with excitement. Today they were going to Chicago! She gulped down her breakfast, grabbed her bag, and hurried to the car. But Grandpa had to get the tire checked. Caitlin itched with impatience while he purchased a new one. Finally, they were on their way! The bridges in Milwaukee were fascinating. Many looked like spaghetti. (you can tell when I start quoting from the journals. It gets all choppy and impersonal) They made good time, not stopping except to eat lunch, and arrived in Chicago around 4, parked the car by the side of the road, and went different ways. Caitlin had taken a picture of the Sears tower that was tilted, and she called it the Leaning tower of Sears.

(I'm skipping the next two paragraphs of excruciating detail for my sanity)

The Water Tower place with an American Girl doll shop prominently on the corner of it was next. (I was in seventh heaven) Grandma bought 3 American Girl Doll magazines, and 3 sets of trading cards, one for each of the girls. They could also collect pictures of the dolls and their accessories, "maybe for a kind of wish list," the clerk told them. The glass elevator, the girls thought, was better than escalators. They went on both many times that day.

They drove to McDonalds for supper, and afterwards the girls played in the Playplace at the rear. Then they drove to a friends house, where they would sleep during their stay at Chicago. Soon all were fast asleep.

***

After breakfast they got in the car and spent the whole day at the Museum of Science and Industry. (Again, I feel compelled to skip the exhaustive account of the museum features for my sanity, especially as this time it comprises over a page)

Chapter VIII —

SEARS TOWER & THE WATER PARK

Caitlin bounced up and down on the bed. Katy rolled over, sat up, and sighed. "Caitlin, do you know that every night you kick me in your sleep? If you don't stop, I'll sleep by myself!" Caitlin stopped bouncing. "Really?" she asked incredulously.

"Yes, really," answered Katy, half sarcastically, and then turned to dress. "I hope it's a clear day today," said Caitlin anxiously. "I can't wait to go to the Sears Tower!"

***

Finally, it was time to go. Grandpa had something to do, so Grandma took the girls to a nearby playground, and they played there until Grandpa came back. It was not long, and soon they were on their way to the Sears Tower!

After dropping off Grandma and the girls, Grandpa took the car back to the Morton's to pack, while the others went up the elevator to the 105th floor! Things that had been added on recently were glass cubic shapes that stuck out of the building. Caitlin didn't trust them. In another one, she saw a man stomp on the glass floor, as if he enjoyed trying to see how much he could stamp before the glass broke under him, sending him 105 floors down to the street below! Grandma had their pictures taken, one at a time, on one of the glass "things".

(next exhaustive portion redacted)

Right next door was the Lincoln Park Zoo, where they saw lots of animals. There was also a Souvenir shop, and Caitlin bought a doll-sized calculator/magnet/clip, with the words, Lincoln Park Zoo on it. There was a carousel there, and the girls rode on it. It had many different animals, in fact the carousel was an endangered animal one. Caitlin chose a cheetah. After the ride was over, they made their way through hyenas, fish, and all other sort of animals to the car. And then the long, but fun trip back to Wisconsin. For supper they stopped at Subway. Afterwards, they tried to figure out how many tunes they could sing Amazing Grace to. When they got to the Stonwells house, they got ready for bed and soon fell asleep.

***

Caitlin woke up with one thought in her head. Today we are going to the water park! Almost mechanically she ate pancakes, had devotions on the Tower of Babel, played foozball, wrote in her journal. After lunch they played house. At 3:30 they went to a park, and Caitlin, to her delight, mastered the revolving hanging bars. After about 15 minutes they went home and put on bathing suits under their clothes. At 4:00 they were at the water park just as it opened. The girls rushed through the rules of getting ready. They changed to bathing suits, took a shower, and rushed through the cold air to the delightfully warm water park.

Their were so many things to do! Caitlin didn't know which to try first. Finally she took a single tube from the large pile of single and double tubes and followed Katy up to the tube slides. They went up stairs after stairs after stairs, and Caitlin was very tired when at last they reached the top. She put her tube in a pool that ran into the slide, jumped in, and pushed the tube into the orange slide. She grabbed the handles, and the tube whooshed in. It was exhilirating, never knowing what would be around the next curve. For awhile, the slide was open-topped. Just in time, Caitlin saw a waterfall of water, and ducked her head as water poured over her. Then it was even more fun, as the tube sped through a dark tunnel with warm water around her and curve after curve in pitch-black darkness. Then all of a sudden she was plunged into light, and found herself in a pool, floating on her tube. "That was fun," she said to herself. So she did it again. But then she decided to try something else, and went over to the body slides. Lying down, she relaxed as the water carried her down the slide. Quite suddennely, she was over her head in water! She sat up, spluttering and gasping and saw that she was at the end of the slide, in a trench filled with water. Caitlin decided to try it again, and this time she sat up just before she reached the end. That worked better. Next, she went on the tube slides again, and paddled across the pool to the Lazy River. Tubes floated around lazily in the slow current, people paddling along in them. It was not very eventful, and soon Caitlin had made a turn-about and found herself in the pool again.

Next she put on a life-jacket and went to the activity pool where there were plastic animals to float around on, a snake, a turtle, and a manta ray. Trying to get on the snake's neck, Caitlin slipped over and fell in the water, but finally managed to get on it. Then there was the hot tub with concrete benches halfway down in the water, so that you could sit up to your chin in warm water, or lay on your back and enjoy the steam. (I am so cold right now and I want this water park) And there were the lilypads, three of them, and you jumped from one to the other until you reached the other end. And now, Caitlin had the scariest part of her whole trip. She was jumping on the lilypads. They were fastened with cords to the bottom of the pool, and one drifted away as far as the cord would let it, and she couldn't reach it. So she grasped the net hanging above the lilypads, and then hung there, while the lilypad she had been on drifted from under her. She couldn't hold onto the net any longer, and she knew that the water was 4 1/2 feet deep, (in reality 4) and that she was 4 1/2 feet tall. (in reality, again, 4). What she did not take into account was that her nose and mouth were not four-and-a-half feet above the ground. She let go — and plunged in over her head in water. She bounced back up to the surface, grasped blindly at the lilypad, and went under again. This happened again — 3 times — on the fourth bounce Jessie jumped in and carried Caitlin to the side just as the lifeguard came running up. Caitlin soon got over it, however, and had lots of fun for the rest of their time at the water park. But she always wore a lifejacket when she went on the lilypads. Sometime in the middle of it all, Grandma bought them icecream pushups. At 8:00 they went home, after four hours at the water park, beginning when it opened and ending when it closed. After supper, Caitlin got ready for bed and flopped under the covers. It was not long before three tired girls were fast asleep.

jfkjdkjkdjkdjkf my fingers are frozen

Also everyone else downplayed my deep-water experience which I was miffed about because it had been absolutely terrifying for me. "The lifeguard was coming" -- yeah, I couldn't tell. "You weren't in there that long" -- when you think you're drowning, every second is kind of excruciatingly long.

Coming soon, Part 3: Normal Life.