The "Making My Little Piece of History" Story

It was an ordinary day. Working on the latest scrapbook. After each vacation I enjoy making a scrapbook with photos I have taken as well as maps of the locations and any other important mementos that I have saved from my trip. I'm almost finished with the 13th scrapbook. Some books have only one trip in them such as Italy, and our first trip to Hawaii, while others have two trips in them. It's fun on a cold winter night to dig out the scrapbooks and imagine myself on some warm island sitting under an umbrella on a beach chair with a drink and a good book. Well, I'm sitting on my favorite lounge chair by the TV now working on the trip we just took with our friends Karen and Barry to the Dutch side of Sint Maarten. I always start the scrapbook with our departure from Lancaster. Boarding passes, schedules, plane photos and a photo of Carol and me sitting on the plane. Never miss having one of us on the plane. I try to take one as we land, but I have been warned quite a few times about taking photos as we exit the plane. Have even been told to put the camera away or they would take it. I'm getting pretty good at hiding the camera or shooting from the hip. Pages follow in the order of what we did from the start to the end of the trip. I lay out all the material I have on the floor for each day to help me organize everything. Only thing that creates a problem is when Otis, my cat, tries to dive under the pages and mixes all the photos together. My current book has 37 pages in it packed full of photos I have taken, maps I got at tourist locations, business cards from retailers, and even the blue umbrella I got on my BBC at Pineapple Pete's which I used for Flat Stanley's photo on the beach. Some photos I cut out part of the background to add some creativity to the book. Some pages I paste photos and info over an entire map or full page picture from a magazine. Quite a few of the books look pretty much the same, especially the books from St. Martin, but each still has a few new ideas as part of the book. Sometime I'd love to share them with you if you're in the neighborhood. I can bore people as well as anyone else can! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photos from the top are: My collection of scrapbooks from past trips, working on a new page, scrapbook from our trip to St. Johns showing an earring that I found while snorkeling, and pages from my current book to Sint Maarten.