Sep 23 2012

Napa, Napa… Made me Nap. A.

Whoa, boy… did I have a fun time today…

Keep in mind that this blog is “About the Authors”… so we do talk about our daily lives. During our Encouragement Across America tour, we’re absolutely planning on documenting our travels— during school days and also during days off.

I do apologize in advance for those offended. But today, we went on a mini-tour of wine country in California.

A few sips of wine later, I have to thank our friend Margaret Shirley. She used to be a concierge at one of the wineries in this beautiful area, and today she pointed us in every right direction. We’re supposed to meet up with Margaret and her family later this week in her new home of Paso Robles, California. So I hope we can talk her into appearing in a video. Stay tuned.

For now… here is today’s video update:

Happy Sunday, everyone… this is going to be a fun and very different week with the video updates, because we finally have a few days off. But we will still keep you in the loop.

Nick

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Sep 22 2012

“And what a lovely name: Reno!”

If you can finish that scene from the movie Sister Act, I’m sending you a postcard from our tour!

I’m serious. Leave the next line in the comments section below. And then email your address to petethepopcorn@gmail.com. I’ll mail you a postcard.

Reno. I didn’t know a darn thing about this city, aside from the fact that Sister Mary Clarence spent her days here as a lounge singer. Oh, what the heck, why not a quick video?

It’s one of my favorite movies. And several scenes take place in Reno. Forgive me.

Anyway, Reno has inexpensive hotel rooms. So guess where we stayed after driving from Pocatello? Yup!

We ran past the slot machines. Slept. And then took in the obligatory casino-town buffet for breakfast. All in all, it was awesome.

The point of this tour is to read to kids and teach them to encourage each other. This, we have done every single day. But we also want to see this beautiful country. And Reno is a place that is now on my RETURN TO list. I definitely want to come back!

After a needed sleep in Reno, it was off to Carson City for an afternoon reading of Pete the Popcorn. The kids at Fritsch Elementary were awesome and the Principal had to be one of our favorites! She was involved in the assembly, told us great things about her students and led us in the right direction of things to talk about with the kids. It is clear why the children behaved so well, with the excellent direction they receive from their teachers and Principal.

Here is the video from our day in Carson City:

As you can see, we also drove by Lake Tahoe. It was simply stunning. Add another on the list of places to return.

Writing this, I’m sitting in a Hampton Inn in Sacramento, California. Compared to some of the other drives of this trip, today’s was a piece of cake.

This weekend, we are off. And we’re also taking a little break early next week for some fun and exciting stuff.

But I’m most excited about visiting Napa Valley this weekend. It’ll be a quick, introductory trip just like the rest of this tour. But I’m busily scratching things off my bucket list that I didn’t even know were on my bucket list— and that’s a good thing.

Later,

Nick

Sep 21 2012

Leaving Pocatello… Entering the West!

We had so much fun in Pocatello, Idaho!

Busy is good. That has been my refrain for years and years and years and years. And it’s true…. busy might not always be fun. But it is great to be in-demand, wanted, employed, needed, known as a go-to guy or a provider.

So when we completed visits to 9 Elementary Schools in two days… we were busy. And busy is good.

Here is a quick video… more after.

Our day in Pocatello started out great… with an awesome cup of coffee from this little drive-thru hut called “Double Shot”… I stick with plain old coffee, cream and pink sweeter, but these two menu items caught my eye:

Sooooo….. only our true fans are going to know the SECRETS hidden in these photos!

By the way, the manager (well, I think she was the manager…) got mad when she saw me whip out my camera and begin snapping photos of their menu. I promise— I’m not a coffee thief!! Although, the incident did bring to mind a song…

Otto Titsling, inventor and kraut,
had nothing to get very worked up about.
His inventions were failures, his future seemed bleak.
He fled to the opera at least twice a week.

Since I’m technically a Children’s Book author, I’ll stop right there. But I do thank Bette Midler for many great times.

Anyway, no– I wasn’t stealing recipes with these photos. But Joe and I were both giddy that there was a cupcake flavored latte… because our next book, Casey and Callie Cupcake, is slated to hit Amazon.com on November 6th, Election Day. On that day, when grown-ups are voting for President, kids can come online at www.PeteThePopcorn.com and vote for Casey or Callie.

Then— and kids that have heard a reading of Pete the Popcorn will know this— is the Grasshopper Mint biscotti! As they know, there is another book in the works for sometime in the future: Gilbert the Grasshopper!

So it seemed like our stop at Double Shot was destined! And the coffee was delicious!! If you girls (the manager?) we met there are reading this, thanks so much for a great story!

Thank you, Pocatello! We had an awesome time in your town and met some wonderful people. I certainly hope we can return in the future…

Have a great weekend, everybody.

Nick