So next I read about all the dangerous wildlife living in the park, including bears and wildcats. Again, a helpful park tip: "Avoid looking like prey." Only we were traveling with small children, whose basic intent in life is to look as much like delicious prey as possible! So I spent the entire hike telling them, "Don't skip. Don't jump. Don't run." Meanwhile, the husband spent the whole hike rolling his eyes at me and telling me to relax. When we rounded a bend and saw a patch of tawny fur through the brush, I was positive it was a wildcat and almost stopped breathing. Seconds later, my husband began laughing his fool head off when he saw that it was, in fact, a very small deer.

Of COURSE there's an anecdote. See, here's the thing: I'm pretty much afraid of everything. Timidity is my middle name. I'm also a rule-follower. So my first instinct, upon receiving the informational park pamphlet, is to see what rules are listed. Now, the issue here is that all of these publications may as well be labeled "All the ways you could die today."

So we were out visiting Mt. Rainier, and the first thing I read is that the park is an active volcano. Helpful tips were listed, such as "if you see the water level starting to rise or hear a rumbling noise..." The upshot was that if an eruption was imminent, we had about 30 seconds to get to the park gate. Which seemed unlikely, since we would be, you know, parking the car and hiking.

Have we ever discussed how I have to forbid myself to read the informational guide at all national and state parks?

I enjoyed the book very much, but I did feel that what often gets glossed over in the book is that they are snap decision by experts...meaning that in areas where we're NOT experts, we're probably better off thinking our decisions out as well as we possibly can. In the stacks in a library, I can almost sense when something isn't where it should be, and I tend to know exactly where to look for something (i.e., where is it if it isn't where it SHOULD be?). I react more quickly to smaller cues in that environment because I've spent a good deal of time studying it. Take me into a Starbucks, though, and every decision is agony: too much information, no experience.