Taking the Long Way Home (With Cat's Cradle & Me vs. You)

 

Every summer, when I was a child, my parents would ship my sister and I up to the cottage for a month to hang with the grandparents and soak up the sun before heading back to school. Those summers at the cottage are some of my favourite childhood memories!

But all that fun came at a price, and that price was a six hour car ride…each way! Oh, the hours my sister and I spent, listening to the same couple of cassettes on repeat and singing at the top of our lungs (sorry dad!). Now that I’m a little older, it’s a price I would gladly pay but, boy, when I was little it was just the worst!
 

So, this year, as we headed up to the cottage for a long weekend trip, I packed some Klutz kits to keep us occupied and spare my dad’s exhausted ear drums. We squashed ourselves into the car and, between naps, pit stops and snack breaks, we had a back seat blast!

First was an epic showdown  of Me Versus You, red versus blue, and sister versus sister for the title of Queen of the Car Ride! We popped apart the two pads and flew through page after page of classic pencil games—word searches, scavenger hunts, jumbles, and more—smiling smugly at our wins and suffering graciously through defeat. And when there were no more games to be played—this was a six hour car ride, after all—we declared a winner and decided to move on to co-operative play time.

Who doesn’t love a good game of Cat’s Cradle? There is nothing more satisfying than remembering that magic combination of pinches and tugs that transforms one stringthing into the next. And with illustrated instructions for five different string figures and a sunny-coloured, tie-dyed loop of string, it’s as easy as a summer breeze! 

By the time we arrived, it felt like no time had passed. These low-tech boredom busters had whiled away the time and all that was left were memories of crazy competition, wild giggles, a Cat’s Cradle crown, and tons of road trip fun!