Flat People Make the Best House Guests

Last year sometime, you may recall I wrote about being visited by Flat Stanley. Recently, the Pearsons were visited by another flat person. This flat person was a boy named Chase who mailed himself to us from Huntertown, Indiana. I love taking these flat people to see the sights. They have so much fun, and the never complain about riding in the trunk of my car! So if you have any flat people you want rid of in the future, remember to send them to me! Here is what we did with Flat Chase while he was here:

Dear Chase,

I’m Hannah, and I have two boys, both a bit younger than you. Charlie is in Kindergarten and Abraham is two years old. We had a lot of fun taking your flat-self around to see the sights in Northern Kentucky where we live. Let me tell you about some of them.

North of where we actually live is the Ohio River. On one side of it is Cincinnati, Ohio.

On the other side of the river is Newport, Kentucky. Charlie, Abraham, and I like to go to Newport a lot. In the summer, they have free live bands outside on the patio on Friday nights. We like to go dance. We also like to walk around by the river and even across it on the “Purple People” walking bridge.When we get tired, we go play at Barnes and Noble bookstore, or get ice cream at Coldstone Creamery.

 

Between the Ohio river and our home is a town called Alexandria. Charlie and Abraham like to go play at the McDonalds there. They call the playland at McDonalds “the gerbil tubes” because it looks like a giant version of the play place you might have for your pet if you had a pet hampster or gerbil. We took your flat-self to play there.

We live just South of Falmouth, Kentucky. Falmouth is a very small town on the banks of the Licking River. It was founded in 1793.

Fourteen years ago, the Licking River had a very bad flood. Most of the houses and businesses in town were under 8 feet of water! Thankfully, that doesn’t happen very often.

One of our favorite places in Falmouth, is the Pendleton County Public Library. I actually work there three days out of every week. Charlie and Abraham like to get books and movies there and play on the computers. I bet you like some of those things too! I put the library’s pamphlet in with this letter. My picture is in it! Can you find me?

Another place we like to go is to Howard’s Place. It is a restaurant owned by a man who lives here in Falmouth. In 2005, the restaurant was a Dairy Queen, but it had a bad fire and burned to the ground! The owner decided to build his own place after that, and in June of 2006, Howard’s Place opened. They have 27 flavors of soft-serve ice cream, including Charlie’s favorite mint flavor, and my favorite coffee flavor! What kind of ice cream do you think you would like? Pistachio? 

 

Maybe our favorite place of all to go around here is Kincaid Lake State Park. They have a golf course, miniature golf, awo playgrounds, a swimming pool, camping, and, of course, the lake itself. Charlie and Abraham like the pool in summer time, and we think that this summer we might try fishing for the first time! Too bad your flat-self can’t stay until summer!

We hope the rest of your school year is great.
 

While we were taking Flat Chase around to see what we could see, we noticed some things. First of all, the Ohio River is high right now! Second, geese are almost as big as Abraham. And yet, Mallards are not impressed.

Third, Spring is apparently really happening...

...despite appearances to the contrary a week or two ago. The good thing about this is that the boys and I are gearing up for another summer of once-a-week adventures. The bad thing is that it provokes in me a deep longing to be a bad influence on my children by encouraging them to skip school. I'm pretty sure sun, flowers, bugs, and frog eggs are at least as educational as what Charlie is getting at school right now, and that is even with my deep respect for teachers and education in general. Oh, well, finish the school year we must. But don't count on me to stay inside and dust anything while the sun is shining. The world is waiting!