Great story Richard. I've got a similar one. My Mom, Aunt and I went on a guided wild bird hike one morning. It was at one of our nature preserves around here. When we were at the end, another couple came along that had binoculars so we could tell they were bird watchers. Our guide stopped to talk to them. Well, they had their daughter with them. I would say she was maybe 8 or 9 and the whole time they were talking to our guide the girl was reading her book! Yes, they were out on a hike and the daughter brought her book along! You never see that sort of thing anymore and I was amazed.

However, as nice as it was to see a kid with a book who really enjoyed the book, I thought it might be a little more appropriate to have her leave the book in the car so she could get into the nature she was actually seeing - rather than just reading about it. Smart kid, though, and I bet you don't see her being a bag lady anytime in the future.

Oh, and one more thing, I think having a kid like that might be kind of intimidating. What happens if the kid knows more than I do and they're only 10?