Cool Vacations for a Hot Summer
July 7, 1989, Weekly Reader, Summer Edition C
The hot sun beats down on 8-year-old Anicka Dvorak, her 4-year-old brother, and her parents. The family floats peacefully down the Rio Grande River in their raft.
Soon Anicka hears a faint noise. The noise grows louder as the raft drifts along.
The river water gets rougher until—suddenly—the raft is caught in a strong current! The raft bounces up and down on the fast-moving river. Water splashes over Anicka, soaking her hair and clothes. Her heart races!
Anicka holds on tightly as the raft twists and turns like a roller coaster. She can’t even hear the sound of her father’s voice over the noisy water.
A few minutes later the raft drifts into a calm part of the river. Slowly, Anicka’s heart stops pounding. But the peace and quiet won’t last long. More rough water is just around the next bend.
This isn’t the first time Anicka has been rafting with her family. She made her first trip when she was just six weeks old! But this part of the Rio Grande River that flows along the Texas-Mexico border is her favorite.
This summer, as Anicka and her family are rafting, other families are enjoying different adventure vacations.
– Some families are searching for wild animals on African safaris. Can you imagine seeing a giraffe or an elephant in the wild? That’s a real zoo!
– Other families are on adventures closer to home. Some are replanting meadows and repairing trails in the Sierra Mountains in northern California. They are spending time outdoors while making parks nicer places to visit.
– Some families ride llamas in the Maine woods for their vacations. Other families snorkel in the Pacific Ocean waters off the Fiji Islands, or hike in the mountains in Southern Asia.
What’s your idea of the coolest kind of summer vacation adventure?