Day 1 was mostly driving, of course. Got to our hotel mid-afternoon, which gave some of us a chance for what was most anticipated – a swim. A “swim” for Joseph being sitting on the steps leading into the pool.

There was no business yesterday evening, so we handed it over to Katie, drove down to Naperville, where one of her favorite authors, Eoin Colfer, was appearing at Anderson’s Bookshop. We parked ourselves at Lou Malnati’s on the next block while she went to listen to Colfer spin yarns and have a book signed. I’ll tell you that the rest of the audience of was predominantly boys – a good sign – boys are, indeed reading something!

Today, Michael will take himself over to St. Charles to the RBTE , then return mid-afternoon to get the rest of us. We’ll wander the exhibits a bit, then I’ll sign De-Coding for OSV for an hour, then Heroes for Loyola during the big, mass autograph session the exhibit does.

More from Beliefnet and our partners