Yesterday, on the way home from a day in town and celebrations for Abraham and Miriam's birthday, we were driving along the curvy roads towards the retreat center. I was listening to the second Harry Potter audiobook (and the reader is just THAT GOOD) while trying to ignore children bickering over presents and the occasional baby whimper.
All of the sudden, I felt the van swerve and heard Ethan say, "Look! Look! Look!"
And right there in the field next to us, not more than twenty feet away, was a black bear.
Finally! We've been waiting for so long to see one! The children have been fascinated by the mangled birdfeeder here at the retreat center, desperately hoping to get to see a bear. And here we were, 3.4 miles from the entrance to the center.
I scrambled for the camera (and by "scrambled," I mean I shouted desperately, "ETHAN! WHERE'S THE CAMERA?? WHERE'S THE CAMERA?? WHERE'S THE CAMERA?? FIND THE CAMERA!!!!!!") and then tried to take some pictures. Unfortunately, someone's desperate shouting made the bear move farther away, but we did get a few pics. The interesting thing was that there were 5-10 deer not far from the bear, just munching away and looking around. They didn't move until I was yelling about the camera. Apparently Crazy White Female Spazzing Out is scarier than Natural Predator.
The children all saw the bear. And this MADE THE DAY for Abraham and Miriam. Turning five was a hit!
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cool bear pics! i'm so glad you saw one! thanks for the post about Kay. she had such a great time--forgetting about her geometry test--"mom, I didn't even THINK about geometry!" well, off the mountain top and back to the real world!
ReplyDeleteI don't think anyone in the Pifer clan would be excited about the bear sighting after we had one break into our vacation house in West Virginia last summer! Thankfully most of the house was asleep, and Neil somehow encouraged him to exit before doing too much damage. But he did take our cinnamon rolls! After that we had to sleep with the windows locked.
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