Bear Country, USA. Believe it or not I had never been there as a kid. It is one of those animal parks where you stay in your car and drive through. The thought is that you are seeing the wild animals up close and personal and in their own environment. We all know it is totally natural for cars to be driving around in the backwoods where bear and wolf and bison used to live in the days of the Wild West.
We went early in the morning, thinking that the animals would be more alert, but most of the residents were either sleeping in or had already had their breakfast and were taking their first nap of many for the day. None of them were very rowdy.
Except the bear cubs. They were just adorable. They sat in a line, chewing on each other’s ears, and making noise. Noise which would be purring if they were cats or sighing if they were human babies drifting off to sleep. It was a cross between a moan and a whine. They kept changing positions just enough so that no one cub went without an ear to suck on for very long. I am sure it all gave them great comfort, as if they were suckling on their mommas.
The next adventure that day, another one I never partook of in my youth, was the Black Hills Maze, a labyrinth of family fun (or so their website claims). They turn you loose in over a mile of walkways, bridges, etc., with a card to be stamped at each of the four corner towers. After you get your card stamped you just simply find your way out. Right.
Himey, being the party pooper he can be on occasion, sent me in with the kids, choosing to stay outside and wait for us. He also hugged the western wall, where I somehow managed to always find him.
“Himey, are you out there?” I would call through the fence, when I thought I saw his sneakers pacing the perimeter.
“I’m right here. How are you doing?” He knows how claustrophobic I am, so what kind of dumb question was that.
“I think I’ll be ok. But I lost the kids.”
“Do you want to crawl out under the fence and we will just leave them?”
This is why I married that man a few months later. We always read each other’s minds.
We went early in the morning, thinking that the animals would be more alert, but most of the residents were either sleeping in or had already had their breakfast and were taking their first nap of many for the day. None of them were very rowdy.
Except the bear cubs. They were just adorable. They sat in a line, chewing on each other’s ears, and making noise. Noise which would be purring if they were cats or sighing if they were human babies drifting off to sleep. It was a cross between a moan and a whine. They kept changing positions just enough so that no one cub went without an ear to suck on for very long. I am sure it all gave them great comfort, as if they were suckling on their mommas.
The next adventure that day, another one I never partook of in my youth, was the Black Hills Maze, a labyrinth of family fun (or so their website claims). They turn you loose in over a mile of walkways, bridges, etc., with a card to be stamped at each of the four corner towers. After you get your card stamped you just simply find your way out. Right.
Himey, being the party pooper he can be on occasion, sent me in with the kids, choosing to stay outside and wait for us. He also hugged the western wall, where I somehow managed to always find him.
“Himey, are you out there?” I would call through the fence, when I thought I saw his sneakers pacing the perimeter.
“I’m right here. How are you doing?” He knows how claustrophobic I am, so what kind of dumb question was that.
“I think I’ll be ok. But I lost the kids.”
“Do you want to crawl out under the fence and we will just leave them?”
This is why I married that man a few months later. We always read each other’s minds.
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