Close Encounters

I do believe that fall is upon us. Exhibit A: I was outside in a tank top all day on Friday and I didn't even get a hint of a tan. Exhibit B: I start teacher workshop week on Monday. Exhibit C: My running crew chose to meet at 9:00 this morning for a run & it was actually chilly when say, oh, a week ago, it would have been about 75 degrees.

To commemorate the last official weekday of summer, Aaron and I decided to do that iconic summer activity: go to the zoo. After missing a free zoo pass at the library by this much, we went ahead and forked over the $33 for all four of us to see the animals (the kids were free). While the Minnesota Zoo is no Henry Doorly, it has a few good exhibits. I was sad to see that there weren't any elephants as Caeden is all about elephants these days. But what they lacked in elephants, they made up for in bears.

Russia's Grizzly Coast promises to be the closest encounter that you'll ever have with a bear, and they delivered! While we were standing at the window watching the bears, one hopped into the water and swam over to say hi. This bear acted all cute and cuddly, almost like, I'll go ahead and say it, a teddy bear. He was playing with his toes, watching us, and bobbing up and down. This thing was massive! I can see why one swipe would do someone in.

Here are a few pictures to prove how close we were.