Was Gone, Now Back

Hubby and I just got back from a Monday through early Thursday mini-vacation.  We drove about 35 miles to an inland lake and stayed at one of two cabins acquaintances of ours have as a part of their outfitting business.

We were able to do this because our dear daughter stayed here on ye ol' homestead and kept the home fires burning.  Literally.  We're definitely into a cooler time of year and the two tank tops and pair of shorts I took on our little getaway came home unworn.  Luckily, we knew enough to take plenty of warm clothing also, and we needed it.

Although the weather was very cool, it could not have been more colorful or invigorating.  We hiked and canoed until we could do no more and had a great time.

We saw deer, a moose, a fox, four grouse, two loons, a timber wolf and five otters that were about the cutest things I've seen in a long time.

We were canoeing back to the cabin into a strong wind and spitting rain when I saw two heads up ahead swimming across our path.  I pointed them out to Papa Pea and they apparently heard my voice because they stopped and in unison popped up out of the water about a full 12", and held their pose while staring at us.  Then they disappeared under the water and three more came up a ways behind the first two!  The five of them put on quite a show diving and reappearing to oogle at us.  It reminded me a lot of the synchronized swimmers in the Olympics!  I tried to get a picture but the lake was too choppy, the weather was gray and rainy and Papa Pea was having a hard time holding the canoe steady while I was working with camera rather than paddle in the bow.  What a treat it was to watch the otters in their natural element looking like they couldn't be any happier.

Our friends had told us they had a nuisance bear in the area so not to put any garbage out in the cans behind the cabin after 3 p.m. when they collected it.  Next morning was okay to do so because the bear was only making his rounds at night.  Turns out the garbage cans were on the other side of the cabin wall where we were sleeping and at midnight the first night, we both bolted awake to such a racket we were sure the bear was coming through the wall.  Not so, as the next morning all we found were the perfectly clean garbage cans lifted out of the wooden structure where they were stored, the tops off and tipped over in front of our vehicle but no damage done.  Two nights later the bear came snuffling up onto the deck by the door investigating but found nothing of interest so sauntered off on his nocturnal way.

I got a couple of pictures of the moose we came upon eating in a swampy area.

We're assuming this was a cow because I think the bulls would have a rack this time of year.  If it was a cow, she sure was a biggun'!

It's really hard to describe how big a moose is.  Even if you've seen a few of them in your lifetime, almost always the first thing out of your mouth when you come upon one is, "My gosh, that's a HUGE animal!"

I think we were lucky enough to take our time away right at peak colors.  Each view was more beautiful than the last.

But we're home again now, we're unpacked and Chicken Mama (thank you, thank you, thank you) who took such good care of our place has left to go home for the remainder of her day off work today.

We're slowly easing back into reality but have lots of good memories from the last few days and are vowing (Vowing, do you hear me?  VOWING!) to get in several more days (probably one-day outings) recreating in this gorgeous season of the year.