...yet the magic remains

 It went too quickly. 

But it was chock full of special moments. One night, as we watched a movie to finish out the day, I caught my first glimpse of a firefly through the sliding glass doors.

There are no fireflies in England, so Cara immediately got up to go see. When she opened the door, one came straightaway inside to do lazy loops around the livingroom and kitchen, blinking on, blinking off.

The last Saturday of her visit, we arranged to meet her brother and the girls at the halfway point between our house and theirs, meaning they drove 2.5 hours west. We drove 2.5 hours east. We ended up at Bald Eagle state park. It was too chilly to spend a lot of time on the wonderful beach, but they had a great playground. We had a great cookout. We hiked the butterfly trail (there were frog eggs).

In an amazing coincidence, they had nature activities for the kids. They had booths set up to teach them how to cast a fishing rod and to identify fish. There was a woodcarver's display for bird identification. Another display of taxidermied birds to learn amazing bird facts. Native plants and seeds to give away. A chainsaw carver. A display of tanned animal hides for the kids to handle. 

Probably the most exciting thing was the 'nuisance bear'. He was trapped in a culvert bear trap. You can google this. I tried to post a picture, but cannot. It is baited with donuts. The bear walks in, the door closes behind him.  

The trap is hooked to a truck and hauled away. The bear is sedated. While the donut filled bear snoozes, he is tagged, a tooth pulled to determine his age, and a vial of blood taken to do a health screen. He is driven far out into the woods and released, hopefully never to return to populated areas again. 

The sedated bear slept right through the demonstration he was starring in. He continued to sleep as the most daring children petted him. When he showed signs of waking up, the door to the trap was closed and he was driven away to his new home.

So this was A. Very. Exciting. Day. My daughter in law had to work the previous night so she wasn't there. I made a joke about 'mama bear' would never put us in charge of her cubs again once she heard her 'baby' had petted a bear. My son was sure she already knew, probably awaken from a sound sleep by 'a disturbance in the force'. 

There were cookouts and easy laughter, sunny days and starry nights. Memories dusted off and related once again. 

And then it was time to drop her off at the airport once again.