A vacation, a bonfire, and a MOOSE!

Ok - so I went on a little (very) vacation to my parents' house in Monona. The photo above is a shot of a river I have always driven by on my way to Madison. I've never had the time to take a photo, but I got one this time!

It was really nice to go and see my family. The real reason I went was to see the dentist - yes, I drive 6 hours for a DENTIST - but I have some issues with drills to say the least :). After that was done, though, we got to hang out in my Mom's garden, go to the Madison Farmer's Market and the Dog Park, and sit around a bonfire at my sister Molly's new house. My Mom and I also went to some awesome thrift stores! I am absolutely obsessed with thrift stores - I found some incredible finds, including a Patagonia fleece for 20 cents!! It was REALLY fun and extremely relaxing.

These are some shots from the garden:Flora (Scout's girlfriend :) ) at the Dog Park:The Farmer's Market in Madison:The campfire:The most interesting thing that happened, though, happened on Scout and I's nightly walk around the block. We turned a corner to pass our neighbor's house. I thought to myself, man is it DARK. I couldn't see anything. It was misty, so I thought for a split second that maybe the streetlight was out. Then I realized that something was turning towards me. All of a sudden I realized that it was pitch back because a HUGE bull moose's rack was blocking the light!! It was literally 5 FEET from us and walking up to us. I completely freaked - not because I was scared, but because I have never ever ever seen one, and its been my dream to see one up close. This was a bit more than I bargained for, though!!!! I booked it back to the house dragging poor Scout by his leash, crashed through the front door and screamed "THERE IS A F-ING MOOSE UP THE STREET". We ran to the pickup, got the spotlight, I hastily got my camera and my flash, and we called another friend, the game warden, and our friend Lucas who was on patrol that night. (For those of you who don't know, my husband is a cop in Bayfield... and we didn't want poor Lucas getting phone calls about crazy people in pickups shining spotlights in yards.)

We drove the half block around the corner and there he was munching on grass in the Park Service lawn. He was NOT happy we showed up, so the only photos we have are these HORRIBLY embarrassing ones, which is why they are at the end of this blog lol. I took them from a MOVING pickup truck while hanging out the passenger window. You can kind of see his rack, but it doesn't do justice to how truly large he was... It does show, however, that I will do pretty much anything to get a photo - including hanging out a car window ;)