Make Time: Bear Down!!

After Jamie got back from work yesterday we took her dog Ace on a walk around her cul-de-sac. Jamie lives in a very new development, and many of the houses are being built or they are built but not occupied yet. Very beautiful homes at a very pretty penny, and the views are unbelievable. We walk up the road and unfortunately it's very foggy so we can't see much, but it's nice to get out and walk. It was raining all day, so luckily there was a break in the rain when we went walking. After coming to the top of her road,we turned around and started walking back. That's when it happened. As we were walking down the road there were two unfinished houses to our right, about 50 yards ahead of us. Jamie and I looked up at the houses about the same time and noticed a big brown bear walking down the driveway of one of them towards the dumpster on the road. I looked up the hill from the bear and saw another bear - much smaller, so it must have been a cub. Not good. Mamma bears with their cubs are the most protective and aggressive, so this was not a good situation. Ace wasn't on his leash, so he started to walk towards the mamma bear, but Jamie yelled at him and he started coming back. Unfortunately his curiosity got the best of him and just as he was coming close to us he turned around and BOLTED towards the mamma bear. Shit. This is not good. Jamie is yelling frantically. I'm screaming. The baby bear runs away and then we see Ace and the mamma bear about 5 feet from one another in a stalemate. At this point Jamie is hysterically yelling. I'm screaming as loud as I can. We see not one, but two cubs run across the street past where the mamma bear and Ace are, and then just as the cubs reach the other side of the street they turn around and run back the other way into the woods. In hindsight it was kinda funny seeing the cubs run the wrong way and then double-back, but at the time it just served as a bigger warning that the mamma bear had to protect two cubs. It felt like a lifetime - yelling and screaming at Ace to come back. Luckily he finally turned around and came back towards us, and we leashed him and walked up to the house at the top of the hill. As we were walking away I saw the mamma bear start walking back up the driveway and away from us, so I figured we were ok. We stayed up at the house on top of the hill, which unfortunately had no inhabitants, for a few minutes and then started walking back down the street. We made a TON of noise to keep scaring the bears away, and luckily we didn't see them again, but wow what a rush. I've only been that close to a bear once before, but never close to one with two cubs! That's the worst scenario you can imagine - especially just before bears are about to hibernate. Before hibernation the mamma bear is trying to eat as much as possible to last her through the winter, and with two cubs this bear had her work cut out for her. In one respect it was beautiful and amazing to see the bear and her cubs, but on the other hand it was incredibly scary.

After we got back to Jamie's house and had a drink, I then started cooking my favorite meal. It's not a terribly fancy dish, but it always looks and tastes great. The basic ingredients are: quinoa, grilled chicken and yellow peppers, tomatoes, avocado, mozzarella, fresh basil, and kalamata olives. I use lemon and lime as the sauce over the dish, and it always tastes so refreshing. Jamie loved it! It's always fun to cook for people, especially someone who's been kind enough to let me stay at her home. Unfortunately Jamie's husband Buck is out of town this week, but we had a drink for him and Jamie spoke with him on the phone and told him all about our bear encounter. He was just happy we were all safe. So were we! After dinner we hung out and talked a bunch - mostly about my future business ideas, which Jamie gave great advice towards. Such a great and crazy night :)

I cooked my favorite quinoa dish for Jamie last night - so fun! This pic includes avocados, tomatoes, mozzarella, and lemon and lime (which serve as the sauce).