“Are we there yet?” “Are we there yet?” “Are we there yet?” That is a common and repeated phrase heard on many family trips. My family’s vacations were no exception. From the time I was 3 and my brother, John, was 1 my family has gone on vacation each summer. These trips have ranged from short jaunts, from my home town of Story City, into Michigan or South Dakota but also long journeys to Canada and California. When you think of a vacation what comes to your mind might be hopping on a plane to the warm sunny coast to spend a week on a beach. That is not how my family rolls. We don’t fly; we pack up our minivan with our tent, camp kitchen, oodles of maps and brochures and head out to explore National Parks and museums. Sounds real exciting right? Well our vacations may not have sounded very exciting on paper, but somehow they always turned into an unexpected adventure. Many of you may know what I’m talking about; you’ve traveled with your siblings and parents and found out that some pretty interesting things happen when you put a family together in a confined space for more than a small length of time. For those of you who have not had the pleasure vacationing with your family, I hope this speech doesn’t discourage you from trying it in the future. My family’s summer vacations have had their fill of adventure, mishaps, and laughter.
My family’s greatest adventure started out with a desire to see the great redwoods of Northern California, at Sequoia National Park. Upon entering the park, rangers hand every car a pamphlet, outlining ways to keep the visitors and the visitor’s things safe from the bears that roam freely through the park. Neither John nor my parents seemed concerned about the bear claws ripping through our car or through the flimsy walls of our tent. So long after my family had said “good enough” with the bear proofing I could still be found in the second row of seats in the van down on the floor scouring the floor mats for crumbs, crackers, or spills of kool-aid that might alert a bear to the presence of food. After I was satisfied with the bear proofing my mom and I made an elegant supper of spaghetti with sauce, canned peas, and pudding cups for dessert. A meal fit for a king if, I do say so myself. When supper was over we sat around a campfire reading brochures about Sequoia National Park, spouting interesting facts to each other once in a while. Eventually we went to bed. Around 4 am I woke to the loud clinking of metal resounding in the campground. I couldn’t believe it, according to the pamphlet the ranger had given us this sound meant that people were trying to scare a bear away. Sure enough through the flimsy tent walls I could see the faint outline of a huge bear, illuminated by a lantern coming from inside another tent on the other side of the bear . For a moment I was so shocked I couldn’t move. In all my 15 years of life leading up to this event I had only seen bears in the zoo. Even when I was at the zoo I was one of those easily terrified people who stood 5 feet back from the reinforced viewing windows, just in case the animal breaks out. And now THERE WAS A WILD BLACK BEAR WAS OUTSIDE MY FAMILY’S TENT. After a deep breath I quickly recovered and reached for the 2 small tin dinner plates I had stored next to my sleeping bag for such a time as this and started clanging them with the rest of the campground. Not long after the bear lumbered off back into the woods too bothered by the sounds of the humans making a ruckus to stay and search for food. My family tentatively nestled back in our sleeping bags, making sure the metal plates were within reaching distance if the bear decided to come back. A few hours later when my family exited the tent ready to start our day we were greeted by our pots and pans spread out on the ground all around our campsite, and a clear muddy paw print on our camp kitchen. The bear had come through, in the middle of the night and pulled all the pots and pans out of our camp kitchen, following the scent of our supper the clung to dishes inside it. Somehow this sight was a surprise to my family; we hadn’t even heard the bear do this over the din of clanging metal going on throughout the campground. Thankfully all our food was safely locked away in thick metal box only capable of being opened by people with opposable thumbs.
As we surveyed the mess the bear had left behind we couldn’t help but laugh. We had been less than 10 feet away from a wild black bear, separated only by the walls of our tent, as it dug through our camp kitchen. Now that is a once in a lifetime adventure. We were able to wash the muddy print off the camp kitchen and use a hammer to reshape our pots and pans, but the memory of that bear in still sticks with us. When we went to sleep that first night in Sequoia National Park thinking we were not there yet and our vacation adventure wouldn’t start until the next afternoon when we would tour the Sequoia museum and go on a hike with a knowledgeable park ranger but little did we know that our adventure had already begun. My family vacations don’t always involve bear sightings at 4 am but no matter where we go or what we do, once we get in the minivan and drive; it is sure to be an adventure.
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