After getting settled at the hotel, it was time to relax and reconnect with a lot of family we've not seen in some time. As the wedding approached and my brother (he was in the wedding party) and parents went to the rehearsal dinner, Amy and I decided, why not travel to Reno. I've never been to Nevada and it was less than an hour away. On the way there we were chatting about a few different things including the fact that I thought "How cool would it be to see a bear before we left?" I'd seen them before in zoos but I thought it would be cool to see one in the wild. Remember this as you get to the last pic.
Don't know if you can tell from this picture, but yes, that is a seersucker suit with a pink bow tie.
So it's late at night. Everyone was hanging out after the dinner and just relaxing at the bar. I needed to head out to the car to get something and I take two steps into the parking lot. Now, hopefully you've seen the movie Ghostbusters where Venkman is staring down the hallway at Slimer and calmly says into his radio, "Come in Ray". Ray responds frantically and Venkman says, "It's right here Ray. It's looking at me." That was pretty much me after those two steps. I walk out to find a huge bear going through the dumpster in the middle of that picture (I tried to clean it up as best I could). I look up and it turns to look at me. What does a boy from Rochester do when a bear three times his size turns and looks at him other than freeze. I mean this was a Jurassic Park freeze. The bear seemed to have a puzzled look on his face, takes a few steps towards me which I match with a few LARGE steps back. Finally after a few seconds of this dance we're doing, I turn and calmly walk away back through the protective gate surrounding the hotel. But instead of getting hotel people, I yell for Amy. She asks what's going on and I grab her arm and lead her towards to parking lot. Now, instead of scream, she breaks out in howling laughter from our previous conversation. It was good brother and sister moment. Hotel staff did eventually respond and chased the bear away. As I go to tell my mom the story, she asks, "Why the did you get Amy?" Why did I get Amy? Well, because I knew it would bring a smile to her face to share in one of the more random moments of this trip:-)
Don't know if you can tell from this picture, but yes, that is a seersucker suit with a pink bow tie.
So it's late at night. Everyone was hanging out after the dinner and just relaxing at the bar. I needed to head out to the car to get something and I take two steps into the parking lot. Now, hopefully you've seen the movie Ghostbusters where Venkman is staring down the hallway at Slimer and calmly says into his radio, "Come in Ray". Ray responds frantically and Venkman says, "It's right here Ray. It's looking at me." That was pretty much me after those two steps. I walk out to find a huge bear going through the dumpster in the middle of that picture (I tried to clean it up as best I could). I look up and it turns to look at me. What does a boy from Rochester do when a bear three times his size turns and looks at him other than freeze. I mean this was a Jurassic Park freeze. The bear seemed to have a puzzled look on his face, takes a few steps towards me which I match with a few LARGE steps back. Finally after a few seconds of this dance we're doing, I turn and calmly walk away back through the protective gate surrounding the hotel. But instead of getting hotel people, I yell for Amy. She asks what's going on and I grab her arm and lead her towards to parking lot. Now, instead of scream, she breaks out in howling laughter from our previous conversation. It was good brother and sister moment. Hotel staff did eventually respond and chased the bear away. As I go to tell my mom the story, she asks, "Why the did you get Amy?" Why did I get Amy? Well, because I knew it would bring a smile to her face to share in one of the more random moments of this trip:-) 
