Mom and Dad's vacation

Mom and Dad took a little beach vacation last Thursday to Monday. They went down to Fripp Island, SC with a few friends. The island is really pretty and is also a nature preserve, so there are a bunch of vishus deer (and alligators too). Mom and Dad saw a bunch of deer, but only one young alligator, but they didn't get a picture of him.


Mom and Dad both noticed this little cluster of trees as they drove in. This isn't the best angle to get the look, especially from a moving car, but Mom and Dad both thought these trees looked like a cat. They wanted to try to get a better picture, but there never was a good opportunity.


This is Aunt Tiff feeding one of the vishus deer by hand. She was very brave. This deer also helped himself to some of the carrots in the bag.


The deer are everywhere at Fripp Island (well, except on the beach). Mom and Dad enjoyed seeing them and said they were very pretty, but I'm still keeping my distance, just in case.

Mom vs vishus deer

So Mom got back on her bicycle last night and dragged Dad around Fort Jackson for some exercise. With their schedules, night is really the only time they can ride, which works because Fort Jackson is pretty safe to ride on, and at night there are very few cars to get in the way. Well, last night Mom was riding (way ahead of Dad because he can't quite keep up -- he blames his bike). As Mom is riding, Dad can see a deer standing in the middle of the road. Mom kept riding, thinking the deer would scamper away. Well, Mom got nearly within 10 feet of the deer before the silly thing could make up it's mind what to do. It turned, hopped, and went running off across Mom's path. Mom said she thought it was going to run into her for a second, right before it went away.

Once, Dad had a deer run alongside him for a few seconds, but going the opposite direction, before jumping a fence and taking off. Always an adventure at the base.

This past weekend, Mom and Dad went to Knoxville for the Tennessee-Alabama football game (boo -- the bad Bama team won). But on the way home they drove through the Smoky Mountains. Mom hoped to see some bears, but no luck. But they did see a herd of elk in a field as they came out of the mountains in North Carolina. There was one male and nine females or babies. I'll try to get some pictures up to show you. They were territorial, but fortunately not vishus.