I just got back on Saturday evening from a very nice visit with my parents in Asheville, NC. The trip had several noteworthy events (doing a 540 spin on the GW Parkway in the cab on the way to the airport being one of them) but none more impressive than Thursday's wildlife sightings. In the late morning we saw a black bear crashing off into the woods when we were walking up to the ridge on the extra land my parents just bought, and that evening during dinner a total of 4 bears wandered through the yard not more than 30 feet away! In this photo the mother bear can be seen walking behind an adolescent. The whole thing was just amazing... and a little scary too. Black bears are supposed to be largely vegetarian, but these are really big animals (weighing more than me) with very impressive claws and teeth. I think I spent most of that night dreaming about bears just outside the windows.