The Canadians Are Coming!

Last week I had the pleasure of getting to go to the big city of Salem for a meeting! The trips are usually fun (I love getting to go out for dinner). This time I had to go to the meeting by myself, so the drive was a little lonely, but everything turned out great. I got to decide where I wanted to stay, so I chose the Holiday Inn express, which is right next to Costco (the whole reason I wanted to stay there).

So before I went shopping at Costco, and got a huge slice of pizza for dinner (at Costco) I though I should go for a quick jog to burn off some built up meeting energy. I appear to get lost everywhere I go, so I took it easy and headed off on a "main" road. I was going to go straight down and back, I didn't see then there would be any way I could get lost.

So off I go......I get across a little bridge and a block down and I run into this crazy scene!!

Yes, that is two nutria, hanging out with Canadian Geese! I stopped dead in my tracks. I couldn't believe my eyes!! Is this what happens in the big city?? Then it gets crazier!!.......

Some baby Canadian Geese appear!!! OMG they were so cute!! I must have stood there for five minutes before I decided to continue on my run. I only made it a few more blocks down the road before I made myself turn around and go back to my hotel for my camera (don't take the camera jogging) and made it back before they were all gone.

Something in that grass has to be good! The geese thought I was strange, along with the fifty or so cars that went by in the few minutes I was out there snapping shots.

More curious geese attempted to make it over to this "magic grass" and almost lost their lives in the middle of the highway. All four of them made is successfully though!

I got a little nervous here.....It turns out that I am afraid of geese, so when they started walking toward me, my heart started pounding and I started walking backwards. I wasn't sure how aggressive these birds were, but I wasn't about to find out on my own.

Seriously though, how cute are those babies! They were huge too! Almost as big as Seagull.

They didn't come after me in the end, just headed toward the water for a bath or something.

The nutria was not as scary, so I got a close up of him (or her). They are so cute, even though they look like rats!

So this ended up being one of my most exciting trips to Salem ever! And the pizza from Costco was wonderful! I did get a grease stain on my shirt from attempting to take a bigger bite than I could chew, but that is a whole different story.....