more of the baby bears...so dang cute

 still looking at more pics.  more fun shots.  wonderful trip but hope i don't bore you with bear photo's.  i took a million and a half of them.  haha.

 pretty rainy out today.  at times pretty solid down pours. the pups just stood at the door not wanting to go out there.

 finally, made our way out to walk..gotta get those 10,000 plus steps in.  we did.  just did the bog and then took off into the neighborhoods and down Patterson. that extends the walk. we stopped a few times so i could let dogs off leash to run.  they like that.  all training and no play isn't good for any of us.  they get frustrated, i get frustrated.  so we play.  not many people out playing on the trails in the rain anyway

 i find it's tough to get motivated to get out, but once i'm out i actually enjoy the rain and the colors are so pure in the rain as well.

 these bear cubs were playing/resting fairly close to us. i felt pretty good that the mama bear felt safe enough around us to turn towards the water with her back to us all.  she seemed to feel pretty safe with us humans...

 she'd had an encounter with a boar...not that we could stop that.  we did see some super huge bear tracks.  never saw that bear but guessed it close to 800 pounds.  those tracks were huge!!

 not much social interaction for me today.  did chat with my friend Natal in CA.  we always chat.  her name isn't really Natal, but my silly answering machine has terrible English skills and misstates stuff all the time...so she is now Natal.

 ran a few errands.  grabbed several books of cabinets at Lowes so i can start to seriously ponder the remodel of the Kitchen idea. my kitchen is old, outdated, poorly planned and it's just way past time.  it's a frightening project though that i just keep delaying.

 then i stopped by Bed Bath and Beyond...that store is dangerous. i rarely go there but it's packed full of cool stuff.

 actually broke down and bought one of those teeny fans.  i get the flashes at times so it's nice to have one on the desk here in the office.

 a girl at work lived in Nome for a bit and her pilot boyfriend still lives there so she was telling me they were flying around and saw lots of dead walrus on beaches.  not really stuff i want to hear.  so hard to know the legality...it's so easy in those remote places to shoot walrus and then come back later and harvest skulls/tusks because they were just found there dead.

 apparently in the winter they are shot on the ice but fall into the water or something..not always retrieved, meat wasted...not stuff i really want to hear.  so frustrating.  it's how it is though.  so much waste and so many people who just do not behave responsibly.

 i guess it's like being a nurse..people assume you want to hear the horrible stuff just because you are involved in walrus advocacy.  never heard back from the fish and wildlife service when i've asked what is going on with the investigation from the fall.  i think their hands are often tied.  subsistence rules and must keep up relations...difficult to prove what happened with animals.  difficult to do necropsies on such large animals in remote places.  finding a bullet on a beach on a bloated, deceased animal...nearly impossible

 very frustrating.  as the friends group for Walrus Islands Sanctuary i am in a position to be a general walrus advocate.  as far as i know they aren't really very closely watched over by any groups in particular. i did contact the local office of WWF and was told that walrus weren't one of the animals they were really working on.  enough letters to them may help them take an interest.

 most folks don't realize that we have Ivory poachers here in the United States. the focus is on Rhino's and Elephants...but there are plenty of poachers here.  just so much tougher to even research the exact extent of the issue in Alaska.  miles and miles of shoreline...most of it totally unmonitored.  don't think anyone really could tell me even a rough estimate as to the number of walrus poached out there.

 cute baby bears playing.

 watched a few doc shows on specific elections.  one was JFK Vs Nixon. JFK barely won and that was quite possibly due to voter fraud in Chicago...dead people were voting.  Nixon bowed out rather than battle it out.  fraud and trickery have been a part of elections for years.  i suspect we find out more about it now, but it's been there.  the other program highlighted the battle between Bill Clinton and George Bush SR.

 some just talking about how television has changed the game quite a bit. also speaking of the black vote and how the Republican Party was the Party of Lincoln, the party that free'd the slaves and that really had a much higher percentage of the black vote until JFK.  it started then...during that election.  Martin Luther King was arrested during a protest right before the election and though Nixon was friends with him he was unable to get King out.  JFK's family had connections.  first JFK contacted Kings wife to let her know he was supportive and then his dad got King out.

 then LB Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act.  it was purely a political move on LBJ's part from all accounts.  manipulation of voters.  that manipulation is not just for the black vote...they constantly are trying to manipulate the hispanics, the women, the young,...

 the system keeps getting more and more corrupt.  that is one of the reasons why voters stay home, they feel their vote doesn't matter....but if enough folks do show up they really can have an impact. i have seen it happen. like i said before...we the people need to step up and take back our Democracy.  we can't save this POTUS election...we have two terrible candidates running...but we can send the message through the congress and house.....i think i read there are over 80 spots that are coming up...i wish we'd vote on term limits...the people would no doubt vote that in.  will we ever get the chance though?

 pups got to make a trek into PetCo.  another fun place.  they were a bit wild at first but then behaved.  they are still puppies so subject to moments of excitement.

 mama bear headed our way

 baby bear totally headed our way.

 this little guy got within 15 feet of us.

 they are so fluffy...adorbs!!

 he debated turning back but then decided he really wanted to check these humans out closer.

 such confidence

 checking out some dried seaweed.

 mama bear had to come over, close to us, to get him to move on away.

 she didn't want baby bear to do a meet and greet with the humans...we were find skipping that as well.  the last thing you want is to tick off a mama bear.

 i've seen those claws and teeth super close and i do not wish to be that close to a bear again.

 and then they start to head back into the woods...and we didn't see them again after this i believe

 here she is giving the little cub a scolding.

 he looks back at us one  last time before heading off with his cute bear family...actually he is taking a little poop here, tail up.

 so i guess that is what he thinks of us.

 bear butts

 cooling off at the creek as they head away

 so many angry references in the convention too about being politically correct.  just made me think.  i mean yes, we have gotten a bit too overly sensitive and yes it gets ridiculous, but the funny thing.  mostly being politically correct as it were means not offending others, being kind.  made me think of another very humble and kind leader that walked the earth some 2016 years ago or something who taught kindness.  who wanted us to be kind and who delivered his message with kindness and humility. who suffered but did not complain.

 sure i miss saying "stupid" and "retard" some days..or acting out those things, but i do realize that those were not kind things that i did and that we all did. that making fun or others in general is a bad idea.  being more sensitive to others is a valuable thing.  it's a good lesson...one that yes has been taken too far, but then again...there are still some who seem to have been oblivious to the message behind it all.

grateful for:  A. rain, the sounds, the sight of it and the need of it.  B.  laughing along with the puppies.  C.  that there are still kind people, truthful people out there.

lots of pictures of the baby bears...

 who doesn't love baby bears!!  these guys are super cute and fluffy too.

 they came back out from the meadow and we positioned ourselves for another family of bears walking past us.  love it!!

 mama was looking for a good place to cross with the family.

 here in Anchorage it feels hot as hell.  for us that is above 80F.  so i know that sounds like a lovely temperature for many of you...for us it feels extremely hot though.  Blossom and the pups were all wanting to just quit the hike today and lay in the shade.

 we eventually convinced them all to walk far enough to lay down in the creek. that is at about 2 miles in.  then we turned around for the return trek.

 great to visit with my friend on the walk.  sadly, her dog just passed.  RIP Mandee.  she was able to help me with my crew..always great to have help out there.  we saw one huge bull moose in the distance on the way out.  he wasn't that far from the trail actually, just far from us.  i thought it was a bear since the girth was large, but just a big bull. he headed up the hill.  on the way back we saw 2 big bulls way off trail.  is it time for the rut already?  i know way too early, but this is usually a sight you see later in the fall on Powerline.  we just got lucky out there today.

 i picked Powerline trail because i thought perhaps it would be cooler in the mountains and there is usually several little water holes for the dogs....neither of these was true today. bummer.

 the dogs were all pooped out after todays walk.  i filled the puddle pool at home and we all just chilled.  i know...no sympathy from anyone who actually lives in temperatures over 100F.  believe me 80 feels hot here.

 have thought i may just leave pups out overnight for test, but each night they are ramped up and won't settle until i put them in their crates..so not ready for all  night out yet. lots of training to be done with these pups...same as these cubs with their mom.  todays lessons out there were river crossings and beginning fishing.  fun to watch this mama bear teach her charges the ways of life as a  bear.

 Republican convention is this week.  people actual take vacation time to go to these things.  i can't imagine doing that myself but there they all are with their red, white and blue hats and clothes. to each his own. i'm happy i spent my vacation time with these bears. much more relaxing and peaceful

 had to laugh as apparently Drumpf's wife's speech had some exact lines from first Lady Obama's speech from years ago.  you think they would have at least stolen the lines from a fellow Republicans wife.  it's not like i expected some amazing speech from her, i don't think he married her for her brains.  saw her being interviewed i think by Matt Lauer?  she sounded like she was saying she'd written most of the speech herself and that he'd have to wait until she gave it that night to know what she'd said in it.

 politics...pretty insane, especially this year.  i'm a bit convinced that there are some in the Republican Party actually trying to make it easier for Hillary to become POTUS.  seemed odd that within a week she was cleared on Benghazi by a Republican led investigation and also  FBI came out saying she wouldn't be prosecuted on the email stuff.  so odd i thought.  maybe they'd rather just have her in office and try to control her and keep their senate and house seats.  if Drumpf gets in they may lose some of those seats in the next elections.

 of course, the flaw in that is that then Hillary could appoint the judges she wants to the supreme court.  maybe they can hold off on any further retirements for 4 years.  you never know what is going on in closed offices in DC. i don't trust either party.

 i'm not keen on either of these guys becoming POTUS, but the major parties both gave us crap...what is an Independent voter to do.  vote for the least damaging or potentially least damaging.  i found myself hoping they picked good running mates and then somehow die in office early.  not sure i'm too keen on Drumpfs selection and Hillary hasn't announced yet.

 there have actually been quite a few Presidents die in office.  i'm not asking for an assassination before i get some call from the CIA...sepsis or a heart attack...you know natural causes.

 someone noted that some of Drumpfs worse twitters happen late at night...that makes me think alcohol...late night consumption followed by late night twitter messages.

 that is it for politics for me...i don't like either candidate, i can't believe this is the best we have to offer up as a nation for people to run for our highest office  we are doomed i fear.

 have tried to slip in to the office here and look at more pictures from Hallo Bay. not much else accomplished today.

 she made a few runs at this river crossing before just crossing over..it was probably a test run.

 she figured they could manage it and then just crossed.  better follow mama bear or get left behind.  don't think she'd actually leave them behind, but i'm sure she wants them to just do the crossing and gain confidence.

 their return trip was fast as she got spooked and they booked back across the river.  we didn't see that part though.

 i had intended to look at new mowers and hit a grocery store. i had an old second hand mower i got free, the other day there were these ominous popping sounds and then it just stopped.  done.  i attempted it again today...no go.

 hesitant bear cubs.

 coaching by mom

 the pups went right into their crates and it is totally quiet down there now.  they crashed hard.

 i did watch a movie, "Difret".  it was about a young girl who gets taken to be made a wife.  apparently in many places a guy asks the father about the daughter, but ultimately instead of courting the young woman they kidnap her and rape her and then marry her...since the guy has taken her virginity away, well of course, they should be married...such a romantic and lovely start to marriage.  anyway, this young 14 year old seized the opportunity to leave her captor, grabbed his gun on her way out and when he decided to chase her she shot him

 he died and everyone in her village felt she should be killed. self defense wasn't seen as an option.  a female law group saw the case and got involved.  they were successful in helping her and many other women  get some basic rights.  they are still working to protect girls/women from this sort of thing...kidnapping brides.  tough to change some people though.  womens rights have come much further along in some parts of the world over other parts of the world.

 mom crossing over

 she returned to the cubs and then eventually they all crossed over.

 here are the three babies making their way across to their mama.

 mom waits for them.

 and they are out.  guess i should head to bed.  another night off before i head to work on Wednesday.

grateful for:.  A.  having a better vacation planned than the convention. B. that presidents have term limits..now can we do that for the house and senate too please.  C.  rain..can we get some please!! :-)