Bison Day 2020

This year National Bison Day was on November 7. We'd never celebrated National Bison Day before and since we learned about it on our National Days calendar, we made plans even before our Fall Break trip to celebrate on Antelope Island.

Here we go!

On the way, we were stopped at a light and the vehicle in front of us had a sticker of a purple bison. Jeremy commented that it was "like the kind Atreyu used to hunt." Some of the kids got the reference and we started discussing that movie. I commented how surprised I was that we hadn't yet broken into song which of course started the kids singing "Neverending Story" which then turned into a medley with "The Song that Never Ends." Sigh.

When we got to the island, I started singing, "Bali Hai" from South Pacific since the mist/fog on the lake made me think of it, which is funny because in the movie, Bali Hai is almost an unattainable "special island," and the area I was looking at was the area we had already driven past to get to this island. Not so unattainable. Tee Hee.

 

There weren't any bison where we stopped for lunch this time. After lunch, the kids and I (Jeremy stayed in the van with sleeping baby) went for a little walk. It didn't last long when one of the children wouldn't follow directions. Grumpy Mommy came out but she only lasted so long, thankfully.

It turned out to be a windy day on the island. Nichole brought her kite she sewed in one of her classes at school... just in case. We ended up finding a spot where the kids were able to fly it.

At one point we were stopped and I had my window rolled down to take pictures of some bison. All of a sudden the wind changed and blew sand right into my window and on me- on my clothes, in my hair, in my mouth. The kids got a big kick out of my exclamations and sputtering.

Another time, we were parked to look for some birds. Jr. opened his window and stuck his head out. I love the result when he pulled his head back in.

We got pictures with bison statues. Again I love that the wind picked up for Jr.'s picture.

Look. It's a "sky" bison and Jr. Jr. is floating. He must be an airbender.

 

Jeremy shared some facts about bison such as... bison are adapted to cold climates. They can handle extreme cold weather as well as the heat. They can handle temperatures that would kill off cattle. Lucky pointed out that bison are herbivores.

 I love that we captured this picture with the bison's tongue sticking out.

 

As we were about to leave the island, we got to a pullout where a bison was coming up toward the road. We were able to pull over and just watch it for a while. It's always fun to watch bison up close (from the safety of your vehicle) amble along in front of the vehicle. I've enjoyed it on Antelope Island. I loved it on our trip to Yellowstone in 2017. I don't mind so much cars being backed up when it means there's wildlife to be seen.

So I'd say in general it was a pretty awesome (and pretty windy) Bison Day.