Bear Fail

Okay, the blog post title sounds a lot worse than it was.  It drew a collective gasp from the crowd on the boat, er, ship, although in retrospect it was pretty funny.  Our collective gasp was a way over-reaction on our part

To set the stage, Lucho came on the PA system at 7:26 am.  My Spider-Sense (Note to Marvel: I don’t actually have Spider Sense, so I don’t owe you money) immediately tingled with one thought: Bear.  It wasn’t quite 7:30 am, so the “Good Morning, Good Morning” that Lucho greeted us with each morning was four minutes early.

Sure enough, a bear had been sighted on the pack ice.  I bolted outside, as Carol got ready (I was not in my pajamas – I had already gotten up at 6:00 and was blogging away).  There it was – polar bear number 11, and another quality bear at that.

It picked and poked its way amongst the ice pack, stepping, or jumping, from floe to floe.  Just going, you know, with the flow.

The bear fail came as it was trying to jump across a wider chasm than normal.  The bear coiled and sprung, promptly coming up short.  Splash from the water, gasp from the ship.  It was as though we thought the bear would drown, or freeze and drown, or maybe catch the sniffles.  If brown and black bears spend a lot of time doing something in the woods, white bears are pretty used to the water.  

The bear popped up with an expression that clearly said, “I hope nobody saw that.”  No such luck.  (Editor’s Note: Don’t anthropomorphic-ize the bear.  Blogger: Please! Everyone else does it!  Editor: If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you?  Blogger: Now you sound like my mom!)  

Anyhow, the bear steadied himself at the edge of the ice floe, stuck his tongue out not once but twice, and pulled himself up.  To dry off, he took a some steps, flipped over and rolled around on his back.  A true “Awww” moment for the crowd.

Eventually he walked far away, but it was breakfast time anyhow, and that omelette wasn’t going to cook itself.  Well, I didn’t cook it either.  The omelette chef did.  And it tasted as good to me as a ring seal tastes to that polar bear.