January 24, 2006
Grandson and I went on our first outing. It was just the two of us. We went to the new Cabala's store built just about 10 miles from our house. The day went very well.
I took Monday off from work to avoid a crowded store. Debbie helped me get him bundled up for the ride over to the store. I was glad to see the parking lot to be pretty open. It was a bit chilly outside so we hurried into the store, grabbed a cart and took off our jackets. Sean immediately noticed the elk mount on the wall right near the entrance. He pointed and made a gasping noise that he does so well. I knew than that this was going to be fun. Cabala's is loaded with animal mounts.
The big decision was where we want to go look at first. I chose the mountain display that they have near the back of the store. This display has full body mounts of all kinds of animals found throughout the United States . There were deer, antelope, bear, moose, mountain goats, a variety of birds and other small animals. Sean was quite intrigued by the whole thing.
From there we strolled through a few sections of the store and then came upon the African display. Let's see in this display we saw lions, a rhino, zebra, ox, small critters and an elephant. There were so many things for the little guy to see. He just seemed to be in quite awe of all the sights.
But yet there is more. The other big attraction is the freshwater aquariums. These aquariums are loaded with all kinds of fish that are native to Minnesota lakes. Quite a number of them are very large too. Sean loves to watch his fish at home and really enjoyed seeing this display.
Next, we went into that camping area of the store. There was lots of room in this area, so I let him get down from the cart and walk a bit. He wasn't interested in going into the tents but he did explore around the area. He stopped to look at some toy air popper guns (that's one smart kid). No I didn't buy him one. But I did buy him a Davy Crockett Raccoon hat.
Now it was time for me to have some fun. I tried out the shooting gallery. A sales person gave me two free tokens. Sean watched as I plinked a few things there. Then I went to the laser shooting game with four tokens that I purchased. I tried my luck with deer and than shooting at doves.
At that point we were pretty much done. Had a bite to eat at the deli in the store and then headed to the registers to pay for the hat, the little moose and Sean's birthday present that he picked out. Hey, when he hugs something you show him you can't help but buy it.
I think I might just enjoy this Grandpa thing.