Full Disclosure

I'm a realist to a major fault with a large pinch of cynicism and dooms day thinking.  As much as I love my work, I walk around waiting for an anvil to fall on my head on a regular basis, which is why I was constantly ready to be attacked by a bear.  As you may remember, we have had a past bear encounter.  So, as much as I wish I could fully lose my self in nature - I held my breath more than I'd like to admit.  The thing that did NOT help was everyone (rangers, guide, concierge) saying that we should carry bear spray:

I guess it's like military mace, but even though we had it, the instructions were nerve racking too.  "Don't spray TOO early because there's only 10 seconds of stuff in there!".  So, while a bear is attacking you, you're supposed to calmly gauge when to spray.  Luckily, we never used it but can you blame me?  I only want to protect these little guys:

Lucky me, I had THIS guy protecting us: