Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

cab67

(2,962 posts)
Wed Jul 7, 2021, 11:36 AM Jul 2021

Travels with a bear.

If I could digress from politics for a moment:

As I’ve probably mentioned before, I work on the evolution of crocodylians - living and extinct alligators, crocodiles, and their close relatives - for a living. One consequence is the need to visit museum collections to look at modern skeletal specimens and fossils. And because crocodylians have lived pretty much everywhere over the past 80 million years – they’re known from as far north as Ellesmere Island in rocks about 45 million years in age, for example – this means going pretty much everywhere.

Life would be much simpler if people would just mail their crocodylians to me. For one reason or another, they won’t. So I go to them.

In 2019, I travelled to East Africa for 8 weeks. I’ve done extended trips like this before, but this was different – I now had a 3-year-old daughter. This would be hard for her. (Hard for her mother and me, too.).

So I asked my sister for advice. Her husband served in the US Navy, and like others in their community, they faced extended absences of one parent while they had small children. How did they deal with it?

She gave me several suggestions. Out of them, my wife/her mother and I came up with a solution: we’d go to Build-A-Bear and have two teddy bears made. One would stay with our daughter, and the other would come with me. I would then have pictures taken of the bear every day, sometimes with me, and text them to my wife, who would show them to our daughter.

We put great ceremony into the bear generation process. Build-A-Bear puts a “heart” of sorts in the bear before adding stuffing, both my daughter and I blew on the heart before its insertion. When we got home, we chose one of the t-shirts she’d outgrown and put it on the bear.

(I kinda hoped they'd hook the bear to a couple of power cables and throw a big switch, but it wasn't quite so dramatic as that.)

I did manage to get pictures nearly every day, though I couldn’t actually send them every day – believe it or not, there was an attempted coup in one of the countries (Ethiopia) during my visit, and most WiFi was shut down for several days.

I tried to expand the level of inspiration by asking my colleagues to sometimes pose with the bear. Some of these were US- or Europe-based scientists visiting the same facilities, and others were scientists from the host institutions. I made an effort to include women and people of color – it’s critical to show young girls that fields such as science are not just for white cis-gender males. Most found it charming, though I suspect I’d get in serious trouble if the photo I took with the director of one of these museums with the bear was ever made public.

It worked. My daughter was sad I was gone, but she always felt connected. She’d see the pictures in the morning before heading to day care (by which time it was afternoon for me), and would tell all of her friends about them.

I just returned on Monday from my first international research trip since the pandemic began – this time to Germany and Italy. My daughter is now 5, and I wasn’t going to be gone for nearly as long (just shy of two weeks), but I decided to keep doing it. I might keep doing it in perpetuity – it’s kinda become a thing for us.

I suspect by the time I retire, I’ll be known as the fellow who’s always keeping an eye on the time for bear o’clock as much as a crocodylian systematist. And I’m cool with that.

Here are some of the photos. I’m not including photos showing my colleagues – only the bear and, in some cases, yours truly.

Waiting for the flight to Addis Ababa, 2019:
[img][/img]

Bale Mountains, south of Addis, 2019:
[img][/img]

With some Somali ostriches, Middle Awash NP, 2019:
[img][/img]

Middle Awash NP, 2019; there are crocodiles in the river behind us, but I don’t think you can see them:
[img][/img]

Outside the paleo (palaeo?) collections area at the National Museum of Kenya in Nairobi, 2019:
[img][/img]

Lions near Nairobi, 2019:
[img][/img]

Getting caffeinated before hitting the collections, Kampala, 2019:
[img][/img]

Working with fossils, Stuttgart, 2021:
[img][/img]

Train between Stuttgart and Tübingen, 2021:
[img][/img]

Post-research drinks, Rome, 2021:
[img][/img]

Roman Forum, 2021:
[img][/img]

Wondering where the gladiators all went, 2021:
[img][/img]

26 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Travels with a bear. (Original Post) cab67 Jul 2021 OP
These are wonderful pics! MLAA Jul 2021 #1
I've thought about doing that. cab67 Jul 2021 #4
Go for it! She will love it. MLAA Jul 2021 #10
Totally agree with post #10. ChazII Jul 2021 #21
This WOULD make a great child's book jmbar2 Jul 2021 #2
It's not as exotic as it sounds. cab67 Jul 2021 #13
Loved these so much!! secondwind Jul 2021 #3
Excellent! It would be great if this catches on. TreasonousBastard Jul 2021 #5
I love your idea.... Blue Dawn Jul 2021 #6
I did that with Goldie Gopher.... ProudMNDemocrat Jul 2021 #7
Thank you UpInArms Jul 2021 #8
We did that with our great nephew's stuffed dinosaur in the UK csziggy Jul 2021 #9
awesome - cab67 Jul 2021 #11
Since we arrived in August we started outside of Glasgow and went north csziggy Jul 2021 #25
Thanks for sharing Beringia Jul 2021 #12
This is destined to be the best thing I will have read all year... Hekate Jul 2021 #14
Thanks for sharing this very personal story with me/us. If there were no bears in the story it abqtommy Jul 2021 #15
What a great idea! Lucky little girl too! hlthe2b Jul 2021 #16
That was wonderful! Solly Mack Jul 2021 #17
Wonderful Story cab67! I have two questions for you leftieNanner Jul 2021 #18
good questions cab67 Jul 2021 #23
How adorable! crickets Jul 2021 #19
Big K&R. nt tblue37 Jul 2021 #20
I love this. StarryNite Jul 2021 #22
that is so sweet... stillcool Jul 2021 #24
How sweet! smirkymonkey Jul 2021 #26

MLAA

(17,163 posts)
1. These are wonderful pics!
Wed Jul 7, 2021, 11:41 AM
Jul 2021

They would make an adorable children’s book. Really. You could weave in information about crocs and countries little bear visits.

cab67

(2,962 posts)
4. I've thought about doing that.
Wed Jul 7, 2021, 12:01 PM
Jul 2021

In particular, I considered creating a photo album with these pictures, along with some text and maps, but only for her.

cab67

(2,962 posts)
13. It's not as exotic as it sounds.
Wed Jul 7, 2021, 12:54 PM
Jul 2021

I'm a birder, so I do manage to get out on weekends to chase birds, but for the most part, I get to see the museum basements of the world.

First time I visited the natural history collections in London, I was taken to the sub-basement where the relevant material was kept. I was given instructions on how to leave in a hurry in case of an IRA bomb threat (this was early 1990's) and left alone. This was before the days of WiFi, and I couldn't pick up a radio station down there. I brought some cassettes, but got tired of those after a couple of days. For photography, I basically used really fast film and the best lights available, which had 60 watt bulbs.

Meanwhile, my friend on the same trip - an echinoderm specialist - got to work upstairs, with big panoramic windows facing Hyde Park and lots of natural light.

When I went to Paris while in grad school, my budget was tight enough that I went from my hotel on the right bank of the Seine straight to the museum on the left bank, then back to the hotel, and pretty much nowhere else. The Metro goes over the river, not under it. It wasn't until the last day that I realized the big church I was seeing in the distance was Notre Dame.



Blue Dawn

(892 posts)
6. I love your idea....
Wed Jul 7, 2021, 12:02 PM
Jul 2021

....and your photos!

What a lucky little girl to have a dad like you! I agree with the others who suggested turning your story into a book.

Thank you for sharing this!

ProudMNDemocrat

(16,480 posts)
7. I did that with Goldie Gopher....
Wed Jul 7, 2021, 12:03 PM
Jul 2021

When my husband and I traveled, we had the mascot to the University of Minnesota we would take on our road trips to places like Mount Rushmore, Virginias City, San Francisco, etc. I would share Goldie's adventures on Facebook.

In 2015 when my husband and I went to England, we took him with. I even made him an Elizabethan costume, complete with a cap with a Tudor Rose pin. But unfortunately, I lost him on the London Underground. I have not yet replaced him. We have had many more adventures since then he would have had fun on.

csziggy

(34,120 posts)
9. We did that with our great nephew's stuffed dinosaur in the UK
Wed Jul 7, 2021, 12:18 PM
Jul 2021

Here he is at Loch Lomond:



RSPB Bempton Cliffs:



Hadrian's Wall - Vindolanda:



My husband would send pictures to the nephew and he could follow our trip across the UK.

csziggy

(34,120 posts)
25. Since we arrived in August we started outside of Glasgow and went north
Thu Jul 8, 2021, 01:13 AM
Jul 2021

To the Isle of Skye, across Northern Scotland and all the way to the Orkneys. It was wonderful!

People kept warning about the midges, but it was breezy enough that they never bothered us. Besides, being from Florida we're used to bugs.

We stayed out of the cities - before we left we bought a membership to the Royal Society for the Preservation of Birds (RSPB) and that got us into all their preserves for free.

I can recommend Northern Scotland wholeheartedly. I loved it enough I might even go back if I live long enough, but we have other trips we want to do while we can still travel.

Hekate

(90,189 posts)
14. This is destined to be the best thing I will have read all year...
Wed Jul 7, 2021, 01:05 PM
Jul 2021

You, giving your little girl some beary good memories!

abqtommy

(14,118 posts)
15. Thanks for sharing this very personal story with me/us. If there were no bears in the story it
Wed Jul 7, 2021, 01:23 PM
Jul 2021

would have been...UN-BEARABLE!

leftieNanner

(14,997 posts)
18. Wonderful Story cab67! I have two questions for you
Wed Jul 7, 2021, 01:41 PM
Jul 2021

1) When and Where did the bear get those wings pinned on the t-shirt?

2) And did you check the bear's ID before serving it that glass of vino in Rome?

Thanks for sharing this with us.

cab67

(2,962 posts)
23. good questions
Wed Jul 7, 2021, 02:54 PM
Jul 2021

1. I got the wings on one of the outbound flights - not sure if it was Chicago to Dulles or Dulles to Addis Ababa.

Since then, I've also added lapel pins with the flags of each country the bear has visited. They're on the bear's sleeves - you can see some of them in some of the Europe pictures.

2. The bear wasn't asked for ID. Besides, this was in Italy, where the drinking age is somewhat lower than in the US.

crickets

(25,896 posts)
19. How adorable!
Wed Jul 7, 2021, 02:02 PM
Jul 2021

What a sweet thing to do for your daughter. - you're a great dad for doing this. Also agree there's a wonderful children's book waiting to be written about the adventures of a bear scientist traveling the world.

 

smirkymonkey

(63,221 posts)
26. How sweet!
Thu Jul 8, 2021, 03:12 AM
Jul 2021

And what great pictures! Your job sounds fascinating.

Most of all, you have no idea what a gift you are giving your daughter. One day she will realize what a wonderful father she has, if she doesn't already.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Travels with a bear.