Bass Pro Shop

Have you ever been to a Bass Pro Shop?  It's a sporting goods store that Bill has been wanting to visit for awhile, but it's in the Phoenix area, which is not where we live.

However, we went on one of our favorite outings which is the semiannual family trip to the LDS (Mormon) temple in Mesa, Arizona that our ward sponsors.  The kids go to a church building near the temple to play while the parents go to the temple to worship.  Afterward everyone goes back to the church building to enjoy a big pizza lunch (and chips and soda and cookies . . . ).  The kids love it and Bill and I love being able to go to the temple together and he's my favorite traveling companion so I always like the hours in the car with him.

So that trip took us near a Bass Pro Shop.  Look at the fireside area just inside the door:

There were comfortable leather chairs sitting around it.  I planned to go back and sit, but inside we found out they were having a children's exploration day in the store.  They got a card to check things off.  First they made a butterfly that they glued a thermometer onto.  Then they went upstairs and shot arrows.  Caroline was strong enough to use the real bow and arrows, while the other girls decided to use the sort of "play" set.

 

There were a couple of other activities as well.  The highlight of the day, however, was fish feeding time at the tank.  My pictures today left quite a bit to be desired, but you can get an idea of the magnitude of this tank in this picture (that's a glass-sided elevator through the water on the other side):

They liked when the feeder threw pellets out.  They liked it better when he threw out night crawlers.  The best (for them) was when the feeder threw out lots of little live fish and we watched the big ones, um, EAT the little fish.  I might have nightmares about that, myself.

We had a terrific day together.