It's been an awesome weekend. Yesterday, Tim, our daughter, granddaughter, and I set out early for Paws and Claws Animal Encounters in Bremen, Ohio. The trip was a Christmas present I had given us girls. Tim went along even though it wasn't really something he was excited about. I had purchased a fourth ticket in case our grandson changed his mind and wanted to go. He did not.

It was a 3 1/2 hour drive, one way, to get there. We did make it on time...a little early, actually, which allowed us extra time to explore the grounds and meet a lot of the animals. The rule is, if they animals stick their paws out, you can pet them. You just can't reach into the cage. Our granddaughter had a ball playing with the otters.

The main purpose of our visit was an otter encounter. We were in a room with about 12 other people and one of the owners gave a wonderful presentation about the otters and four other animals. We were able to see them up close and actually interact with some of them. The otters, of course, were the stars of the show.

The only disappointment was that the otters in the encounter were only mildly interactive, preferring to run around the room and play with each other. I guess you can't tell what mood they'll be in. Anyway, Tim said we girls (not him) need to go back to swim with the otters as it's a much smaller group (no more than 6) and you are in a small pool with 3 otters. That would be awesome, but will have to be a bit in the future due to how expensive it is.

On the way home we stopped at Strong & Co. for a very late lunch in the historic town of Somerset. Great food and I need to go back to explore the town one day! All together we were gone for about 12 hours. It was a long day, but a good one. I hope you enjoy the photos.