Feeding Seagulls Isn't Just for the Beach

Ever been to Five Guys?  Best burger I've had in a long time.  Fresh, right off the grill, served up with a literal mountain of french fries.  Interestingly though, this isn't the focus of this entry. Hamburgers will probably come up at some point though.

No, I mention Five Guys only because Kate and I met our friend Alicia for lunch there today.  Near the end of the meal Alicia says, "Okay, I want to do something, and you guys have to do it with me" or something very close to that.  I was intrigued.  What else, after eating the best burger you'd had in years, could be left to do?

Turns out Alicia, whose always had a thing for feeding animals apparently, wanted to buy a loaf of bread at K-Mart and go feed the seagulls that hang out in the hundreds around North Point Plaza.  We did, and we had a blast.  By the end, we'd probably collected a mob of 70 or 80 birds, which would take off occasionally, at the threat of a coming car, and then return in a virtual blitzkrieg.  A lot of times the gulls would sort of hover in front of you, right over your head, and pick lobbed pieces of bread right out of the air.

Near the end I pitched a full half a piece of bread into the throng.  A bunch of gulls started fighting over it immediately, pretty viciously.  One of them finally won out and took off, the entire piece of bread in its maw.  The others, not taking defeat easily, launched after him, and the aerial acrobatics the ensued during the high speed chase were worth the entire experience.

They say seagulls are the rats of the sky...they may be, but feeding them is far more enjoyable than I'd imagine feeding their terrestrial cousins.

And to cap off the day, no one got pooped on!