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2006 - Country Living
by Buddy & Leia, featuring Eduardo |
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In July of 2006, we drove out to the high desert of Northern New Mexico in Mum's new hybrid SUV. |
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| Man, was it nice to get out of the city and enjoy some open space! |  |
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Leia marked the land, lest others try to claim it for themselves ... |
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| ... and then we got down to business |
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We half expected this to be the first of many stops on another rambling cross-country journey .... but, to our surprise and delight, mum and dad decided to put down roots for a couple of months! |
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| We told Mum, "we've never seen you so relaxed!" She said, "I could say the same about you two!" It's amazing what a little r & r can do for the soul. |  |
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It was so nice to stay in one place for a change. We got to know our neighbors. We made a few new friends. |
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| One night, we were startled awake by the howling and barking of coyotes just outside the house! We barked a lot and managed to scare them away, but they left this odd little creature behind for us. We weren't really sure what to make of it initially ... it wasn't very friendly ... |  |
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But mum spent a lot of time with it, and the two of them became fast friends. |
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| Mum wanted to keep it, but it took her a couple of days to convince Dad that this was a good idea. Eventually, she succeeded, and that's how we got our little brother. |  |
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His name is Eduardo. |
| Finally, in September, the time came for us to leave New Mexico. It just about broke our hearts ... except of course that we missed Buster, so we were eager to get back home to her. |  |
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Still, we fondly recalled our lovely summer in New Mexico. You can only imagine how exciting it was when, in December, we packed up the car again and began driving south, then east ... | |
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| To our great delight, we ended up right back in the same area where we'd spent the summer. We think it's even nicer with snow than without. |  |
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The snow was a bit deep for little Eduardo, but the odd set of tire tracks made it easier for him to get around. | |
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| Some relatives came to visit, and we had a fun holiday. |  |
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Mum and dad were especially happy! |
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| In fact, we've never seen them happier. |  |
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"Summer 2005" by Buddy & Leia
It was August of 2005, and we were getting bored. The weather was warm and beautiful but it had been months since our last big adventure. When we saw this thing again, boy did we get excited! |
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We were champing at the bit! |
Our first stop was Yosemite National Park. |
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Mum's friends Erik and Donna were getting married there. |
We heard the wedding was lovely, although dogs were not allowed, which, to be honest, we were a bit miffed about. |
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There we were on our first vacation together in six months, and mum was spending all her time hanging out with friends from Oakland! It hardly seemed fair. |
But eventually, we found some time to explore. |
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Buddy got another chance to try swimming. Leia patiently demonstrated over and over again, swimming circles around him. By the end of his second day trying, Buddy finally figured out how to paddle with all four legs! It was a major accomplishment. |
Mum & Dad had a good time, too. |
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From Yosemite, we headed east, through the high sierras ... |
... then south, towards central Utah. Our trip promised to be great! |
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We hung out at a place called Yuba Lake for a few days. |
Mum enjoyed doing her yoga practice outdoors in the morning. |
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In the afternoons, we explored! One day, we set out to find a place called Goblin Valley |
Unlike the national parks, Goblin Valley State Park allows dogs. |
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But we didn't see any other dogs out there, or any other humans besides Mum & Dad. We're not really sure why it was so deserted. It might be because it's very hot in Goblin Valley. Or it might be that people are scared of the goblins. But we think that's ridiculous! |
The next day began with more yoga ... |
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... followed by a trip to Arches National Park. |
There are some pretty incredible natural arches out there! |
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Really big arches ... |
Small arches ... |
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The only problem was, being a national park, us dogs were not allowed to go check them out! |
We had to stay with dad, and watch from a distance while mum explored ... |
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... which was a huge bummer! She obviously found the park very interesting. |
Then we had to hang back with Mum while Dad took HIS turn exploring ... |
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... but this may have been a good thing. We're not scared of a few goblins, but we confess that we found Balanced Rock a bit intimidating! |
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... not to mention the Herd of Elephants! |
We swung through Taos for a day, where Mum looked at real estate. |
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Then we passed briefly through the Four Corners area. |
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This exact spot is where the four states of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona all meet. |
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Dad enjoyed some time in Colorado ... |
... while Mum embraced the unique opportunity to be in four places at once. |
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Dad, being from England, had never tried Navajo frybread before. |
Mum insisted that he have some. She didn't let us have any, though. Possibly because she was too busy stuffing her own face with it. |
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