Adapting to "Dog on Boat"

Who exactly had to do the adapting here?

Us, the childless wanderers who have never had to be responsible for anyone other than ourselves?
Or the South LA / Watts homeless, neglected dog rescued one day away from permanent "sleep"?

The humans who had only needed to worry about their own toilet...
Or the dog who had to make her own in gangland...

The dog had to adapt to a human either making sure she was warm enough or blocking the sun to keep the dog in a black fur coat from overheating.

The humans of course had to adapt to watching the dog for signs of "I don't like this wind in my face and don't have opposable thumbs to zip up the enclosure" and "pant, pant, pant, ugh get the sun off of me, but I am too lazy to move to a different spot".

Both hard work.

The dog had to adapt to "kelp fly watch" in lieu of "trash fly watch".

And had to adapt to numerous cushions and throw pillows, both on the seat and table in lieu of cement and asphalt.

The humans?
Running the vacuum every other day.
Feeding.
Walking.
Carrying poop bags.
Accommodating.
Being responsible.

Santa Blahblah

Oh fun ~ a weekend in Santa Blahblah Barbara!
On the boat!
With a bunch of crazies friends!
And some dogs!
Wine!
Beer!
Potlucks!
Pizza!
Awesome breakfast out!
The problem?
This:

World's Worst Marina Design.  Ever.
Good for exercise.
Bad if you have cheap flip flops on...

B-Field. Bako. Buckowensville.

And then we went to Bakersfield...

Why, you ask?

We are asking ourselves the same question.

I think the last time we went to B-Field, it was for Suzie and Kirby's wedding.

Yep, they selected the fine smog-free city of Buckowensville for the nuptials of a lifetime.

Why, you ask?

We are asking ourselves the same question.

This time we went for a BBQ at my sister's house.

Why does she live in Bako?

We are asking ourselves the same question.

We made a weekend out of it.

Took the Scamp.

Took the dog.

Took our lives in jeopardy by driving over The Grapevine on a Friday afternoon with 4,892 speeding crazed truckers trying to get home for Friday night dinner.

Camped at Ditch River View RV Park.
River?
Ah ha ha ha!
Twelve ounces of water being let down the dirt ditch to appease some marathon going on.

We had a great time!
Put our Disneyland lights outside the trailer.
Dog got to sit on grass.
And we got to see family.

And eat.

Lots.

And take pictures of each other taking pictures of each other.

And stick out tongues out.

Well, not all of us...

And look at the lovelies.

And pose for group pics.

All the typical stuff you would do at a family bbq.

And Now Back to AZ...

Hot in desert in AZ!
So let the dog play in the stream.
They called it a river, but really.
It was a stream.

Tried to get the ball and chain dog to fetch the ball.
She did it a few times.
Til she decided she'd rather sniff the flowers instead...

Then oh so conveniently tucked the ball up under a root in the stream riverbank to never be seen again.

Pretty cottonwoods.

Or so I would assume these things were...
We were in the town of Cottonwood after all!

Antiquewood.

Coololdsignwood.

Spent a morning at Tuzigoot Indian Ruins.
Dog friendly paths!
And the best museum full of way cool Indian relics.

Arrowheads.
Baskets.
Bowls.
Amazing!

Not that I took any pics of all that cools stuff...

Lunch in Cottonwood.
Explored the antique stores.
Poked around.
Still hot, so back to the stream.
And enjoyed a nice glass of vino to top off the day!

We Interrupt This Long Drawn Out Vacation Recap For...

A huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY wish to my mommy!

Happy 90th (yes 90th!) Birthday to this amazing, strong, beautiful, patient, smart, giving, lovely mother of five, grandmother of eight ~ Margo!

Who, btw still lives alone and still drives a stick shift.

Montezuma's Castle

Montezuma, who by the way, was never in Arizona somehow managed to get a castle in Arizona named after him.
I would like something really, really incredible that I had nothing to do with named after me.

It was really cool!
Quite amazingly built on and in the cliffside.
And still stands.

The poor people must have lived down at the bottom...

The path through the park was dog friendly - YAY!
Because it was getting hot.
The dog had dried off.
And we really didn't feel like taking turns walking around while one sat in the car with the hot ball and chain dog.

Arizona Wine Tasting

An oxymoron, right?
Arizona Winery.
It just sounds weird.
Especially to a California resident and wino.
Almost as weird as when we went to the winery in Kentucky.
Complete oxymoron.
So it's just odd, weird, doesn't make sense and did I say odd?
But we tried one.
After walking into a first one that actually had pourers with an attitude.
In Arizona.
First one didn't seem to care that I was there.
Not dog accommodating.
Not a hello, welcome, come taste our crappy AZ wines, nothing.
So off to the second one.
Beautiful place!
Great patio.
Dog bowl was brought out.
Wine was poured.
By a server with a smile.
And friendly attitude.
Still didn't make the wines anything close to great.
Or close to California wines.
Or anything that we should have bought.
But we did buy one.
For fun.
And memories.