Moose Goes to the Beach

Andrea has been back here in California staying with me for the month of November. She had been trying to convince me to take Moose swimming since probably the start of summer. I always shot the idea down because we had no good way of transporting him to and from without making a total mess of my car. Well, thanks to Mom and Dad for picking out a collapsible dog kennel that fits snuggly in back seat... and thereby removing my excuse.

Some friends had described a beach near Halfmoon Bay to Andrea a while back. A beach where dogs can run off-leash (sort of a rare beach to find). So we set out on Saturday to get Moose his first experience with the ocean. We even convinced our friend, Samara, to bring her dogs along as well.

As we were driving out to the coast, the weather wasn't looking very hospitable. In fact, it was raining for most the drive. But as we arrived the rain let up and eventually the sun came out and everything worked out rather well.









Moose was more or less content to run around in the sand and did some splashing around in the water, but he wasn't enthusiastic about actual 'swimming'. He certainly got more comfortable with the water as the day progressed, but it may have had more to do with the tide going out and him being able to touch bottom.

Samara's dogs (Charlie & Sophie, the 2 Boston Terriers in the pictures) were either scared of the water, or too chilled to the bone to even think about going all the way in. It looked like they still enjoyed themselves. They had a game where they would wait for Moose at the edge of the water any time he went out to fetch a toy. When he got back with it, they'd take off like a shot thinking Moose would follow.

There were also a number of other dogs that came up at various points. One especially lively Pointer mix started wrestling with Moose and then tried to coax him way out into the ocean. He thought she was a lot of fun until that point.




Sophie, the one with the black face, is an extremely enthusiastic digger. She always gets scolded when she tried it at the school, but this is the beach! Samara let her try and dig to China. Moose was there for moral support, and Charlie tried to help out but just seemed to end up with sand on his face from standing behind Sophie.





Here are some final shots of when the tide started really going out and the sun came out. By this point, Moose would chase pretty much anything I could throw out into the water because it was shallow enough for him to bounce off the bottom.

Overall it was a big success. We spent 2-3 hours at the beach, then left the dogs in the cars to pass out as we got some lunch. Then of course it was back home for mandatory bath time. We'll have to do this again and see if Moose can actually learn the doggie paddle.

Andrea's Farewell / Birthday Party

Last weekend, our friends Dennis and Kris were kind enough to offer up their new house as a venue for a little get-together right before Andrea had to leave for Mexico. Her birthday was approaching (about a week later), so it was sort of a double celebration. Sain came out as well to partake in the festivities, and much food & drink were had. Dennis and I were in charge of the bulk of the meal, as we were making heavy use of his brand new grill.





We met Dennis and Kris at the park running our dogs together... so what would a party be without some K-9 horseplay? Moose was hyper (as usual any time he gets into an unrecognized surrounding), and someone threw a handful of treats at me. So this is me trying to get Moose to focus enough to do a trick before handing him a cookie.



Here we have the feast. It included two types of steak, a pork chop for Andrea (since she's been pork-deprived for the past year), sweet corn, sauteed mushrooms, marinaded zucchini and a salad I whipped up.



In Mexico, apparently they have a special way of eating corn on the cob. Normally it involves white corn (not sweet corn), but we work with what we have. To top off the corn, you rub it down with lime, smother it with mayonnaise, and then dust that with chili powder. I tried it before, and it is interesting... but butter just so good. Here we have Dennis trying Andrea's way of eating corn because he loves all things mayonnaise (Andrea actually addresses him as Mr. Mayo when she calls his cell).



I made a Banana Nut cake in honor of Andrea's coming birthday (baked the night before and frosted that morning). Kris and Dennis didn't really believe how heavy the cake is, and were contemplating which flavor of ice cream to serve alongside it. The rest of us sort of chuckled. Needless to say, no ice cream was served. And in fact, the cake's density was compared to the "depleted uranium" if I recall.




And finally, some dog shots for the road...




Thanks again to Kris and Dennis for the wonderful hospitality. Thanks for coming out Sain, and sorry we didn't get a chance to see Tsien. Thanks to Rigby for kicking Moose's butt when he steps out of line.

Tijuana

Andrea's current visa expires on the 27th of August, so the plan was to drive down to Tijuana over a weekend to cross the border and come back with a new visa. Andrea's sister called the American Embassy to make sure this was possible, and everything seemed to check out.

So last week, we made arrangements for Moose to stay in a kennel, reserved a room in San Diego and headed off on a grueling 2 days of nearly non-stop driving. We left around 8am on Saturday after dropping off Moose. The drive seemed to be going well. We were covering good ground, and everything suggested we'd arrive at our motel in San Diego around 4pm... and then we hit LA. The traffic on highway 5 was unbelievable starting on the north end of the city, and it just never let up. I basically cruised the entire length of Los Angeles in 1st and 2nd gears. My feet started getting blisters from all the shifting and clutching.

There were some cool things to play around with in traffic, like the carpool lane. They have limited access in LA and always active (unlike here where you can drive in them on non-peak hours). Although it didn't help much... especially for a particularly memorable segment where the carpool lane was backed up more than the normal lanes due to an accident.

After we passed South of Orange County, there was a little relief. But it was short-lived. As highway 5 made its way to the coast, the traffic picked up again. After another hour in stop & go conditions, we finally drove out of it, and I was shocked to see the cause. There was some sort of marine training exercise taking place on the beach, and people were simply slowing down to see it. I literally screamed!

We finally arrived in San Diego around 7pm, checked into the motel room and then headed out to walk across the border. Of course I was too tired to even think to bring the camera... and that was probably for the best because there were several people who had theirs confiscated.

We strolled over to Mexico, and then looped back to pass through the American customs check. When we showed our passports, the customs agent sort of raised an eyebrow at Andrea. He wanted to know how long she intended to stay, because clearly her current visa wasn't sufficient. We were separated temporarily, and then sent back to an office to wait in line for a chance to apply for a new permit to enter the US. After an hour and a half waiting in line, we finally got to the front. The agent was, again, apprehensive in dealing with Andrea. In the end, he denied her a new visa. He allowed her to enter the US again on her current visa, but said she would be in big trouble if she didn't get her butt back to Mexico before August 27th.

So Andrea is on her way back to her mom's in Mexico City next Wednesday (August 26th). She's already said her goodbyes at the zoo since we're not really sure when she'll be able to return to California. It's definitely a sad time. She's requested an early birthday celebration, so I'm going to put something together this Sunday and make another banana nut cake.

Teddy Bears' Picnic

Before I say anything... yes, this is me wearing various bear suits.







So how did this happen? It certainly was a surprise to me. Andrea has been doing volunteer work at the San Francisco Zoo, and today she was asked to help out for half a day with an event called the Teddy Bear Festival. When she takes public transit to the zoo during the week, she has a 3 hour commute each way. So, I decided to drive her this morning and save her roughly 4 hours on buses. My plan was to just hang out in the zoo while she did whatever they asked and then drive her home. She signed in at the volunteer's board, and we went back into a conference room to wait for a volunteer director.

The guy took one look at me and decided I would make a good teddy bear. Apparently they had planned for people to walk around all day in these 4 bear suits and greet children at the entrance as well as make appearances at the event. One of the guys who was supposed to this didn't show. So I got to spend the entire morning putting on and removing bear costumes and getting mobbed by small kids... well, the ones that weren't terrified of course. I don't understand how anyone could be afraid of this:



Nevermind, I kind of freak myself out with that one.

Andrea was assigned as my "guide" because your visibility is pretty much non-existent inside those suits. Andrea had to call out directions for where kids were coming up to hug me or take pictures.

One of the rules of wearing the suits was that you weren't allowed to keep one on for more than 30 minutes at a time because they are so hellishly hot. Luckily this was San Francisco, so it was a mild 65 degrees. It almost didn't matter, because I sweat through every suit I put on. Especially when they had me sit there for story time. Andrea said I left a big sweaty butt-mark when I got up. If I stayed standing and moving around it was tolerable, but any time I sat still for too long it got pretty uncomfortable. Now I'm back in Sunnyvale, and it's a balmy 90 degrees outside. I can only imagine what that suit would have been like in this heat.

Of course we had a changing-tent so that we didn't scar small children by pulling off a teddy bear's head in front of them. While I was changing in the tent, Andrea tried on one of the masks to check out the visibility.