Michigan Adventure

Hello Furiends,

Over the Labor Day Holiday we went hiking in Michigan.  We discovered that Motel 6 is not the only pet friendly chain.  Red Roof Inn allows dogs to spend the night too.  We tried out the one in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  It was very nice and clean.  We would definitely stay with them again. 

We were going to go to the beach, but quickly learned the beach is not the place to go on the "last" summer holiday.  We gladly found much less crowded pet friendly options.  Which were places we had on our to do list anyway.  We are so very happy with the parks we explored and did not miss going to the beach.

First stop was the Park County Dog Park.  It was fun and we had the whole place to ourselves.  Really, who wouldn't love to go enjoy a local dog park on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon?  We enjoyed it and had an off leash opportunity to take care of business after our car ride.

Next stop Stu Visser Trails.  There was really green thick water here, but the trails were really nice and covered so we didn't get any bugs which makes Mom and Dad happy.

 

Time to head toward our hotel in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  On the way we found a Big Boy restaurant where Mom and Dad pigged out on burgers and milkshakes.  Of course, we got burgers too.

Time to get a good nights sleep so we can hike, sniff, pee, sniff, pee and pee all day tomorrow.

 Our walkies were delayed while Mom and Dad piged out again, but this time it was breakfast at Denny's.  We got eggs and bacon, yumm!

Today promises lots of new explorations like Millennium Park in Grand Rapids.  It even has a beach area for humans.  I'm still unsure why anyone would get enjoyment out of willingly jumping into water, but then again humans do some silly things.  This park has paved trails around pounds and the lake.  

 It has a bridge that goes over a road and you can watch the cars drive by underneath your feet.  On that bridge is where I met a new little teeny tiny furiend.

 He was very friendly and allowed me to gently say hello to him.  I call him Wooly Worm.  Mom says as a child she was told by her parents and grandparents you can tell what the winter is going to be like by the color of the wooly worm.  She thinks this color means a mild winter. 

Next park is Hemlock Crossing.  This park has natural trails and was very peaceful and has a lot of trails to choose from.  We really liked this park.  Dirt and leaves beneath your toes is much more comfortable than cement or gravel.

 Lets go this way

 Time for a little rest to take in the beautiful scenery and quiet peacefulness of the woods.

 After all the hype we had heard about Holland, Michigan's Dutch Village we had to stop and sniff around.

 No worries we did NOT go sniff around the chocolate shop.  All kinds and any kinds of chocolate is a NO, NO for all doggies.

There were some really pretty flowers that offered a great photo shoot opportunity.

Who's the most beautiful Queen in the land?...........................ME! Who else?  :)

The Dutch Village wasn't very appealing to us so we decided to wonder on before we lost too much more day light and take in another park.

Our feetsies loved this park too.  Riley Trails is another park with natural wooded dirt path trails.

And lots of peemail.

 That must have been a very tall doggie.  They left an interesting message.  Mom made me leave before I got to the end of the story.  That was just rude.  I would never interrupt her ;)  OK so maybe I do, but only when I want to eat, go potty, play, cuddle. You know all the important things.

Whenever there is a surface of just about any kind I can do my "table" command I show Mom I still know what it means.  I learned "table" during our agility classes.  Mom thinks it's fun to get pictures of me atop different objects.

After an exhausting day of hiking and posing for photos we stopped at this cute little apple orchard and restaurant, Crane's Pie Pantry Restaurant and Bakery.  We did not have a meal there, but Mom and Dad tried a slice of pie, a sundae, apple butter gelato, and apple cider donuts.  Here's a link to their menu if anyone would like to view it.





We got to try something very special that we had never ever tasted before.....Gelato.  It's amazing and so very yummy.  It got all paws up from both of us.

I think this was a pawsome adventure and would gladly go again if Mom and Dad ever wants to take us back there. 

Licks & Wags,
Bella

Vacation 2011 ~ Durant S.P. & Hemlock S.P. & Barber Park & Asheville, NC & Cherokee, NC

I hope no one is getting bored yet with our vacation posts.  I am trying to keep the words brief and a limited number of photos.  We just had such a wonderful time and I'm so very excited to share our adventures with someone.  Most people we know wouldn't even take their dogs with them let alone listen to our stories.  I will try to wrap it all up within in this post and at least one more. 

We have discovered we are living in the wrong location.  We have seen so many dog friendly places and parks. Our home town has nothing like this.  Every park we've been to has been huge with acres of land and miles of trails.  All of them have been dog friendly...pawsome.

The first park we stopped at was Durant State Park in Raleigh, NC:

The fall colors are gorgeous!

Next stop to stretch the Queen Emma legs was Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve in Cary, North Carolina:

Then is was on to Barber Park in Greensboro, NC:

Vacation 2011 ~ Jockey's Ridge State Park and Cape Hatteras National Seashore

Our beach adventures were just beginning.  We've been to sand dunes, but these dunes were huge!  Dad liked to tackle them straight on and get them done and over with but Mom preferred a gradual approach and even insulted  me.  I was being a very good girl, what the heck.  She asked Dad why he had Bella as she didn't really think it through when she asked Dad to take Bella so she could take pictures.  You see sometimes Bella likes to pull on the leash a little more than I do and everyone wants to walk with Bella when going up hill.  If you notice in some of the pictures I'm actually walking myself with he leash trailing along behind leaving a snake like path in the sand.  Mom said that's in case we get lost we can follow my trail back.  We had Jockey's Ridge S.P.  all to our selves.  It was absolutely magnificent and wonderful.  So very peaceful and enjoyable and fun.

You do however have to be very watchful for these small plant things growing in the sand because they have very sharp prickly burrs on them.  I got one stuck in my toe.  Mom noticed right away I was walking a bit odd and them limping and she hurried to get it out for me.  She knows exactly how painful they are because she stepped on one barefoot at the rental house inside and so did Bella.  Bella cried like a little baby.  Not me, I was brave and only limped a little.  Once it was out I was totally fine and back to our hike.

Here are some pictures from Jockey's Ridge State Park:

Then it was on to Cape Hatteras National Seashore:

This is where we really got to let loose and romp and play in the waves.  Pea had never been on a vacation before and sure hadn't ever seen the ocean and it was a delight to watch all her many expressions.  I think we all had an expanded range of facial expressions and head tilts.

After our hike at the dunes and our romp in the ocean we were off to the pet store for some shopping.

Here is me shopping at Holistic Pet Shop:

I think this is one of our favorite pet stores.  Too bad it's so very far away from home.  Another favorite of ours you will see in a upcoming post called River Dog in Tennessee.  Here at Holistic Pet Shop is where they had the friendly little kittens that tried to touch my nose with their tiny paws.  If you like food there are a lot of treats to choose to from.  Mom got us some canned Evo venison and it was yummy.  We also got a huge fleece rope toy with a tennis ball attached to it and Plato salmon strips to train Sweet Pea's recall command.  That will be her really special treat she only gets while learning "come".   Mom and Bella's favorite part of our stop here was watching the Rottweiler playing with the huge jolly ball for horses.  She/He was like the energizer bunny running and pushing that big blue ball round, and round, and round the yard.  It looked like wonderful fun.  It looks best played in an area similar to this where you have walls to bounce the ball off of.

The next day was not as jam packed with hikes and romps but it was still very enjoyable.  Our EmmaMobile sprung a leak and had to have its water pump replaced.  While it was away being repaired we spent the day lounging on the deck in the sunshine and Mom got some laundry done and her and Dad just relaxed.  It was nice not racing around trying to squeeze as many things into a day as possible.  We didn't view this unexpected repair as an inconvenience.  We think it was a nice blessing.  It made us slow down and allowed us to enjoy our rental home, the deck, and time with each other just relaxing.

Here we are just chill'n:

We got the EmmaMobile back in time to get in another walk at Jockey's Ridge State Park and today we walked the Nature Trail.

Stay tuned for more adventures.

To Be Continued.............

Emma