Home again

We got back on Friday night after an incredible vacation in Jamaica. The weather was excellent, the food even better, and the seas were calm for our morning scuba dives. We met up with friends from Boston and Toronto and stayed pretty far away from the Internet.

When we picked up the boys, Audrey said that she wanted to keep them. This despite the fact that Sherman did his middle of the night howling and found his way up on the kitchen table. We can’t thank Audrey and Kevin enough. We didn’t worry about the boys at all and that made our trip all that much better.

The diving was utterly mediocre, except for the five dolphins that showed up in the dive…that I skipped.

Pushing 80°

We spent a glorious 4 days on Little Gasparilla Island, off the west coast of Florida. You have to take a ferry to the island and then ride around in a golf cart (fun!) to get to the beach. It rained the first day, then got progressively nicer.

The boys stayed with Courtneay and Lance, beagle Maggie and Emmett the toddler. Stanley was in toy heaven. We brought the pup tent and were told that Emmett would follow Stanley into it, then emerge triumphant.

Now it’s back to the grind.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I’ll be back on Thursday, January 2. Be safe, everyone!

9/99 B.W.A.T.G.

(Before we all turned gray.) I think Scooter is the real captain here.

Speaking of Scooter, we got him through these friends. Mary was a colleague of the woman who didn’t want Scooter anymore, and Joe is a colleague of Phillip’s. At the time they had three beagles of their own. Now they have three children and one non-beagle.

Dog paddle!

No problem!

Oh oh oh, we had such a wonderful time.  Judy and Cathy are flanking the other side of Hooper, one of the dive guys.  I didn’t bring my underwater camera because, frankly, the diving is nothing greater than mediocre.  But we had fun anyway.

The mornings and early afternoons were beautiful. (This, by the way, is my favorite shot from the whole trip.)

Some afternoons it rained so we sat out on the porch. Judy introduced me to this logic game called Kakuro (sort of like Sudoku) and I quickly became obsessed. (Second favorite.)

The west coast sunsets were nothing like the ones in New Jersey. (Third favorite.)

We celebrated our 22nd anniversary while we were there. See what I’ve had to live with for the past 22 years?

The boys had an equally wonderful time at Camp LaBolle. Audrey sent us emails and photos every day and I have to say that, while we missed them, we did not worry about them for ONE second. Audrey and Kevin plus Buddy and Holly took such great care of them. We’re looking forward to reciprocating next September unless of course we can get them sooner!

Florida

My parents moved to Florida while I was in college and I’ve spent many vacations in the Palm Beach / Boca Raton corridor. This was the first time I went to the west coast, and I just loved it. We went to this beautiful place called Little Gasparilla Island. It’s about 10 miles long and you have to take a ferry to get there. This is the bay that you cross and that’s the island in the distance.

Once you’re there you get around on golf carts. No golf course, just miles and miles of beautiful beaches. I was SO happy to be in the warm sunshine on the beach.

Parts of the beach are covered in shells and it’s impossible not to pick them up. There are also shark teeth to be found. You can find half a dozen in just a small area. They are old, as in millions of years.

You don’t see sunsets over on the east coast. We saw three gorgeous ones.

We went directly to Audrey’s house from the airport to pick up the boys. She wanted to borrow Sherm for a little longer and I told her that we’d trade for Buddy, but we ended up keeping our own beagles. Audrey said they were good boys, and that they’re welcome to come back when Phillip and I go to Jamaica in April. Thanks, Audrey, Kevin, Buddy and Holly!

Hard to breathe

The winner of the caption contest is Cathy, Gomez, Lily & Mr. Peabz for “Two Dog Couch. Humans optional.”

Too bad there’s not an app for this

My birthday is this week and last week I did my annual birthday swim: 100 yards X my age = 212 laps (3 miles). It was a cakewalk compared to our yard work this weekend. “Oh my aching back!” We spent a good part of each day (Phillip more than I) picking up branches and bringing them down to the road in both this small tractor trailer, and Phillip’s large car trailer. The town is going to pick them up. I unloaded maybe a third of this pile.

And Phillip did this entire one himself. He’d drive the car with the trailer into the wooded part of the yard. Very soon after, Stanley (and sometimes Sherman) would get in the backseat and wait the forty-five or so minutes it took to collect and load the trailer. So cute! They didn’t want to miss a road (or yard) trip. They’d ride down to the road and wait while he unloaded. Stanley had to bark at all cars and everyone who was walking along the canal. Sherman napped.

I envy Sherman’s ability to nap anywhere. Home or away!

Friends, now and forever

I’ve mentioned Cathy and Judy several times but I’m not sure if I’ve included their photos, so here they are! They were our “witnesses” at the VRC (Vow Renewal Ceremony). Cathy and Judy were of course the moms of Skipper.

And here is Skipper, along with Spenser, from exactly two years ago today.

Huey Dandelion Kneeland has no doubt met up with them at the Bridge. I’ve known Sue, Huey’s mom, for many years. She very generously and skillfully handled reader questions to Beagles on the Web (before I gave the site to Caron). Sue, your whole family is in my thoughts. May Huey rest in peace.

We’re home!

First off, many, many thanks to Courtneay, Lance and Maggie for taking such good care of the boys. They were waiting when we got home on Friday night, and while they were just a tad confused for a day, as you can see everything and everyone is back to normal. Second, I just loved Courtneay’s photo of Sherman on the laptop and it will definitely go on the 2012 calendar! And third, I’m so sorry for Sue K. and her family on the loss of Huey Dandelion. I’ll post a photo of him this week.

Guess who? Is he a manly scuba diver or what?

This is me and that’s a sea cucumber. They sit on the sand at the bottom with their relatives the starfish. Sea cucumbers are amazingly soft.

Thursday was our 20th anniversary and we renewed our vows on the beach. It was really lovely. Our friends Cathy, Judy, Ron and Sharon all attended, along with the people who were sunning themselves near us. We had a lavish Jamaican fruitcake with champagne after the ceremony. And now we enter the next 20 years! I wonder if that’s when he’ll learn to replace the empty toilet paper roll?