Mail from The Duchess!

I got an email from my Duchess this morning. She misses me!

Dear Emma Rose,

We are having a good time and the weather has been wonderful. Gracie arrived on schedule and we have been on the lake every day.

The first day we found a nice secluded stretch of beach and spent the whole day playing in the water. When it was time to leave we discovered the boat had a dead battery. You should have seen us trying to flag down another boat for help. It was almost like Gilligan's Island.... Too funny, Emma. Anyway, eventually we were rescued and all was well.

Yesterday the Duke's truck broke down and today the toilet is plugged up in the RV. Like I said, we are having a great time! :)

Lady Cindy brought a surprise guest this year. His name is Hunter and he is a "fetcher". I have only seen him sleeping one time in five days! (We have a very poor internet connection so you will have to wait until I get home to see pictures of him. Sorry!)

Give Sir Bear and Lady Laura my love. I miss you terribly and can't wait to get home.

Love,

The Duchess

An Awesome Award

We are so honored! Our friends over at Life With Dogs have presented us with this Gold Hydrant Award! Be sure to visit them and check out their "Friday Five", you'll be glad you did. I can't wait until the Duchess finds out about this - she will be so excited!


P.S. I found the password - but don't tell! I am not supposed to be blogging while the Duchess is on vacation!!!

Stub Stewart State Park

We went camping over the weekend. There was a bunch of people there, but not very many dogs. The people had fun but Sir Bear and I were pretty bored. However, the kids were cuddly and we really liked that!

This girlie is named Rowdy.

She's a sweetheart.

This is Missy. She's a very busy girl.

Always in a hurry. . .

And she can jump!

Ohhh! If you rub my belly like that . . .

I will forever adore you!!!!

This young lady was a bit nervous around me. I promised her I wouldn't bite!

I think kids are so fun!

This young man is going to be a Veterinarian someday.

He is a lover of all animals.

Sir Bear was not letting go of a good thing here!

Thursday the Duke and Duchess are off on another adventure to Lake Roosevelt in Washington State. Lady Laura is coming to stay with me and Sir Bear. We love Lady Laura. I don't know how much blogging I will get to do while the Duchess is gone. She has the password, you know!

Maybe I can con her out of it so I can let you know how much fun we are having with Lady Laura. I will try. . .

The New Border Collie

While out and about yesterday, the Duke and Duchess stopped at a garage sale. The sign said "tools", and since the Duke is known as the "tool man" around these parts, they just had to stop and check things out.

The Duchess was not really interested until she caught a glimpse of something black and white out of the corner of her eye. She made a beeline to the other side of the yard and found to her joy and amazement a very small Border Collie. When asked if the pup had a name, the owner looked at the Duchess like she had lost her marbles. It was obvious that this little guy needed rescuing and the Duchess had the Duke convinced in no time at all. The man wanted next to nothing for the cuddly little guy and fortunately the Duchess had enough cash on her to seal the deal.

No sooner had they gotten him into the car than he was officially named "Jake".



When they got him home Sir Bear and I had a good sniff, to see what this fuss was all about.

Hey! This guy might be fun to play with!

Ummm . . .this might be going a bit too far. . .

You know, this is not exactly what I had in mind when I said I wanted someone to play with. Maybe the Duchess has lost her marbles!!! (Still, 25 cents for a Border Collie, even if it is a toy, is a pretty good deal!)

Vacation at Crater Lake - part 2

While out and about one day we walked through another campground and saw this deer in a campsite. We all thought he was a yard ornament because he stood so still. Finally he wiggled an ear and the Duchess started taking pictures. Since he was in the shade the photo is dark. Hope you can see him.

This is our campsite. We are on the right and our friends are on the left.

There were some seriously big pine cones there.

I would not want one of these to fall on my head!

So much water. . . so little time!





The pretty river.




This is a thunder cloud. So beautiful and fluffy.
It is hard to imagine the wrath it brings.
We had thunder storms and wild fires brought on by these beauties.






I Rock! (that's a joke, get it?)

My Duke was so patient with me.

He always let me get my fill of the icy water.

We met this adorable girlie on one of our walks.

Her name is Abby and she is 8 months old.

The Duchess really wanted to bring her home!!!

My roaring river again.

Still "rocking" out!

The Duchess says when this photo is enlarged it is breath-taking.

I think that's because she is my biggest fan!

We climbed down a mountain to get to these waterfalls.

Even the Duchess says it was worth the effort.

We all got wet from the mist,

which was heavenly because it was soooo hot outside.

Our friend Greg looking at the falls.

Sir Bear was having a great day!

Another view of Crater Lake.

And another . . .

A good time was had by all!

Thank you for sharing our vacation with us.

I will leave you with a Royal Smile!!!

Kisses,

Vacation at Crater Lake - Part 1

When planning this trip the Duchess kept asking “What are we going to do at Crater Lake for eight days?” “This is a National Forest – don’t they have hiking trails everywhere?” “Seriously! Do you think they have a gift shop?” “You know I don’t hike – don’t even ASK!” And on it went….

The Duchess does not hike. She considers any path that is not paved and level a hiking trail. Besides that, she was worried about the wildlife. Crater Lake is well known for the Black Bears and Cougars that roam freely into campgrounds and tourist areas. And then the Duke, silly man, told her that more pets die at Crater Lake each year than humans because they get too close to the edge. My poor Duchess. She was a borderline basket-case when we started out.

The drive was long but uneventful for me and Sir Bear. The Duke and Duchess, however, were in a state of anxiety because of something called a “check engine light” in the truck. No worries! The air conditioning was working fine!

When we finally reached our campground it turned out to be about 28 miles from Crater Lake. Very nice, all paved and level, a short “hike” to the Rogue River, and NO WILD ANIMALS! (Chipmunks, squirrels, a few small Lizards, a thousand mosquitoes, some yellow jackets and one scorpion-YIKES!) All was good.

For the next seven days, in record breaking heat, we got the Duchess to go hiking EVERY day! Nope, I’m not kidding. And she was a real trooper. It is amazing what that woman will go through to get a photograph! Who knew?

There are too many pictures for one post so I will save some for next time. Hope you enjoy them!


In my previous post I showed you two pictures of Crater Lake. The first one shows Wizard Island and the second one shows Phantom Ship. The following picture explains about Phantom ship, if you are interested. Just click on it to enlarge so you can read it.




This picture, when enlarged, shows the "observation room" that people can go into to look out over the lake. The Duke went in - the Duchess, being terrified of heights, stayed as far away as possible using the excuse that she had to take care of me and Bear! She wouldn't let us anywhere near the edge at any time. There are no fences, just sandy cliffs that go almost straight down. It was very scary!

Also in Crater Lake National Park is The Pinnacles.

A very strange sight indeed. This tells about them.

And here are just a few of them. They are enormous.

We saw scenes like this one almost everywhere we hiked.

And I found out that I like water when I can play in it!!!

It was so fun to climb on the rocks.

This place is called "The Boulders", I wonder why?

We hiked a long trail to see these big rocks on the river.

There were lot's of them.

Did I mention that I like water now?

Burrrrrrr, it was really cold, but fun!

Sir Bear found out that he liked it too!

He wasn't to thrilled about the rocks though.

We saw a lot of this.

And I got a bit of agility practice in while hiking through the forest.

This one I had to have some help with.

It was WAY up there. Too high for me to reach.

This sign tells about the Rogue River.

That's the river I played in every day.

This is more of the river. It was truly beautiful.

The Caves were really neat, but we had to look at them from a bridge.

It had a really good railing for the Duchess to hold on to!

Here is one of the caves.

Tomorrow or the next day I will post some more pictures for you.

There must be more of me somewhere in all those files!!!