Scenes from Carmel Valley and Carmel

On our recent visit to Carmel, we went on a hike in Garland Ranch in Carmel Valley. After that, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch at the Corkscrew Cafe. The cafe is located next to the Georis Winery tasting room and gift shop. The gift shop has a very eclectic selection of merchandise, including the Complete Petrosexual book. I can buy this used for a penny on Amazon, but B.E. won't allow it because he thinks it might give me ideas.

As usual, we stayed at the ever-so-pet-friendly Cypress Inn in Carmel. Here are four whippets lounging in their library. I believe their names are Archer, Buddy, Adam, and Sydney. I don't know which one is which.

Scenes from Cannery Row

We made a trip to Carmel-by-the-Sea this past weekend -- it's one of my favorite places on the planet. We first stopped off in Monterey and took a walk along the Fisherman's Wharf/Cannery Row walking/biking path and also had a nice lunch at the Trailside Cafe and Coffee House. The weather was just perfect and he water was just blue, blue, blue. The above photos were taken at various spots on the waterfront.

The Great Doggie Easter Egg Hunt of 2009

Once again, we went with Tomokee to the local doggie Easter egg hunt, benefiting the Palo Alto Animal services, and sponsored by our local Five Paw Bakery. Tomokee is a pro at this, since this is his third annual visit. This time, we decided to do a video -- seeing as this is a good geek opportunity to play with equipment and software.

My only objection to the video is that I look like an elderly person having balance issues. It must be due to the style (or lack thereof) of my pants.

Scenes from the dog park

The weather's been great -- it was time to take Tomokee (Mr. Loud) to the dog park.

Snow dog

We went on a snow shoeing trip up to the Lake Tahoe area, and we hiked the Castle Peak trail up to Castle Pass. This is from the same view as our summer hike, but now it's covered in snow.

Tomokee loves the snow -- here he is playing in the North Tahoe regional park, where we did a shorter snow shoeing trek the day before.

Sitting Pretty

We here at Chez Tomokee have been boosting the economy (someone's got to do it!) by buying a lot of new furniture to replace aging furniture. One of the pieces we are replacing is the hide-a-bed in the family room. We are replacing it for several reasons.
(1) We really don't need a hide-a-bed.
(2) It's just so OHBU (Old, Heavy, Big, and Ugly)
(3) It's never been very comfortable.
(4) Tomokee uses it as his primary sitting post in the family room, throws his ball at it, jumps onto and off of it, and has basically trashed it to the point that it needs to be burned.

Since we are replacing it, I wanted to find a new chair for Tomokee to use. There are lots of dog sofas out there, but they cost just as much as an inexpensive human armchair. It just happened that we found this inexpensive $99.99 new-not-donated armchair from the local GW of Los Altos, which is our local upscale Goodwill store. Tomokee seems to like it -- we put lots of stuff on the hide-a-bed to prevent him from using it and encourage him to try the new chair.

Another beach photo

The beach in January in Carmel-By-the-Sea was the prettiest I've ever seen it. Tomokee, as usual, is enjoying his beach time.