We left Seattle on Friday night: I had packed up the car much later than I'd planned, because the clothes dryer developed a lint clog and wouldn't dry the laundry in the anticipated timeframe. So in the dark and the rain, I packed up Finn's crate, our luggage, gifts and dog food, headed south to pick up Eric from work, and we headed out from there. I drove us from Seattle past Portland to Wilsonville, where we stayed the night. Finn was quite funny running around the room crouched low to the floor and sniffing everything.
Eric did his homework earlier and the week and had indentified off-leash parks for us to run Finn around in Wilsonville and Roseburg in Oregon, and Redding and Sacramento in California. The dog park in Wilsonville is a work in progress and was covered in mud -- not just wet soil, but that kind of mud that cakes and creates little snowshoes around your feet. Slippery and really fun to watch the dog slide around in. It was a good thing we brought an extra towel for Finn.
The rest of the trip was largely uneventful, except that we found that Finn--who otherwise seems to have gotten over his carsickness--really hates windy roads. I-5 over the Siskiyous had him panting and shaking, but not actually sick, fortunately. We pulled over in Hilt, California, to let Finn walk off his queasiness, but as soon as we hit the road again, Eric discovered three deer ticks on Finn, and one on himself. So we pulled off at the next exit for a tick check. None found this time, but in Redding, we picked up a flea comb, a concoction designed to calm the dog down, and some extra treats.
We drove through Sacramento (and nearly vomited at all of the new development in the north end, where we used to live), and veered to the east, towards the Sierra foothills. We travelled the historic Highway 49 through the foothills, then highway 4 to Arnold, our final destination, after some 14 hours on the road.
We rolled in late, but Zoe was waiting for us the next morning. She loved her new sushi pants!
A nice relaxing weekend was had by all... games of multiple solitaire, Booby Trap (below) and play with the baby....
Family tradition is to have dungeoness crab for christmas dinner, after which we opened gifts and generally sat around, fat and happy.
We headed for the bay area on Tuesday so Zoe and her parents could catch the red-eye to Boston. But first, Eric and Finn and I headed uphill to catch some serious snow time... It was Finn's first time bounding through more than the occassional three inches we get in Seattle...
He loved it. Can you tell?
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