While swimming laps at the pool I bumped into Lyla’s mom, well not actually bumped into, we were properly social distanced. I mentioned that Stacey and Luce were gong to meet me in the park afterward and Lyla was welcome to join. At first it was just the three of us and Luce was having fun playing “stick”.
Then Luce had a visitor, his friend Lyla. She was like “That a pretty nice stick you got there, mind if I join you?”
Luce is always willing to share. Especially with Lyla.
They even played a little on the run with it.
Finally, Luce got a little tired out and had to take a rest. Lyla was like, “c’mon Luce, lets keep playing”.
We all had such a great time in Arizona. Very special thanks to Max’s parents for being such amazing hosts and taking us to see so many things while we were there. As they say, all great things must come to an end. Luce did amazing through out the trip, especially going through the airports. Trainer George would have been very proud to see him successfully hold his down-stay while I went through the scanner and then recall perfectly through the scanner when the TSA agent had me do so. Especially with allof the noise, commotion, and people all around. After all of that it was time to head home so here is Stacey and Luce making their way through the terminal in San Jose.
Luce was very happy to do some exploring in and around Oak Creek which was just behind our hotel. He kind of treats any large freshwater body as a giant waterbowl which might not have been the best thing this time. More on that later.
The water was fairly cold but since it was not that deep, it was still OK to walk/wade through. Of course Luce could have stayed in the creek all day.
As those of you that know him are well aware, Luce is not a big fan of hot weather. Normally, Arizona in October is not too hot but this year was not that way. Luce eventually determined that the hotel room was not so bad afterall.
Then he discovered the large shower which probably had an even cooler surface temperature, at least until Luce got there. He tends to warm up whatever he comes in contact with.
After a long day of travel, Luce had enough of being all cooped up and wanted to be outside. It was probably a little warmer than he would have preferred, but it was better than the alternative
Then we got to go on a little walk around the place so he was very happy then.
Luce made his second flight today on a flight from San Jose to Phoenix. This time he traveled in the passenger compartment. Here he is checking in.
Here he is coming down the jetway
Luce settled in just fine once on the plane. Take off seemed to confuse him a little as did the banking turn after take off. Once we leveled off, he seemed to be just fine. We had the bulkhead seats and due to Covid, we were the only ones in the row so there was more than enough room for our “cane grande”, Luce
We had a very unusual day today with a combination of a heavy marine cloud layer that was covered by a heavy layer of smoke from the forest fires here in Northern California. It was dark all day with orange sunlight. Here is Luce out on the driveway and he seems confused as it is 2:00PM in the afternoon but seems like twilight. Just to be clear, there were no filters applied to this photo and the sky was much more orange than what appears here.
Today, we were finally allowed back into our house after being evacuated for a week and a day. Luce Settled right back in. The air quality is still not good as the fire is still burning and keeping smoke in the air.
As some of you may know, we were evacuated for a week due to the CZU August Complex Lightning Fire that destroyed almost 1000 homes in the Santa Cruz Mountains. At the worst of it, the fireline was about 3.5 miles from our house. We spent most of the time at a Marriott Residence Inn in Los Altos. It was pretty nerve racking to say the least. The hotel was great and were very flexible. They offered a special rate to evacuees and waived the dog fee. Here is Luce blowing off a little steam:
After all that excitement, it was time for some well deserved rest
Special thanks a thousand time over to Cal Fire in getting control of the fire with 1/4 the needed resources to start with due to all the other fires at the same time. Also to the Santa Cruz County Sherriff’s office for patrolling in dangerous air quality conditions to keep our communities safe while we were away.
This is a site dedicated to the best dogs ever. Of course we are referring to Bernese Mountain Dogs. Obviously this is an extremely biased opinion but we don’t care, this is our site.
