The Wonders of Oceanside

I'm super excited that I have Nessie for two weeks and on Sunday I wanted to take her out on an adventure rather than dealing with dog beach and all that comes with that (crazy dogs, long drive, and a bath afterwards).  I did a quick Google search for trails in Oceanside and found a great place to check out - Lake Calavera.  Now technically, the lake and parts of the trails are in Carlsbad, but why split hairs! I packed a little day pack with two bottles of water (one for me and one for Nessie of course) and my camera (I am 50% Asian, so I cannot go anywhere without my camera).  We hopped in the Forester and hit the road.  It was a quick 15 min trip down the 78 to College Blvd and we found our way to one of the trail heads.  The weather was perfect again and Nessie was super excited to just be out of the apartment!  We ventured around the park for about an hour and explored different trails and saw the lake.  About 10 minutes into our walk we had an unfortunate run-in with a rattlesnake!  Thank goodness we heard the rattler, or we would have kept on walking.  We carefully routed a WIDE path around the snake and headed around the lake.  Unfortunately for Nessie, this little sighting meant that I kept her on the leash the entire time.  Normally I let her roam around because she will stay close by and respond to voice commands, but I didn't want her battling any snakes!  We had a great time and it definitely wore Nessie out!

Nessie Sighting!

The Legendary Monster is Spotted!!!

Photo journalist Jessica snapped a few photos of the beast surfacing amongst some ducks in the pond across the street. Nessie loves the water almost as much as her tennis ball. Combine the two and it's game on.

Nessie was chasing after her ball when all of a sudden she spotted water and as always felt obligated to go for a swim. Surprisingly the ducks didn't seem to mind and even cheered her on.

Excellent! Now everyone is heading in the right direction.

Who knew ducks and retriever could play together. Some theories floating around include:

a. Ducks sense Retriever's love for water. Sharing that same love, they accept Retriever into their Duck club.

b. Animated animal movies are true! They are actually already friends and get together everyday, talk and have adventures when the humans aren't home.

c. Ducks outnumber Retriever 5-to-1.

Another Trip to Dog Beach

The rain finally left San Diego (at least for now) and we had a chance to take Nessie down to Dog Beach, her favorite place in the world! She met her buddy Teton, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, down there with his owner, Leonie. She had a wonderful time despite the somewhat chilly weather!

While at dog beach, Nessie always finds other dogs to play with, but her primary focus is the tennis ball! Here are some of the other dogs that were out there today (including Teton).

Of course, before leaving dog beach, Nessie has to dry herself off with a vigorous shake!

My New Test Subject

With my brand new Canon Rebel that my WONDERFUL husband got me for Christmas, I've been stalking Nessie! Lucky for me, she is a very cooperative subject.

Enjoying her bone!

Sleeping...she's pretty good at that!

The artistic puppy!

Thoughtful Nessie...

Isn't Life Tough

Life is pretty tough when you're a three-year old Golden Retriever. You're constantly having to find places to take naps and ways to pull the blankets up over yourself (which is hard when you don't have thumbs!).

It's also incredibly difficult to find places where you can get adequate shut eye without being disturbed.

Plus, people are always taking pictures of you while you're trying to sleep - don't they understand that the flash wakes me up???

It really is tough being SOOOOO cute!

Black Mountain

Today we took a trip down to Black Mountain, where we hiked the Miner's Ridge Loop. The weather was a bit chilly and overcast, but it turned out to be a great day. Nessie was able to run around off-leash (breaking park rules...haha) and had a blast.

The Beach is Open!!!

Now that labor day is over, Nessie can finally run around down at the beach. Here are some pics of her enjoying the California life!

Nessie Catches the Fashion Bug

With longer hours and increased commute times now that we are in San Diego, Nessie has more time to herself during the day to do some of the activities she likes to do. She is fitting in well on the West coast and her number one activity is napping.

She also has access to the backyard during the day and enjoys the 70 degree weather by sunning herself and chasing lizards. Nessie has also taken an interest in clothes and has been eyeing one of Jessica's blue tank tops. She recently modeled it for us.

Swimming Days of Summer

Sometimes when it's really hot out, my parents will take me down to the Middle Patuxent River for a nice refreshing swim! Today I was lucky enough to get to go for a quick dip in the water, which was a great relief from the house - which is 95 degrees right now! I'm probably the best swimmer that I know of and I absolutely love the water. Here are some pictures of me splashing about!!!

The Loch Nessie

This is Nessie's namesake...and for all you doubters out there, yes the Loch Ness monster is real.

As promised yesterday, I broke out the external harddrive to find some pictures of Nessie when she was just a puppy - and boy was she cute!

She was a small terror for a while and as expected used those vicious little puppy teeth to get herself into some trouble. But it was all worth it and she's a wonderful,

energetic dog.

The picture of Nessie with Sean is actually on the day we picked her up, he was on duty. Nessie and I ventured to Ft. Meade so she could meet her dad! Not sure whether she's excited about moving to California or not, but she's gotta go either way. She will be spending a month with her grandparents and their FIVE dogs!

Nessie has a younger sister, Grayson - a small gray cat that we adopted. When we first got Grayson, Nessie was almost a year old and was pretty sure that Grayson would want to play together all the time....not so much. They get along pretty well though, and I think that Grayson misses Nessie when she's away at day camp. (I'll find some pictures of her later. You know how it is, you never take as many pictures of the second child!)