To Our Own Tune

In February, Dan and I took an overnight trip to Lake Tahoe so we could go dog sledding. I imagine that many of you are scoffing at us and wondering why we didn’t go skiing or snowboarding or something else active. Well, first because we don’t own a lot of the gear you need to do those things – when we’ve gone in the past, we’ve borrowed a lot from friends and family. And also, because Tahoe has gotten next to zero snow this year (until this weekend, of course). Skiing around clumps of grass isn’t really my thing.

Anyway, one of the ski resorts offers a space (their golf course) to a local dog sledding company to offer rides to folks over the winter months. I’ve been wanting to go since I read about a local popular blogger going for a ride with them a couple of years ago, and since we had nothing to do over the long weekend, we relatively spontaneously took ourselves up to Tahoe. [Just so you know, about halfway there, Dan realized that he forgot our camera. When we were on our way to go dog-friggin-sledding, which is you know, totally normal and something we do every weekend. As a bonus, at this point in the drive, we were already out in the middle of nowhere, so it took us 40 minutes to get to a Staples, where they were conveniently having a sale on cameras and all things camera related. We had already been talking about replacing our camera, so this was quite serendipitous.]

The actual dog sledding was actually really peaceful. Dan and I were in a sled under a blanket (actually, two, because I’m a huge wuss about being cold) and we had a team of 10 dogs pulling us for almost an hour. The guy who started the company breeds all the dogs (they have 98 Alaskan Huskies, not Siberian Huskies as are often portrayed in movies) and actually builds the sleds.  Apparently, Dan thought we would be doing something closer to the movies, dog sledding in the woods, in between trees and up and down hills and such, which is not what happens on a snow covered golf course. But, regardless, it was nice – I would love to do it again somewhere a bit less groomed/tame.

Our adventure in pictures:

The dogs before we set off. Five teams of dogs/sleds started out at the same time and the dogs were SO EXCITED. They literally could not contain their joy and so there was lots of jumping and barking and wriggling.

Our view during the ride. The mountains make it look like we are indeed out in the wilderness. Also, this was the same view for whenever the dogs needed to pee, which they did frequently WHILE running. Quite the multi-taskers they are.

Two of our sled dogs waiting while our lead dog takes a poo break. Apparently, he refuses to poop on the run, which makes total sense to me. If anyone is wondering about their weight (I definitely was while they were pulling my butt around) but our guide reassured me that they are naturally pretty lean dogs, they eat lots and each do a limited number of sled runs a day. No need to call Sarah McLaughlin and her sad ASPCA commercials.  

What we looked like from afar (this is another sled team, who was out at the same time we were).

On a break, at about the halfway point. Dogs being dogs.

Our guide taking our photo. The sled was basically a cocoon. You can barely see the sled behind us, which was a dad and his son – during the break, dad was totes checking his phone/email. Quality time.

The view from our guide’s POV.

The dogs taking a turn, best action shot of the day.

After our ride, we got to meet all the dogs, I’m sad I don’t remember their names. They were pretty awesome though, as you can tell from my expression.

Fin.

I’m on a ROLL with the accomplishing of things lately. Considering that I am now on a countdown of less than a year (eek!) to finish as much as possible on my list, I need to keep this roll going.

During the first week of October, Dan and I took a trip to Boston to attend a wedding (of course). Because New England is one of the areas of the country I haven’t explored at all, we took advantage and got to 4 states within the week we were there. One (Massachusetts) I had been to previously, but Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island were all new to me. Adding in Arizona, which I visited in June, I have visited 4 new states, bringing my total up to 33.

On our trip, we had taken the red eye to Boston in order to maximize our vacation time. As we landed around 8 am, and wouldn’t be able to check into where we were staying until the afternoon, we decided we would rent a car and drive up to Maine – which only takes about 90 minutes from Boston. This completely blew my mind – after living in California, I forgot how quickly you can drive through states on the East Coast.

Our drive to Maine was SUPER foggy, rainy, and chilly which felt…appropriate. As we only had a few hours in Maine, my main goals were to see the Atlantic, wander a cute little town and eat a whole mess of Maine lobster. We had breakfast at a little cafe in Ogunquit, Maine (lobster benedict – check!) and then drove up to Kennebunkport. We wandered through town, drove around to see the lovely views, saw the Bush family compound, crashed after a night of travel and took a nap in the car, and then ate at a restaurant that was basically a shack on a fishing pier (lobster stew and lobster roll – check check). Maine is awesome.

On the way back from Maine to Boston, we drove through New Hampshire. Feeling like we couldn’t just drive through and count it as a visit, we pulled off in Portsmouth and did a fair amount of driving around the town and exploring. We decided that if we lived anywhere in New England ever, we would definitely return to visit, shop and eat. Super cute town.

We spent the next three nights in Boston – lots of wandering and exploring, LOTS of eating, visited the Sam Adams Brewery, and spent a day touring Cambridge/Harvard. I really liked both Cambridge and Boston – super walkable, nice public spaces, good public transit. I bet that we will be back.

Following that, we drove about an hour south of Boston to Rehoboth, MA for the wedding, and stayed 3 nights in that area. 2 of those days we ended up in Rhode Island…who knew there were 2 days worth of things to do in tiny Rhode Island?

We spent some time in Providence wandering around Brown’s campus and also driving through RISD (the two campuses are basically connected), and then spent some time in Providence itself. It’s not my favorite town ever ever, but it was more ‘metropolitan’ than I expected. It’s sort of a little town that is trying to be a big city. I did really enjoy the Brown University campus though – it was a much more open, inviting space than Harvard’s campus. More students were out and enjoying the weather, and while it still had an old, historical, New England feel, it didn’t feel as…snooty pants as Harvard.**

Our second day in Rhode Island, we drove down to Newport, which was apparently The Hamptons of the early 1900s. Super rich families (e.g. The Vanderbilts) built what they called ‘cottages’ in Newport and these ‘cottages’ are now open to the public to tour. The Breakers was one of the Vanderbilts’ summer cottages and it’s a 90 room super-uber-mansion. It’s totally unreal. We went in to tour, and so many people tour the house that they give you one of those personal mp3 players so you can self guide your way through the house, which took at least 90 minutes, and that was just through the public spaces. Ri.dic.u.lous.

Below: The back of  the ‘cottage’ – on the middle level, in the archway second from the right, next to the column? That little blip is a person. Just a reference for scale.

**Harvard does win some points for their first year student dining hall, pictured below. That business is straight out of Hogwarts.

Well played Harvard, well played.