Day 6 - Saturday Fun Day

Saturday was the climax of the trip for Abby.  This day is called the fun day for all guide dog trainers and puppy raisers.  I've never been so impressed to be on a campus in San Rafael - Terra Linda and see hundreds of dogs and their trainers.  Every single dog, without exception, was well mannered, obedient, non aggressive and not one dog barking at another dog.  It was like a huge family all gathered together to enjoy a fun time with the guide dogs.  There were booths that you could buy things and they served us a delicious lunch.  I don't know how many people and dogs were there but I would guess hundreds.  We got to see the puppy trucks and the new buildings for the puppies and
recalled dogs for their final training before being assigned to a non-sighted person or maybe assigned to another type of service dog.

 These are the padded and air conditioned puppy kennels that the puppies travel in to their perspective trainers.  The trucks stop every couple of hours to let the puppies out and run around and exercise.  The kennels are large enough that they can put more than one puppy in a kennel.

 It was a great experience to be there and see more about the program and the training of these amazing dogs.  While we were there, Annie got a happy surprise call from Emmi.  Timing was perfect and Lynda was able to visit with Emmi for a long time.  I even got to talk to her for a minute.  She sounded great.

 We left the campus about 2:00 and headed to the airport.  Annie got a little frustrated trying to find the airport and trying to find the car rental return.  But everything turned out perfect and we made our flight without a hitch!

 A picture of the usual fog hanging over San Francisco.

 We landed safely in Salt Lake.  Happy to be home and filled with memories of a life time!  Annie figured she drove 1,182 miles on that incredible trip.  

 Thanks, Annie, for your amazing planning of this trip, for driving all those miles safely and for you and Abby creating a trip of a life time and letting me be a part of it!  Loved every minute of it and especially laughing so hard so many times that I couldn't breathe!!!  Love you both.

Day 5 - Friday

Our first stop was the San Francisco Civic Center (after we found our reserved and pre-paid parking place - thanks again to Annie's expert planning.  She had also pre bought tickets for the tour bus and we climbed right on and, of course, ended up on the top of the bus (where I might add, we nearly froze to death!)  The tour took us all around San Francisco and across the Gold Gate Bridge.  It was almost fogged in, incredibly windy and colder than a witches kiss!  Even Abby and Annie were freezing.  But we survived it and had a great time touring the city.

 This picture is of Digby on their laps.  Digby was always warm.  In fact, I'm guess he loved the temperature.

 Annie had her fortune told and she was told she was beautiful and the best trip planner in the whole world!

 Abby's fortune told her that she had an incredible future ahead of her with lots of great adventures.

 Abby going for another non-penny.

 After we toured the city, we went to Pier 39 and ran into a group of guide dog trainers that were in the area for Fun Day on Saturday.

 It was now lunch time and we had not eaten breakfast so we wandered into Hard Rock Café and had a delicious lunch.

 This was my plate of nachos.  Holy Cow!!!  They were absolutely delicious.  Wish I could have eaten them all but that just wasn't possible.

As we were walking the area we walked by a bakery.  The smell was wonderful and the temptation to go in and buy something was huge, but I knew that the bread wouldn't keep until we got home so had to keep walking.  Look at the fun creations they made out of bread dough.

We wandered in and out of shops and found some great shirts and sweat shirts and bags.  What fun we had shopping.  Even found a hat for Digby!

We next went to Ghirardelli Square and wandered around there a bit.  Stopped and had a hot fudge sunday and bought some chocolates.

We went back to the car and finished out the long day by driving down the Russian Hill (crookedest street in the world.  And from there back across the Golden Gate Bridge.

This is a picture looking up the crooked street.

 Golden Gate Bridge.  First time it wasn't fogged over.

End of an incredible day.  Great picture of Annie and Abby!

Day 4 continued . . .

We, I think by accident, came across a place called Garberville.  It was up in the woods, I think along Highway 1.  There was this huge tourist trap store that was full of all kinds fun things to buy and great picture taking spots.  Here are a few.  You can see we had a great time and laughed and laughed.

W.e did buy a few things and then back in the car and headed for Fort Bragg along with the beach that is know for broken glass, called (I think) the Glass Beach.  Knowing me, I'm probably almost right, close, but not quite right.  :_)Notice the black sand.

 Again, the beach was cool and foggy.  Temperature was in the low 60's.  Chilly, brrrrr

 Cute little varmint of some kind.  He wasn't afraid of anyone.  I couldn't believe how close he let me get to him before he scurried into his burrow.

 Cute picture of Abby.  She LOVED being on the beach.  Didn't care how cold it was.  She was happy to be there.

 The glass on the beach has been so picked over and taken as souvenirs by travelers that you really have to hunt to find any.  This was some of the little tiny pieces of glass that we were able to find.

One last picture.  We were traveling some distance to get to our Thursday night San Francisco motel that Abby decided to feed Digby in the car while we were traveling.  It actually worked out perfectly.  I don't think he spilled a drop of food or a drop of water.  What a good puppy.

We reached our destination safely, thanks to Annie's expert driving, and settled in for a good nights sleep.

Day 4

Thursday we continued our journey to the Avenues of the Giants.  The trees were amazing.  .Located in Miranda, California.

We next hit Myers Flat where it is totally a tourist trap where you can pay $10.00 to drive through a three.  We all decided why not.  Probably never be back this way again so we did it.

 There is more to this day but I'm tired of blogging.  I'll finish this up tomorrow.  To be continued!