dog days of summer: heading home

Pirate could sense it was time to pack up and start driving back home. But before we got back to Illinois, we made a few stops in Iowa: we saw some glorious friends and visited the American Gothic House and Museum to recreate and update that iconic image. Pirate got a new back to school collar, so the Dog Days of Summer 2009 are officially over.

dog days of summer: family time

dog days of summer: old hangouts

Onto Minneapolis and St. Cloud to see more friends and family. Pirate and I went to my favorite restaurant in St. C- Val's- a little shack that serves the best french fries and shakes, and took a stroll around Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis and watch the sailboats and meet all the other dogs on the trail.

dog days of summer: party down

We had a fantastic time at grandma's 80th birthday party at Lake Vermillon. She got 80 presents (Pirate picked out a few squeaky toys for her) and 8 cakes with ten candles (lit by blowtorch). After all our picnics there was tubing, water skiing, 4-wheeling, and intense games of sand volleyball to get to. Pirate was a great sport: he stood in the volleyball court with us every time we played.

dog days of summer: at cotton lake

Lake life has two fundamental principles: lounge and play. Repeat. Pirate has those two down. He played in the yard with my aunt and uncle's golden retrievers, hung out in dad's new cabin, went on a canoe ride, and sat with grandma and grandpa while we chatted. Three cheers for the lake!

dog days of summer: gardening

Mom's garden is an amazing place: want raspberries on your cereal in the morning or your ice cream at night? Chives on your potato? Everything for salsa? Then walk 25 feet and go get it! Even Pirate pitched in to help pick the ripe stuff- he got the first tomato and made it into an edible ball.

dog days of summer: poolside

After a surprising fall into the pool at first sight/sniff, Pirate was soon parading confidently around its periphery like a little lifeguardog.

dog days of summer: in omaha

The first leg of the trip was a visit to Omaha to hang out with my cousin and uncle. We did all the fun summer stuff we could think of: going to the amazing zoo, the water park, eating ice cream, walking our dogs, and basically spending as much time as possible outdoors. Of course, I had to check out Warren Buffett's pad too.

dog days of summer: vacation recap

carbondale, il to omaha to fargo to cotton lake to fargo to minneapolis to lake vermilion to minneapolis to st. cloud to minneapolis once more to cedar rapids to mt. vernon, ia to eldon, ia to kimmbal, mo to carbondale again= a midwestern loop, 3 1/2 weeks, 3,095 miles.