DID YOU TAKE YOUR DOG ON VACATION THIS YEAR?

With fall and winter on the way, I hoped we could review some happy moments with our canine family members this spring and summer. I asked friends online:

“Did you take your dog/s on vacation this year?”

They answered—and included photos in their comments!

Erin Saywell (Indiana) So many trips. Our most recent, a side trip to Erie, Pennsylvania, after a flyball tournament in Ohio. We camped out! Everyone got to play on the beach at Lake Erie. We stayed overnight at Adventure Unleashed Branch Campus, in Ohio … highly recommend! 75 fenced acres of hiking trails! We also got an Air BNB in West Virginia and explored the state park nearby, along with a dock diving event.

Photo by Erin Saywell

Glenda Lee (Maine) Yes, of course. If they can’t go, we don’t go. We do a week’s long family tent camping trip every summer and it’s a blast for the girls.

Sandie Hanlon (Massachusetts) We took our three dogs for a long weekend in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It’s a very dog-friendly state that has endless options for people and pets for hiking, friendly dining, and outdoor activities. The area where we were at was Gorham, NH, where it’s easy to get onto the Presidential Rail Trail. It’s mostly flat and wide and in parts you have spectacular views of the Presidential range and the Israel River. In the photos, I posed the dogs on the bench overlooking the river. Our puppy had a great time being socialized and learning to be a trail dog.

Photo by Sandie Hanlon

Brad Waggoner (North Carolina) Four weeks and 4,100 miles in a 40-year-old VW Vanagon camper. North Carolina to Colorado. Through the Rockies camping and visiting friends. Keaton is a two-year-old Australian shepherd who loves to ride. It’s hard to keep him out of the car or van.

Photo by Brad Waggoner

Jane Beecham (United Kingdom) Yes! To Cornwall, SW England—self-catering holiday cottage. In all fairness, we know the family who has the cottage, but we couldn’t do a seaside holiday without our dog! My daughters—grown up—came too. We went in February so hit and miss with UK weather, but it was mild, plenty of walks. Our dog travels well despite the long car journey, but going at that time of year meant he could be on the beaches there.

Photo by Jane Beecham

Claire Staines (United Kingdom) Currently bagging long hikes in the Cairngorms.

Photo by Claire Staines

Kim Campbell Thornton (California) We’re fulfilling a long-standing wish to spend three months seeing parts of Europe we haven’t been to yet—as well as some old favorites—and of course we couldn’t leave our Cavalier, Sparkles, behind for that length of time, so she came with. We’ve been away for about six weeks now and it has been quite the adventure. Despite being 12 years old, she’s an excellent traveler and very active for her age. She has walked all over Paris, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Bilbao, and more, racking up the miles with us. We brought her Sleepypod because we were renting a car, as well as her stroller for hot days (came in handy at the medieval fortress of Carcassonne in August) or very long excursions (a rainy day in Paris). In the UK, she had several opportunities to walk and play off leash without us being anxious for her safety. That was a thrill for all of us. Here, we’re checking out the statue of fossil hunter/paleontologist Mary Anning and her dog Tray on a rainy day in Lyme Regis.

Photo by Kim Campbell Thornton

Shelly Keel (Idaho) YES! Journey and I had a combined “vacation” with a trip to see my sister and ultimately take care of her house and dog while she went off for a successful kidney transplant.

We took our RV with our car in tow and our trip was a little over 4,300 miles (plus all of the running around we did at our destinations). We left Idaho, visited with many friends and family in California (north and south), headed through Arizona and New Mexico toward Odessa, Texas, where we hung out for several months with family.

We got to spend Christmas with family in Texas, and Journey got to meet and play with three of the family little people (aka kids), she met and became great friends with my sister’s dog Ariel, and we were blessed to spend much time with my niece, Kayla, during the time we were in Texas. We even ventured to Abilene where my niece, two toddler nephews, Journey and I had an “adventure” staying in a hotel, and then visited the Abilene Zoo as a birthday present to the kids. (Journey hung out in the car for a couple of hours in the cool March weather.)

When my sister returned from her successful surgery, all raring to go in mid-April, Journey and I headed toward home but we decided to take the long relaxed route through Moab, Utah, to visit the National Parks and through the Salt Lake City area to visit with my nephew. All in all, we were gone a little over six months. Journey and I had a blast just hanging out together exploring places along our route.

Here is a photo of Journey at Canyonlands National Park.

Photo by Shelly Keel

Laurie Schlossnagle (South Carolina) We went on a road trip with four dogs from Charleston, South Carolina, to Las Vegas. The first part of the trip was “business,” but we played a little on the way home. Two highlights were Winslow, AZ, and the Petrified Forest National Park.