So, I don't have any fur kids (dogs) just yet, but let's say that you do. Just today I was talking to a friend who isn't going on vacation this weekend because her heater broke and she doesn't want to leave her cats at home. This is where Pet Vacation Homes comes into the picture. They have Pet friendly Florida Vacation rentals homes and pet friendly Hotels. While they have availability in Florida, other locations are certainly possible as well. At this time of year, though, you're thinking about vacationing to Florida, aren't you.

On March 4th, Tico and Greg went to the Delaware Water Gap. The following, is our story.

The short version:

Don't believe the advice of people who have never experienced that which they advise on, AND don't go to New Jersey: you'll realize it isn't where you want to be, have to turn around, and have to pay a toll, booty.

The long version:

Tico and I started out right on time: an hour after we planned on it. We got there 1.5 hours after we planned: getting lost sucks. The trip up was pretty tame. Tico kept yelling at his GPS to "acquire that 4th satelite" so that we could see our altitude and how fast we were going. It was surprising accurate on speed. Once to the Gap (no, not the one that sells boxers, the one for climbing), we learned another lesson: don't ask the 40 year old ranger women where to climb. They don't know. The best answer would have been to look at the guide book

This is on the Colorado Trail just before Kenosha Pass after a night of freezing rain and a day of hiking in wet boots. We smiled - but weren't really all that happy.

So, a few months ago a few friends of ours hiked the Colorado Trail. Most of it, anyway. When they invited us to help start off the trip we were relatively ecstatic and signed up. The trip was really tough at the time. We all started off with overly heavy packs, that we weren't used to, boots we weren't used to, and blisters all over. Add to that an unseasonable amount of rain which really helped our garden but was pretty scary to deal with on the trail and we were all grumpy puppies. Even Sultana (their dog) was a grumpy puppy.

There's Kaycie, Nikki, and Kelly on the last day of the hike.

Looking back on the hike

Why is it that looking back it's always better? Now all that I remember is the valley of wild potentilla bushes, sunsets and sunrises that kissed our shoulders with light burns, and laughing lots. It was great fun, but so painful at the time. Odd, indeed.

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I was teaching a 3rd grade class the other day where most of the students were native Spanish-speakers but were all mostly fluent in English.  In case you were wondering, the new favorite 3rd grade song is Shakira/Wyclef's new "Hips Don't Lie", or as one of the students corrected the other students with his understanding of the song title, "Hips Don't Mind".

I gave the students an assignment to color and write their name on a cardboard building.  One student decided to call his building "chingate" and thought he was pretty sneaky and showed his building to his surrounding friends.  By third grade, you should know a) that if you're going to be sneaky, you need to use a sneakier word than chingate and b) more people speak Spanish than you think (even if they don't look like it).   When I asked him (in Spanish) "what did you write?", I've never seen a marker scribble out a word so fast.  He was so shocked that I busted him, that his fear ended up being punishment enough (although I did give him the old don't-do-that-evil-eye).  Also in case you were wondering, 3rd graders don't have a filter and will make fun of your accent in Spanish.