Destination Vacation

I wonder if people 100 or 150 or 3000 year ago even thought about getting away -- taking a vacation. Relaxing beyond a good smoke on the back porch (not that I smoke). But either because we are "softer" today or because of the pace of life -- or just because we can -- vacations seem critical to the survival of the modern day soul.

It's not that the buzzes, beeps and zooms go away, but at least there is an ability to push ignore for a while and not be too concerned.

So. The San Diego Vacation. Human Rating: 8. Puppy Rating: 12! (please note: Scale 1 - 10 -- possible downside was fishhook in The Donut's front chest day two -- but quickly resolved)!

So, we drove though the desert and found, much to our surprise a rather nice dog park in Yuma for the pups to stretch their legs. It was filled with grass and allowed us to make the rest of the trip in the car (meaning, we didn't have to go pottie in the cazillion degree desert).

We arrived in Descansco and I was a little concerned. C is more particular about his surroundings than me. So, we pull up (thankfully the temp was only in the high '80s, which felt cool coming out of 110). But, we pulled up the dirt road, saw the little hobbit house, an abandon trailer, etc., and I thought .... "shit, I hope we can find somewhere with wi-fi so I can find somewhere else for us to stay for the week."

But, despite initial appearances, we walked up, met the owner and decided it looked ok. Actually..... I thought it looked SUPER AWESOME COOL! While we quickly turned off the new age music (replacing it with the melodies of the poetic commentary from the sultery Phil Liggett from the Tour) .... After unloading, we headed to a nearby lake to determine if the dogs had sealegs. With the exception of the Donut getting a three-pronged barbed fishhook lodged in her chest (which we didn't find until the next day) .... It was a fabulous afternoon. We spent the evening grilling, drinking good beer and watching the sunset .... 5-Star!

Because a discription is unfair from me, here is how C describes the Haylapa Hosue: "When I first saw the Haylapa House, I wondered where the next Hilton was at..... Then we walked in met the owner and the realization that Hoolia was not going to go anywhere else sunk in. After I realized we were set for the duration, it grew on me. I mean, we had great beer from the Green Flash Brewery and the sunset was fabulous."

More to follow, but that is day one.