Beacon Rock... Finally!

Today we finally hiked to the top of Beacon Rock. It is a pretty short hike, but with quite a spectacular view of the Columbia River Gorge. The summit is the top of the second largest solid rock formation in the world (or so everyone around here tells us). Not only that, but the rock is located practically in the Columbia river. Pretty impressive. When we left home it was pretty warm, but as we hit the gorge the wind kicked in big time. Thankfully the walk from the car to the trailhead was the worst of it, otherwise we might have been blown off at the top. The hike is almost entirely made up of very short switchbacks with metal hand rails on the cliff side for protection. While most of the switchbacks have rock for footing, a few are actually wood pannel forming mini bridges. Ada was with us and was loving the hike up until we would hit a wood bridge that didn't have anything but rails on both sides... apparently those rails weren't too comforting to her. We were able to coax her over the scary ones on the way up, but on the way down there was one that she would have nothing to do with. Jared ended up carrying her over that one and she was trembling by the other side. She has been a little timid a few times, but this was a whole new level of fear. We felt horrible! Thankfully within a few minutes she was wagging her tail and tugging us along again. Whew.

Good thing I secured my toupee so well!

Lately we have been taking Ada to a dog park nearby. It is a great off-leash park with a couple big hills. She absolutely loves to run up and down the hills with whatever dogs are there. Last time we went we met another Ridgeback named Rana. Rana makes Ada look like a puppy! She is a massive dog. Anyway, after the hike we were feeling guilty for having traumatized Ada, so we wanted to take her to the dog park... but it was getting late. We knew of another dog park that was on the way home from the hike, so we drove around and ended up finding it with a little bit of time before dark. It is not as nice as the other park (Ada was missing the big hills), but we did run into Rana and her owners. It was fun to watch the two ridgebacks play together. They seemed to recognize each other right away and kept going back to playing just the two of them rather than with the other dogs. Rana's owners told us about a monthly gathering of ridgebacks at a dog park in Portland. We are excited to check it out, but don't want to become too obsessive. ;-)

Another Weekend in Seattle

A couple of weekends ago Jared, Ada, and I took a trip up to Seattle. Jared spent his time at a conference for athletic coaches while Ada and I visited with the Meeuwses and my family. The first night Ada met Bear, the Meeuwses new puppy. It took a little while for Ada to warm up to the VERY eager and excited Bear, but once she did they rough-housed till they were both completely exhausted.

The next morning I took Ada over to my parents place to meet Chase and Brook. Chase is getting a little older and was a bit cranky about someone new being in the house, but Ada and Brooke were tearing up the yard together in no time... literally.

After Jared's seminars we spent one of the evenings with the Meeuwses and one with my family. Melissa joined us at the Meeuwses where we played pictionary, boys against girls of course. Even with the boys cheating as usual, the girls pulled out a solid win. The best part of it was that the "all-plays" we won were definitely guy answers like "manual transmission" and "wing tips." Wing tips actually won us the game... in a room full of aviation fanatics, Melissa shouted out "wing tips" based on a drawing of a bird. I have never seen the guys look quite that shocked. Aahhh, good times.

Ada Is Officially Ours!

Tonight Bill and Cyndee, Ada's previous owners, stopped by and we officially transferred ownership! After they left there were of course five different forms to mail out in order to keep it official, but those are all done as well. Yay! Bill and Cyndee also brought by two of Ada's siblings (not by breeding). It was the first time we have seen Ada play with other dogs and it was great. Tye and Nick are both at least a couple inches taller than Ada, but she definitely didn't let that slow her down. Both of the other dogs have their AKC Championship (Tye won best in breed at the dogshow where we met Ada). That said, we were impressed with how Ada stood out as the best looking one of the three... she is a gorgeous dog! Here are a couple pictures of all the dogs together. The first one has Bill and Cyndee... it's not a good picture of them, but I forgot to get a formal one... oops. I will have to get that next time. They invited us come have a barbeque when the weather clears up so Ada can romp with her siblings on their open fields out in the booneys of Oregon. They also offered to have us come to Cyndee's grooming shop whenever we like for Ada's nails to be trimmed. Even though they are completely giving us our space, it is clear that they care for Ada a lot and it is hard to see her go. We have really appreciated the way they have handled all of our interactions with them and are glad to have a resource when we need dog training advice.

Bill and Cyndee herding the dogs

Ada, Nick, and Tye
This shows the range of colors that ridgebacks can come in pretty well. Ada is a light wheaton (though some will get almost blonde), Nick is red wheaton, and Tye is wheaton

I put this picture in because it shows off Ada and Nick's ridges.

Jared now wants three ridgebacks... uh oh.