{27-29nov2009: Thanksgiving weekend part 1}

Since Jason and I both don't have families in Seattle, during the long Thanksgiving weekend we usually plan a weekend trip to a cabin with friends.  This year our friend Robin found a great little dog friendly cabin/camp place up in the mountain, Scottish Lakes High Camp. 
Early Friday morning we left Tom's house and headed back to Seattle to pack up the cars.   With gear in one car and dogs in the other we set out for a 2.5 hour drive East to the camp. 

We stopped for an early lunch in Skykomish and then made our way through Stevens Pass to the parking lot of the camp.

The big thing about this cabin/camp is that it's located at 5,000 feet elevation and the only way to get there in the winter is by 4 wheel drive and snowmobile.  Yes.  Snowmobile.  Great Dane on a snowmobile.  
In preparation for this weekend we went to the pet store to see if they had any natural sedative type thing to help relax Dar for this snowmobile ride and they recommended we try Happy Traveler.  They gave us a few capsules as a sample and told us to give her 3 at least 30 minutes before the ride.  

So we got to the parking lot and gave her 3 pills hoping they would calm her down enough when the snowmobile part came up.  We loaded up into a big 4 wheel drive SUV and headed up the mountain.

After a short ride we got to the next stop where we'd load up the snowmobiles and hop on for a 30 minute ride up to camp.  We let the dogs roam for a bit while things got loaded up to the sleds.

Then it was snowmobile time.  Friday was totally relaxed about the whole thing, willingly jumping on with BB and ready to ride.  Darwin on the other had we had to lure with treats and Jason had to bear hug her to make sure she didn't jump off.  Robin and I rode a third snowmobile and laughed the whole way up at the thought of Darwin on a snowmobile.  In all the excitement and entertainment of getting on the snowmobiles none of us remembered to take out a camera and we missed pictures on the way up.  We all made it to the top with no dogs jumping off, though by that point Jason's arms felt like they were going to fall off.

{to be continued...}