October 4, 2016

You Can't Beat a Beach Vaca With Your Furry Buddy!

As you guys know, we took a week off from the blog a couple of weeks ago to celebrate our 20th anniversary. To celebrate, we traveled up the coast with Rita to Los Olivos and Cambria in central California.

Rita is still getting really stressed in the car (probably a subject for another post) so she was exhausted after our drive to Los Olivos. She collapsed on top of her squeaky chipmunk.

Los Olivos was HOT but lovely. Lots of pretty flowers and cacti:

Didn't seem right to visit Los Olivos and not buy something olive-related, so we picked up some olive oils (and a bunch of balsamic vinegars!). 

Rita was super excited about the bacon-flavored olive oil. (And we were happy they let us bring her along in - it was so hot out we all needed a dose of A/C!)

Nothing like ending a hot day with a lovely, cold margarita. Yum.

After 2 nights there, we went on to Cambria. (Gold star for you if you remember we also went to Cambria for vaca at this time last year. It's not too far, a lovely spot and very dog friendly so we decided to go back!)

We stopped at a random beach in Cayucos to give Rita a break from the car - and there were more sand dollars on that beach than I've ever seen in my life! They were everywhere!

One of the ones we brought home with us broke. Did you know sand dollars sometimes have "little birds" inside them? This one was pretty perfect!

We love beach-combing in Cambria! Here are the hubs and Rita having a romp.

The beaches there are so pretty!

While the hubs and I plunked down to comb through the rocks for bits of sea glass, Rita enjoyed the view...

...and sank her toes into the beach.

Of course I made her "go to your bed" and pose on things, like rocks...

...and the cool benches at Fiscalini Ranch - a great spot to walk dogs and look at the otters having breakfast in the ocean! Wish I had a photo of the otter we saw, but I forgot to bring my big camera! We also saw LOTS of dolphins. It was really cool!

We also visited this beach near Hearst Castle - we had it to ourselves. Probably because it was ridiculously windy!

Windy or not, Rita still had a great time chasing sticks and trying to bury them. Even if she did have to squint for her close up.

Of course, no road trip is complete (IMHO) without great road snacks. Man, it's lucky we never see these tasty flavors of Kettle chips at the stores around our house! Pepperoncini? Maple Bacon??! Moscow Mule??? Whaaaat? (The Moscow Mule really did taste like one - like lime and ginger, if you've never had that particular cocktail before.)

We generally love to hike/take long walks on vaca, but this was my fave activity - relaxing with a book in the window seat that had a view of the ocean. (And Rita liked to watch all the dogs walking by heading for Fiscalini Ranch!)

What's your favorite part of a road trip?

Thanks to BlogPaws for hosting Wordless Wednesday! Stop by their site to check out all of the other blogs in the hop.

48 comments:

  1. What a wonderful trip! I used to love collecting sand dollars when I visited Florida as a child. You found so many! Love the picture of Rita with her paws in the sand.

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    1. The sand dollar's were literally everywhere on the beach! I've never seen anything like it!

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  2. Sounds like you guys had a blast and I'm so glad to see Rita enjoyed the trip as well. My husband would love those flavored chips. I think the pic of Rita on the bench is one of the best!

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    1. The chips were all very tasty. Are you not a chip girl? only the hubs is?

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    2. I like my chips pretty straight. I don't do unique flavored ones very well.

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  3. That all looks so perfect!I have only seen the pepperocini in those chips. Maple bacon sounds yummy. Those sand dollars are great, how fun to find so many like that.

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    1. The maple bacon were so good! It's probably a good thing I've never seen them at the stores by us!

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  4. I didn't know about the little bird inside sand dollars! Learn something new everyday ;-)

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    1. Isn't that cool? You don't find a little bird in every one, but sometimes you find multiple birds in one!

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  5. Wow, Jackie, that looks like such a fun trip!

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  6. What a great trip. Those beaches do look pretty neat!

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    1. They have nice beaches for walking there, and they're not very busy either which is really nice - at least not when we've been there!

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  7. You had me at Bacon Maple chips! Sounds and looks like you had a really wonderful trip. So glad Rita got to go along.

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    1. Rita had a really fun time – except for the drive!

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  8. I'm going to have to linger longer on the snack food aisle. Those look wonderful

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    1. Seriously. Although it might be dangerous if I find that maple bacon flavor at any of the stores by our house!

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  9. Looks like a great road trip!
    hugs
    Mr Bailey, Hazel & Mabel

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    1. It really was, except for the bad traffic on the drive home! No fun!

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  10. Looks like a splendid trip. I have to say a beach vacay looks pretty good to me and adding the pup would be just be the cherry on top of that sunday!

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    1. Rita definitely loves a beach vacation! And so do we!

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  11. Looks like a fantastic trip, you had us at bacon olive oil! BOL!

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    1. The bacon olive oil is amazing! I roasted some squash seeds in it yesterday and they were so tasty!

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    1. If we only could have "beamed" there, it would have been perfect!

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  13. I'm not much for the actual traveling (I'm with Rita on that) so...getting there, and then getting back home safely. LOL
    Bacon olive oil...bacon maple potato chips...beaches...reading with a view of the ocean and a dog at my side....it all sounds like heaven to me! So glad you had such a nice trip.

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    1. Maybe you should try Xanax, like we tried with Rita. :)

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  14. It looks like you had a fantastic, 20th celebration. My sister gives her dog a little olive oil every day. I bet her dog would LOVE that bacon flavored version, lol! Congratulations on 20 years!

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    1. Lol - yes, I'm sure her dog would definitely love that!

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  15. We're going to the beach later this month too and I'm super excited... although there's no wifi.

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    1. Oh man, that's a bummer! We had spotty wifi, but that's better than none!

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  16. looks a great time id love to take all 5 pups and 4 cats on a vacation but it would be hard

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    1. Wow - yeah. That's not a vacation. That's a traveling circus.

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  17. She looks so sweet on top of her squeaky squirrel. Very kissable belly.

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  18. Oh, I forgot about the little birds inside of sand dollars! You brought a major childhood memory flooding back right there. Thanks!

    Jean from Welcome to the Menagerie

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    1. I had forgotten about them too - but when I posted the pic of the handfuls of them on Instagram, someone asked if I knew about the little birds inside. (I did know... I just had forgotten I knew!)

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  19. What great photos and vacation! You were so close... we love how pet friendly the Central coast is! Did you hit Pismo?

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    1. No, we didn't go to Pismo. I've never been there actually.

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  20. hello pooch smooches its dennis the vizsla dog hay that luks like a grayt time yoo had up north!!! rita luks like she reely enjoyd herself wunse she got past the trawma of the kar ride!!! for me it wood be the opposit the car ride wood be fine but the trawma wood hit wen i wood hav to git owt in an unfamilyar playse!!! oh and also i did not no they had myools in moscow wot do they do their do they toil in the vodka mines or sumthing??? ok bye

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    1. lol. Good point... what do mules have to do with Moscow??

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  21. What a great 20 anniversary! I would love to take my gang to the beach!

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    1. I'd love to see your gang running wild on the beach!

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  22. Looks like a great time was had by all - thanks for sharing your lovely photos. I love vacationing with the Boys - especially near any body of water.

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  23. Your trip sounds awesome. We stayed in San Simeon in July. We've been visiting the area for many years (we took our pooch with us for years and she loved it, but now we have two and it would be so hard to tackle flying with two at our age and which one would you leave behind?!) and I've never heard of Fiscalini Ranch. Is it close to Moonstone Beach Drive? Looks like fun. Thank you so much for sharing!

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    1. Oh, definitely wouldn't want to have to do the "Sophie's choice" thing on which to take/leave! But since you have 2 they at least have each other while you're away!

      Yes, it is close to Moonstone Beach Drive - there's a nice neighborhood south of MB Dr, and at the end of that neighborhood is where Fisc. Ranch starts. Really nice spot to walk.

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    2. Thank you! We'll be looking for it next year. :-)

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