AKC Nationals (A Photo Journal)

Friday morning....backing out of K's driveway.  Woohoo!  Road trip!

 

Highway 50 runs alongside the American River (south fork).

 

Bridal Veil Falls on Hwy 50....a drive-by grab-shot!



Our first glimpse of Lake Tahoe

The house we stayed at in South Lake Tahoe.

In the backyard, Charter played tug with a tree while Spree watched.

 

D's dog Mick, and K's Charter and Spree, on the beach at Lake Tahoe.

 

Wonderful place.



Mick is 2 years old, and a little shy about swimming.
He sure was proud after he went into the water and got this stick!

Perhaps we should've been cooking dinner, but 
D took me on a "driving tour" first.  We went up to Emerald Bay, since
I'd never seen it before.  This photo does not do it justice.

 

In the Bay is an island,
complete with the ruins of a "tea house," built many years ago
by the eccentric owner if a nearby "castle."



Lake Tahoe is still and quiet in the evening.

Saturday we got up at 6:am so we could get into Reno nice and early.

 

The place was buzzing!
A couple of times I heard folks yelling my name and
looked up into the stands to see people smiling and waving. 
Very fun!  Loved connecting with friends. 
♥♥♥

 

AT and her Aussie Sydney run clean in JWW.  Yay!



Sydney, 11 years young, still has stars in his eyes at agility trials.
 :-)

CF and LP (and Apollo!) talk strategy for the Standard course...

 

LP and SR watch folks walk the course.



A lot of happy dogs were at the Nationals.

 

We ran into near white-out conditions on our way back to
South Lake Tahoe late Saturday afternoon.

 

About 15 inches of new snow!
The skiers were thrilled.

 

This bicyclist - not so much.



We walked to a cafe for dinner Saturday evening.  It was great!

 

Mick enjoyed the snow.

 

By late Sunday morning the sun was out,
and K and I were headed back to Santa Rosa.



Beautiful drive.





Wow....I took more photos of snow than of dogs. 

Dazzled by the snowstorm. 

Many friends had FABULOUS runs at the Nationals.  For instance:  LP and Wit placed in the top ten in two of their runs (out of more than - 100? - 16" dogs)...and CF and her dogs Apollo (20" Preferred), Icon (26") and Cassidy (20") were all in the finals (out of close to 900 dogs)!  Along with NG and Ace...and...and....you'll need to visit the AKC Dog Agility Nationals homepage to see the complete list of winners and actual totals. 

We knew plenty of folks who had beautiful clean runs...and we're proud of every single one of them.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!

It was thrilling to see old friends at the Nationals, and exciting to meet new friends.   

[Sure missed my dogs and husband though.  Happy to be back home with them! xoxoxo]

All in all:  A beautiful trip.  (...with many thanks to K, D and M!)

♥♥♥