We left bright and early this morning. As you can see, Mr. bin Laden was rarin' to go.

We were hoping to get through the L.A. traffic in a reasonable amount of time. That was a lot of wishful thinking, and I spent the next few hours reflecting on how much I poisonously loathe Los Angeles in general, and wishing there was some way to avoid ever having to go through it. By the time we managed to get to the more agreeable realms of Ventura, it was almost lunch. The beach at San Buenaventura was too crowded to let the idiot twins run free, although we did let them loose by a jetty long enough for Bernie to take a monster crap and then merrily run in circles around us because he was feeling so much lighter.

We then went to the local In-n-Out Burger and ordered lunch for both them and us. Linda, as usual, was just happy to be there. Bernie waited grumpily for us to finish, hanging his head over the backseat hammock and trying to look pathetic.

They finally got their burgers, and inhaled them so quickly that there wasn't even time to take a second picture.

Of course, it wouldn't have been a road trip without Bernie adding his own noisy input to the day's travels. I've mentioned before that he's fond of coming to the station where I work, jumping up on my desk, and glaring out at all the boats in the harbor while snarling and growling at them disapprovingly. He also likes doing that out car windows. Here's a list, in no particular order, of various things that pissed him off today:

– Our neighbor, who he likes and has met many times, walking her dogs. We hadn't even made it out of our driveway before he was giving her a piece of his mind (and it's not like he has a lot of pieces to spare).

– Random inoffensive cats in the street.

– Cal Trans road workers (I think their bright orange work vests offended his highly developed fashion sense).

– The dog in the rear window of a car in front of us.

– Cows. He REALLY dislikes cows. Apparently he's offended if they're found anywhere but in his food bowl.

Much to my surprise, he actually wasn't a complete force of destruction once we hit the beach in Carmel. Maybe he's saving it all up for tomorrow morning. He wrestled with a few other dogs, then jumped Linda and gnawed on her neck until he pissed her off enough to make her start chasing him around the beach. Then he and Linda took off after a flock of pigeons on the sand. It was a beautiful thing to watch – they both peeled off in order to flank the pigeons from each side in a pincer movement, cutting off all hope of escape. It was a brilliant plan, and failed only because it seldom occurs to either of our dogs that birds can also fly.

After the disappointing pigeon escape, we ate dinner at Portabella, one of our favorite restaurants in Carmel. We always have dinner there the night we arrive. Bernie was fairly well behaved there as well, having been put firmly in his place upon arrival by a bossy Shih Tzu who wouldn't have been much more than a snack for him. He posed for this picture when dinner was over, and then we came back to the hotel to rest up for tomorrow.

I'm already nervous. Usually this level of semi-normalcy on his part is just the calm before the storm…

krun15 said:

Why does it seem less like you guys are smiling and more like gritting your teeth?

Not too far from the truth today. He was bad to the point where it stopped being funny and became a problem. His barking at anything that bugged him - other dogs, random noises, people who walked by - got to the point that it was difficult to take him anywhere. It only happened when he was on leash, so I'm sure it's some sort of territorial/insecurity problem. We're going to have to work on that when we get back home. Looking forward to having him off leash most of tomorrow, since he's better behaved then. At least he's just a pest at the dog park...

For those of you interested in what happened today, this picture is a good indicator of what went on at our September tripawd party:

Takes an awful lot to make Bernie bin Laden pant like that, but he met his match today! There's a whole thread dedicated to that party, so for more pictures and stories, click here and see for yourself!