Jiro might dream of sushi but Max dreams of cheese
A few weeks ago while walking through Chinatown I realized that the Year of the Rooster was over and that we are now in the Year of the Dog. What can I say of the old Rooster year (not to mention the tail end of the damn Monkey year)? Not much that can or should be published in a family-friendly blog. It just wasn’t a good year. Wildfires raged in California. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria devastated homes and lives. It was the deadliest year for mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Thankfully my memories of the rooster year are starting to fade. That said, there were some bright spots that are worth remembering. And since it is now the Year of the Dog, I thought it would be fitting for our Golden Retriever Max to share some of his adventures. Take it away Max!
Breaking Bad in Boston
Busted!
Sailing is a blast!
About to check out the Tall Ships
Winter beach fun at Cherry Webb
The gorgeous Green Lakes in Syracuse
Hanging at the Hotel Gault in Montreal.
Taking selfies during snow storms
But one adventure stood out from the rest and that was my first trip to St. Barts!
On the Jetblue plane waiting for wheels up. Jetblue could not have been nicer to deal with – they let me board the plane first! SBH or bust!
Almost there and yes – I would love some champagne!
Did someone order sushi for our first night?
Yo Sushi Mania!
Nothing like an afternoon at Tamarin.
Mom and Dad love them their cocktails in Paradise
Everyone loved me at L’Esprit
Gloriette was just perfect. (Miss you!)
Channelling Eddy at Eddy’s
Morning walk
Taking a dip
Our ride – thanks Arnaud!
Nothing like a SBH sunset! À bientôt St. Barts!!
One final bit: The Tradewinds pilot suggested that Max don his vest when we land in SJU on the way back. I don’t know if it was all the rich French food (too many croissants perhaps :-)) but lets just say the vest was a bit on the tight size!! Not judging buddy!!
Suck it in Max!!!
Per Julianne’s comment, here is Max’s new friend Keanu – the resident villa cat. As you’ll see, Max is VERY patiently waiting as Keanu is fed his breakfast (Keanu was a bit more insistent :-)):
Whaat? Max goes to the rock and apparently rocks it! Coolest canine trip ever.
It was the best trip ever with him by our side. He was easily the biggest dog on that rock and got a rock star reception everywhere we went. We were supposed to be heading back with him last Thanksgiving but the hurricane had other plans for his villa.
Plenty of Bart sized guys visit, but a Max-imum would be special!
Speaking of how big he is – I just added a picture of him in his vest in the SJU airport. I have no idea how Bob got it to fasten. Poor guy!!
This has all the makings of a book—“Adventures with Max”—-he is obviously an ambassador of good will wherever he goes! What a great way to experience St. Barth! Did he have any turtle iguana encounters?
Yes! Every morning we would walk down a very steep hill to the beach where Max could swim. Our last morning there was a giant sea turtle that keep popping up to see what all the commotion was when Max would go bounding into the water. We also had a number of land turtles roaming around that Max thought were somewhat interesting. The neighboring goats did not seem to bother him — the villa manager had hoped he would chase the goats away but he was on vacation! Finally the villa had a resident cat this trip (which we named Keanu – after the movie not the actor) that was as cute as a button and that coexisted quite peacefully with Max. Max had quite the adventure indeed!! As did we!
That has to be the CUTEST blog I have read…ever! Loved the pics and the accompanying verbiage!
We should all be so lucky as to experience and love life as Max does…a lesson to be acknowledged, hopefully appreciated and practiced by us all.
Thank you for sharing those fun and cherished moments..
Août – Thanks so much for the sweet words. I do think that if everyone found the joy in life that dogs do the world would be a better place! When we are trying to survive the (apparently never ending) Boston winters, we just channel Max’s love of the cold, wind and snow! It actually works!
Kara, tell us more about JetBlue and travel with a Max-imum sized dog in the cabin. They obviously are no United Airlines 😱 when it comes to pets onboard 👏🏻
I’ll confess that we were nervous about flying with Max. He is exceedingly well behaved but we still thought people might be giving us that look usually reserved for people with crying babies but that was not the case at all. People seemed delighted to see him. Jetblue was a dream to deal with. You need to call them to tell them your ESA dog will be on board (we called a few weeks in advance). You check in at the service counter/special assistance counter when you get there and, for the first time ever, we checked bags (dog food, dog bed, dog toys :-)) . We bought an extra seat on the plane so that we would have the entire row (extra legroom) and there was plenty of space for our 85 pound pup. TSA was happy to see him and he walked through the metal detector without a hitch. The Jetblue gate people knew he was coming and seemed excited to have him around and asked if we wanted to be the first to board. We had other passengers reaching between the seats to pat him. We used Tradewinds for the second leg of the trip which I highly recommend. The people who rented our villa the month before us flew into SXM (pre-hurricane) with a golden retriever that Winair would not let fly because the plane was over its weight limit so they had to take the ferry. Tradewinds was great and there is a grassy area downstairs and outside from the Tradewinds lounge that we brought Max to (who promptly marked his first palm tree), The trickiest part were the stairs on and off the Tradewinds flight for him but he figured it out! Equally smooth flying back with him. We bought him tags with our villa manager’s phone number on it to wear in SBH just to be super safe. Max was welcome everywhere on the island — Maya’s was a particularly wonderful evening with him (but alas no photos). It really was a completely wonderful experience.