Vacation

I haven't been slacking these past few weeks, I've been on vacation!

Ok, ok, so both of those statements are actually true.  I have been slacking, and I have been on vacation.

It was a glorious vacation.  The Stallion and I loaded up our SUV with our bags and our dogs and drove west to Colorado.

Obviously, the dogs had the best seats in the house.

Jade navigated perfectly.

We stayed one night in Denver to visit with friends there before heading on to our final destination, Steamboat Springs.  Hotel Monaco was a very pet-friendly place for us to stay.

Jade and Cooper were welcomed by name!

This was a Kimpton boutique hotel; it's decor was a bit Alice-in-Wonderland-ish.  Very fun.

I should have pictures of the room, but I stopped taking pictures.  Turns out this visit wasn't all wine and roses.  4 hours of pet sitting is included in the two pet packages we added on to our room rate for that night.  But we're pretty sure Jade & Cooper weren't tended to adequately.  So I lost interest and stopped taking pictures.

When we arrived back at the hotel that night, poor Cooper barely made it out the front door before he peed.  And peed, and peed, and peed.  On the sidewalk.  He had held it like the perfect pup, despite all those I'm sure went before him and left their mark.  I wonder if they just do something with them if they're making noise.  And, who knows, maybe Cooper drank a ton of water.

But they were overly excitable when we returned.  And the leashes hadn't moved.  And there was no response to our over-bearing, nervous young parent note telling the sitter of all their commands and nuances. (Yes, we really did that.)

So, who knows.  We complained to the overnight manager.  He didn't know.  He left a note.  The next morning when we were checking out, I'm fairly certain we were the recipients of a well-perfected scene:  exuberant, warm, friendly small talk, avoidance, anecdotes about Jade loving this particular toy while she was sat when asked if there were any issues with the dogs and their sitter, the removal of the charge for the bottle of wine we drank in our room. 

I took it.  What could we do?  What could anyone do?  The time had passed.  What happened, happened.  Whatever it was.  Thanks for the bottle of wine.  Bummer this hotel turned out to be a bit of a letdown.

Many more stories from our trip to come!