Happy Halloween!

Post by Jessica

It's become somewhat of a tradition (3 years now) to go pick pumpkins at a local pumpkin farm. This year we decided to load the dogs up and take them along for the ride. Once we got to the 'Cool Patch Pumpkins', we loaded the dogs up into a wagon and walked them around the large field of pumpkins. They did not like the wagon at all! Rudi would have much rather walk around and pee on everything he came across and eat pumpkins than to stay in that wagon. Daisy was pretty good about it, but she does like bein near her brother.

John pulling the children!

Such good doggies!

Once we got out of the crowd, we let Rudi run around and help his dad pick out a pumpkin. Daisy and I stayed near the wagon waiting on the guys. John has gotten pretty good at picking out the perfect pumpkin. The one that they brought to the wagon was exceptionally good!

Searching for the perfect pumpkin.

Daisy is so proud of the pumpkin the guys found!

We went back to the front and paid for the pumpkin. On the way back home, both dogs fell asleep because pumpkin picking can be very exhausting!

Me and my children :)

Now that we had the pumpkin we were able to properly decorate for Halloween. I had a lot to do, so John, being the good artist that he is, carved the pumpkin by himself. We also saved the seeds and roasted them (yum!). After the pumpkin was done, we pulled out all the other decorations and decorated the house.

John's Masterpiece

The Front Door.

Scarecrow with Candy.

Once Halloween finally rolled around, we found out that 'Howl'-o-ween at the dog park was canceled this year. It was unfortunate because Rudi and Daisy already had costumes and was looking forward to dressing up! Instead of letting their costumes collect dust, we figured we would dress them up and then take them over to their cousins', Ruby and Potato, house. We figured we would do a reverse trick-or-treat and bring them some goodies for letting us come over ;) Once I got plenty of cute pictures of them in their costume, we loaded up the car and headed over to their house.

Brother and Sister Bugs.

Cute Miss Lady Bug.

Mr. Bumble Bee hiding in the grass ready to sting someone!

Getting excited about seeing their cousins!

The second we pull up to the Bower's house, the dogs go crazy! They know exactly were they are at and they always charge to the front door. They bark like crazy until someone lets them in (its crazy!). Because of all the excitement and anxiousness, this picture is the only one I could get of their Halloween adventure!

Trick or Treat!

While the dogs played with one another, John and I visited with Julie, Dave and little Eddie. He wasn't in the best of moods but he was so cute with all of his pouty faces ;)

Cute Eddie!

Once we got back from Julie and Dave's house, John and I went out on a nice date. We went to dinner at the new Village Bakery and then went and saw Couple's Retreat (very funny!). Happy Halloween everyone!

Happy Birthday Daisy Schwind!!

Post by Jessica

In the Schwind house, it is now tradition to throw a birthday party for the first birthday that our adopted shelter dogs spend with us. It's really sad to think about the lives that they had to live before we found them, so we want to celebrate their birth and homecoming with a doggy birthday party! We happened to adopt Rudi when he was around 5 months old, so we we said his 1st birthday was on July 15th. So the July before last, we threw him a party you can see here. When we adopted Daisy, the shelter knew even less about her. They guessed that she was around 3 years old so we said that her birthday was October 15th (since we adopted her in October). Therefore, she had a big birthday party on her 4th birthday! After talking it over with some of my friends, it was decided that she would have a 'Princess'-themed party :) She is quite the diva, so it was only fitting! I made the cutest invitations and sent them to her friends: Potatoes and Ruby (her cousins), Dodger (her sister-n-law, aka Rudi's girlfriend), and Baxter (her new boyfriend). The grandparents also got them for good measure.

Prototype Invitation (Front)

Prototype Invitation (Back)

Before all of the dogs arrive, John and I like to try and take pictures of the dogs before the house turns crazy. It's not the easiest thing to do, but luckily they are pretty much food-motivated. All we have to do is hold some treats by the camera and I usually get some good shots.

Brother and Sister on her big day!

The dogs usually don't mind dressing up either, but for some reason Rudi was not in the mood. So I tried a new shirt to see if he liked it better...

Wardrobe Change

...but he didn't once I got this picture he went underneath the bed. He did not want to wear clothes today! Daisy, on the other hand, loved her new dress! I found it a couple of weeks ago and felt it matched the them of the party quite well.

Miss Princess.

Of course I had to decorate the house for the big party. I took the banner from Rudi's birthday party and modified it so the dogs were all wearing princess crowns. I also took the leftover party hats from Rudi's party and turned one into a special princess hat with glitter and string. Since its fall, I was able to find little pumpkins so I painted all the dogs name on them. I made treat bags filled with goodies and a toy and, of course, there was the cake! I got the cake shipped from a dog bakery in San Diego. They do such a great job decorating and they pack it so well, it never is damaged in the mail. It's always a big hit with the dogs!

Happy Birthday!

Decor.

Treat bag.

Posing with the cake...

The cake.

...and ready to eat it!

Around 3:00pm, all of her friends started to arrive. It was a mad house, but luckily we all love dogs! Dodger's parents, Jarrod and Bronwyn, came. Potatoes and Ruby's family, Dave, Julie and the newest edition, Eddie, also came. And boyfriend Baxter's mom Tara came too! We say that Baxter is Daisy's boyfriend because he is the only dog that she allows near her at the dogpark. She usually likes to play by herself ;)

From the bottom: Baxter, Ruby, Potatoes are ready to play!

Rudi and Dodger and their violently passionate relationship!

Unfortunately, Daisy's birthday was held at the same time as the Georgia Tech homecoming game against Virginia Tech. So instead of having all the usual fun activities, we all just watched the game while the dogs played. The yellow jackets were the underdogs but we ended up dominating that game which made it hard to turn it off! Luckily, there was a lot of good food and conversation anyway.

Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech!

Tara and Baxter.

The boys.

The girls.

After awhile, I felt really bad about the whole party turning into a Georgia Tech football game watching party so we decided to go bobbing for hotdogs again! Last time, Dodger completely blew away the competition, so it was important that she defends her title. And true to form, she definitely won. It takes all the other dogs a couple of minutes to figure out that there are hotdogs in the water and that they have to get wet to get them. With Dodger, she knows exactly what she's doing and she wastes no time getting the food. Rudi loves a woman who knows what she wants :)

The Champion Hotdog Bobber.

Eddie's 1st Dog Birthday Party!

After the dogs had fun outside, we brought them back in to eat cake and open presents! Daisy is such a lucky dog to have so many people who care for her. And I am lucky too to have friends that play along with this insanity!! Dodger and her family got her some awesome stuffed toys and even a gift card to buy more toys with!!! Daisy is the best part chihuahua/part jack russell terrier retriever in California. She loves when her Dad throws the ball and she can chase after it. Knowing this, Aunt Julie and Uncle Dave bought her the best gift just for her: pink tennis balls! Her boyfriend Baxter bought her some greenies treats. She loves those and uses them to make sure her teeth are clean for when he comes around ;) Even her grandparents all the way from Georgia sent her some birthday gifts... pup-eroni and chicken treats. John, Rudi and myself got her a stuffed frog, a couple of balls, and some more treats. She was in heaven!

To Princess Daisy, From Dodger.

A hilarious doggy-themed card.

Daisy's most favorite thing: Pink Tennis Balls!

A gift from her boyfriend, Baxter.

Rudi had enough. He wanted to show Daisy what his parents and gradnparents got her.

It's also tradition that we try to take a group shot with all the people and the dogs. This year's shot turned out great! John and I are so lucky to have such great friends who also love their dogs as much as we do! Daisy had such a wonderful birthday party and we are so happy she is in our family!

An excellent group shot!

The Schwind Family.

A Visit from Orit

Post by Jessica

The first weekend in October my very best friend, Orit, came and visited me and John. I had a late event at Touro, so I just drove to SFO from work and picked her up late Thursday night. On Friday, I had a class at UC Davis that I needed to go to, but afterwards we made it over to Pope Valley. My friend and coworker Nemesia has a beautiful farm out in wine country. Once we picked her up and let the dogs run around, our first stop was Beringers Winery.

Wine Tasting at Beringers

We had a lot of fun at the wine tasting. Since Nemesia is a resident of Napa, we didn't have to pay for the wine tasting. They have some deal that if you are a resident, then you and your guests taste for free at many of the wineries in town. Pretty cool! The people there started telling us about the Beringer Wine Club. You get special shipments every two months of their wine, discounts on the wine and merchandise, and get free access to special events held at the winery. John and I said how we wanted to come to Napa more often. We thought this was a great opportunity, so we signed up.

New wine club members!

Once we were through with tasting in the main room, the woman said that there was a "special" tasting for wine club members at the main house. Since we know qualified, we all headed down to the main house at the winery. There were tried two different types of Cabernet Sauvignons in the reserve tasting room. One was from the 80's (which cost close to $200) and another was from the 90's. Nemesia could automatically taste the difference. John and I decided that we had a lot of tasting to do in order to refine our palette.

The Rhine House at Beringer

In the Reserve Tasting Room

On Saturday, we just decided to relax and do some shopping. We went to the mall in Sacramento and then went an ate Indian Food that night at a local restaurant in Davis. On Sunday, we went to Apple Hill! Apple Hill is a collection of apple orchards on the way to Tahoe. Every fall they have huge festivals at all the orchard where they sell everything apple... apple cider, apple butter, apple wine, apple cider doughnuts, candied apples, etc... John grew up near a bunch of apple orchards in New York, so he's been wanting to check out the area since we moved here. It was quite chilly when we got up there and John was the only one to have brought his jacket. We drove around and visited a couple of orchards with various arts-n-crafts booths. We also had our fair share of apple-inspired foods. We also somehow ended up at a vineyard towards the end of the afternoon to do some more wine tasting. Around 5pm, we called it a night and headed home.

The apples are ready to be picked!

Goofing off prior to the Apple Cider Doughnuts.

Beautiful people and beautiful landscape at the High Hill Orchard.

Who cares about apples when there is fudge!?!

John was sick of wine tasting, so we went to a brewery.

BFF ;)

Wine Tasting again at Apple Hill.

On Monday, I had a lecture to give at UC Davis, so Orit was there to see me in action! As many of you know, Davis is a bike town . Therefore to truly experience all Davis has to offer, Orit had to have the bike tour of campus! It took a little getting used to riding a bike, but before too long, she was keeping up quite well! Bright and early Tuesday morning, I took her back to SFO then went straight to work. It was great catching up with her. I can't wait until we at least live in the same state again!

Glacier National Park

Post by John

This past month, we made plans to meet Mama and Pops out in Montana to spend a weekend in Glacier National Park. Our plans were to meet in Salt Lake City from our respective origins and fly into Spokane, WA together, rent a car and then drive 5 hours to the park. Those were the plans, but it definitely did not happen accordingly. Unfortunately, Mama and Pop's flight from Jacksonville to Atlanta was delayed and they subsequently missed their connection to Salt Lake City. To make a long story short they were fortunate to fly into the airport right outside the park at about the same time Jessica and I drove into town. When they arrived, their luggage didn't take the same trip and were luggage-less for 2 days. Luckily Wal-mart is everywhere and they got the basic necessities to make due. Getting settled in so late we headed to bed as we had an 8:00am tour of the park to catch in the morning.

The next day we all got up early to catch the tour "bus". The "bus" looked like an extended hot rod made in the early 1900s. The line of buses are fully restored, still having the original wooden frame (although it is aluminum plated now) and even has a natural gas engine as well as a gasoline engine. We were quick to find out that the frame is very delicate and we were not to slam the doors from a very power hungry punk boy named Warren. Warren proceeded to tell Pops and the rest of the van continuously that we should not slam the doors because it could ruin the bus. From the first stop on out, Pops and the rest of us had Warren shut the door so we wouldn't feel his wrath (BTW as if Warren wasn't disliked enough, he stated to everyone that once this summer gig was up he was either going to become a massage therapist or join the air force (because they have so much in common *sarcasm*) and that he would have joined the military earlier but he didn't want to because Bush was president (because we all know that you should join the military based upon a politician rather than love for the country *sarcasm*)). Needless to say Warren made everything interesting during the 8 hour tour.

Pops took this picture of Lake MacDonald at sunrise.

The Red Tour Bus

Anxiously waiting for the tour to begin.

Pops right after he got yelled at by Warren.

Our first stop was to Heaven's Peak. On our way up we saw the outcomes of a few natural disasters, including trees being stripped down from an avalanche the previous winter and acres upon acres of dead trees from a large wild fire from 2003. Throughout the park we would also see many waterfalls due to the snow and ice from the glaciers melting during the day.

Heaven's Peak with daddy and daughter.

Lake MacDonald Lodge

One of many waterfalls.

Scorched earth from the wildfire.

The Schwinds.

The first glacier we got to see was Jackson Glacier. It's one of the largest glaciers in the park and it was the one we had the best view of throughout the tour. One fact that we learned repeatedly from Warren is that in order for an ice pack to be officially labeled as a "glacier" it must be at least 25 acres across, 100 feet deep and moving!

Jackson Glacier

Jackson Glacier courtesy of Pops' camera.

An awesome zoomed in shot of Jackson Glacier from Pops' camera.

After Jackson Glacier we made our way to Logan's Pass along the Going to the Sun Road. We then made our way to Wild Goose Island. It was said that Wild Goose Island is the most photographed area in the park.

Oddly enough there were not any geese at Wild Goose Island.

A very happy family enjoying their time together.

One of the mountain peaks by the island.

Next on our tour we were to stop at Many Glacier Hotel. On our way we finally got to see some wildlife. The tour guide noticed a mountain goat on a ridge across a stream across the road. I don't know whether to be happy that he noticed it, or worried that he wasn't watching the road. It was very cool to see, and it wouldn't be the only mountain goat we got to see. We arrived at the hotel soon after the sighting. It was a really cool hotel, right on the lake with mountains and glaciers in the background. It was beautiful. We found out from Warren that the hotel closes down for the winter and that the snow piles up as high as the roof line. He said that there are winter caretakers that stay their isolated during the winter to take care of the lodge. This reminded Jessica of the Shining. The hallways of the lodge were long and narrow like in the movie too. We walked through it saying 'redrum' with our fingers :) This stop was also our lunch stop and we had very good lunch in the restaurant at the hotel. The buffalo burger was great. On our exiting of the hotel, we saw a couple more mountain goats, who happened to be blocking us from leaving.

A mountain goat on the cliffside.

The glaciers at Many Glaciers.

The mountain goat didn't want us to leave.

The view of the hotel upon leaving.

Another waterfall.

As we ventured further through the park we saw Blackfoot Glacier, the largest glacier in the park. When looking down into the valley, we could see the U-shape that was made from the glaciers from the ice age. The last stop of the tour was by a stream. The water was so blue and clean, like the sky. It looked as if we could drink right out of it.

Blackfoot Glacier.

The U-shaped valley that was carved by the moving glaciers.

The water running down the stream.

The crystal clear water.

After the tour, we were all pretty tired. We ended up going to the local diner for dinner. The diner was packed, and to be totally honest, it wasn't that great. As far as dessert went, it was better. It would be our first taste of the infamous huckleberry that we would see on every menu thereafter. We would see signs for huckleberries all weekend. There are obsessed about them up there. Jessica and I didn't care too much for the huckleberry, but Mama and Pops enjoyed it, and would order other huckleberry goodies throughout the trip. It was pretty late after dinner so we headed back to our cabin and called it a night.

The next morning we packed up our stuff and headed toward East Glacier, to St. Mary's Resort where we stayed for the night. On our way through the park to get to the hotel, we were quick to find out that the road through the park was closed for the season, a day earlier than scheduled, so we had to back track, then drive around the park. We weren't too bothered as we got to see some new scenery we have yet to have seen. We ended up stopping for a little walk at the trail of cedars. The cedars through the trail were hundreds of years old, and the trail had some really awesome sights.

The day was pretty cloudy and covered most of the mountain tops.

A stream through the trail of the cedars.

Jessica testing the water out.

A forest gnome who is a GaTech fan.

A really awesome waterfall.

On the way to the hotel we think we found out why the road through the park was closed. It was snowing in the higher altitudes, but wasn't sticking to the roads. It ended up making the mountains snowcapped, which was good for pictures later on in the day when the weather would clear up. As we were driving to the hotel, there was a light snowing. Pops was calling everyone in Georgia that we were driving through a blizzard :) That night we would go to the steakhouse down the road. They claimed to be the best steakhouse in all of Montana, and they definitely delivered on some great steak. Unfortunately they were very light on vegetarian alternatives for Jessica. When I told the waiter Jessica was a vegetarian, he said they had salmon and shrimp available...she said no thanks and got the veggies and a potato.

A snowy travel to the hotel.

Check out the GPS.

The mountains behind the resort after the weather cleared up.

The sunset of the mountains on the way to the restaurant.

Temperature dropped pretty fast.

The next morning we were leaving the park to stay at a hotel close to the airport. Pops and I woke up extra early to get some good pictures of the sunrise. We ate breakfast at the hotel and we were on our way. We didn't have reservations for a hotel, so we just winged it. We ended up staying on the border of Idaho in Coeur D'Alene at the Coeur D'Alene Resort. Courtesy of Pops, we got a really awesome room with a great view of the lake. We had a great dinner and even better dessert. We all ended up sharing a a huge sundae called a gooey. It must have had 1/2 gallon of ice cream, loaded with candy and it was delicious. The sunset on the lake was spectacular!

Sunrise at Lake St. Mary.

The cliffs at sunrise.

The reflection of the house on the water was like looking at a mirror.

A familiar sight through the weekend.

In front of the hotel.

Leaving on a high note.

Sunset at Coeur D'Alene Resort from our balcony.

Another balcony shot.

Two lovely ladies relaxing at the resort.

All in all, Glacier was absolutely amazing and it was a great trip. It was great to spend time with the family and spend it in such an awesome place!

July 4th Weekend

Post by John

For the July 4th weekend, we decided to go camping up at Mount Shasta. A camping trip was long overdue and Shasta was one of the few places in California we had yet to see and wanted to visit. So we packed up the car with the dogs and all and headed north! The dogs don't like riding in the back by themselves, so they try to creep up to the front seat with us. On long car rides you can see what happens below:

All packed up and ready to go.

On our way up to Shasta, we began to see the mountain a ways back. Mount Shasta is really unique because its not surrounded by other mountains of similar size, so when we saw the mountain in the distance it was awesome! It is the second highest mountain in the cascades and is an volcano (last eruption: ~200 years ago). I was surprised to see snow on the mountain in the middle of the summer. It's unlike anything you see in the East Coast.

Mount Shasta from a distance.

The view of the mountain from Dunsmuir.

This was our first camping trip with the dogs, so it was a bit of an experiment. It was nice to have the dogs free and able to roam on their own (which they can't due in the apartment complex). Rudi, being such a sociable dog, greeted all our camping neighbors. By the end of the weekend everyone knew him by name! There was a family camping next to us with a little boy and girl, and they fell in love with Rudi. When we eventually left for home, they had to say good bye to Rudi and give him a hug. Daisy for the most part relaxed most of the weekend, but did get some good rounds of fetching in.

Cooking while Rudi wets his whistle.

Daisy doing what she does best, hoarding all the toys.

Rudi climbing all over rocks.

Jessica and I pretty much vegged out the whole weekend. Jessica being the hard worker she is, couldn't just sit and do nothing for the weekend, so she did some grading. I pretty much caught up on reading magazines that have been piling up for months (I typically only read for leisure on airplanes and we haven't been on a plane in a while). A nice part of the campgrounds was that they had swimming areas, even some for dogs. We tried to get the dogs in the water, but they resisted. Rudi is deathly afraid of water and won't even get his paws wet. Daisy made some progress as she went in half way up her short legs, which is about 2 inches (and that's being generous). Unfortunately, we did not see any fireworks during the weekend. We could of went into town to see them, but we would have had to bring the dogs. Last year when Rudi heard the fireworks, he hid under the bed for hours, so we decided fireworks were not the best idea.

The swimming hole for the dogs.

On our way home we decided to do a tourist stop. A few people from school suggested we stop at the Sundial Bridge in Redding. It was designed by a famous architect, Santiago Calatrava, and acts as a real sundial (it's the world's largest actually). The deck of the bridge is glass so we had to pick up the dog to make sure they didn't burn their little paws on the ground!

Checking out Sundial Bridge.

A couple of lovely ladies.

All in all it was a much needed (especially for Jessica) relaxing weekend for the Schwind family!

The Bower's Baby Shower

Post by Jessica

I am extremely late on this post, but I wanted to show everyone what John and I have been up to in the last month (July 4th pictures coming soon...). At the end of June, we threw our friends Julie and Dave a baby shower for their soon-to-be addition to their family. Due to extenuating circumstances, I only had about 2 weeks to pull this thing together, but if anyone could do it, I could! I created the invitations and due to different inspirations the unofficial theme/colors were polka dots and stripes with blue, green and brown accents. It just seemed like everything I was picking up to decorate with had something to do with those patterns and colors, so I just went with it.

Dave and Julie Bower

Tables decorated with floral centerpieces, favors and shower game pieces

My sister, Misti, and I have been toying with the idea of starting a party/wedding planning business eventually, so every little event that we do has helped us see what that might entail. After being horribly jipped by my wedding planner, I have had this thought in the back of my mind for some time now. I'm still trying to decide if I am up for it though...so far I was the wedding day coordinator for my friend Sarah, and then Misti and I threw the most elaborate 5th Birthday tea party and then had this baby shower... it's definitely been fun so far, but we shall see...

"She works hard for the money... So hard for it honey ;)"

I had a lot of help throwing the shower. John helped in a lot of the pre-party crafts. For the centerpieces, I painted terra cotta pots either blue, green or brown with white polka dots and planted some pretty annuals in them. For the favors, I painted mini-terra cotta pots in similar colors and stuffed them with wildflower seeds and candy! John helped me in stuffing the favors. Julie's brother, Edward, also helped out alot in getting baby pictures of the couple, finding out covert information (like favorite cake flavors), and decorating/setting up the day of the party.

Julie and Dave's baby pictures next to the guest list sign-in.

The packed gift table

Julie's mom helped out a lot and purchased all of the food for the shower. It was so good! There was fruit and cheese plates, as well as chicken fingers, food wraps, and different types of dips. And, of course, there was cake. I bought the cake from a place down the road called the Solano County Bakery. It was sooooo good! It was a white cake with custard and fresh strawberry filling!

The cutest paper products ever!

The Buffet

The awesome cake!

Cutting the cake :)

Before the shower ended, there was time to open gifts (while playing Baby shower Bingo). After that, we played a few more games like "Guess the Number of Safety Pins In the Jar" and since there was a whiteboard in the room, I also had everyone draw what they thought Julie and Dave's baby would look like with the best drawing getting a prize. The game prizes were awesome! I was giving away Target and Starbucks gift cards :) In the end, we also came together to take one big group picture which turned out great. The whole shower was loads of fun!

Fun baby shower games!

Drawings of Little Eddie

Group Picture!

NASCAR race in Sonoma.

Post by John

On Father's Day weekend, Jessica and I decided to go watch the NASCAR race in Sonoma at the Infineon Raceway (Sears Point), since we live 3,000 miles away from our dads. I have never been to a race, but Jessica has a many under her belt. I didn't know what to expect. I knew I can't watch NASCAR on TV because watching people drive in an oval for three hours isn't my thing. The raceway in Sonoma is a road course (not an oval track), so I figured it was a good starting point. We left early Sunday morning hoping to beat the traffic, since the road we had to take was a single lane road. Unfortunately, we were about 20 minutes too late and it took us an extra 45 minutes to get to the raceway. When we finally parked and got to the track, it was about two hours before the race started. Jeff Gordon (Jessica's favorite driver) is originally from Vallejo (where Jessica works), so he was having a Q&A session. We didn't get to see it in person but we got to see it on the Jumbotron.

Jessica's Jeffy Weffy on the Big Screen

Our seats were in the ninth row up and we had a pretty good view of the track. Since it is a road course, there really aren't many seats that can see the whole track, but thanks to the Jumbtrons we could see the action that wasn't in our view.

View from our seats

As we waited for the race to start we walked around to the different vendors and watched the aerial show. The jets were pretty cool. The stunts that pulled off were amazing and some of the flybys that they did were so close. The jets were honestly feet away from each other avoiding collisions by mere seconds. Jess and I were almost too anxious too watch.

Chilling out before the race started.

The aerial show.

More of the aerial show.

When the race finally began Jessica was super excited. The cars were loud as they passed, but as Jessica explained it gets a lot louder in the heavily banked, oval tracks. The race went on and had a few cautions, mainly from spin outs. To be completely honest I had a good time. I didn't know what to expect going in, but the experience was great. There was always something to grab my attention and keep me interested. I was surprised.

First Lap around.

Jeff Gordon.

Crash on Turn 7!

Spin Out on Turn 2!

We stayed for about three quarters of the race, but we wanted to leave before everyone was leaving and beat the traffic to get home to the dogs. To our dismay, the line for the shuttle back to our car was ridiculously long, so we decided to huff it and walk the two mile hilly trek back to the car. When we were over half way there a car stopped and asked Jessica if she wanted a ride to the parking lot, so we quickly accepted!

One of the "parking lots"

One very interesting tidbit that I think would only happen on a California race track... In order to go "green", instead of mowing the large infield areas and producing a lot of carbon emissions, the raceway raises its own sheep in order to 'cut' the grass. On our exit from the track we passed by them :) I doubt Daytona does that...

Some of the lawn-mowing sheep