Sunday, May 31, 2009

Magellan's trip to the beach



















My name is Magellan, and I want to tell about my super fun day at the beach. I got to go to the North Padre Island National Seashore with my pack and we had a long stretch of beach to ourselves because we used our 4 wheel drive. I loved having my head out the window as we scoped out a spot, and then Dad and Lazie showed me how to swim in the waves. I really loved chasing all of the shore birds and I basically ran for about three straight hours. After all that running, I got hungry and I found some crabs along the beach. The birds had eaten most of them, but I still liked having them hang out of my mouth. I finally tired out and just wanted to sit on Mom's lap for a while. It was a super fun day, and I love my new pack.

Jellie

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Alaska Trip




Julie and I went to Alaska last week. I was attending the American Water Resources Association conference on Water Supply and Climate Change where I presented a paper with my colleague Laura Stroup. Julie just came along for fun.

The conference was in Anchorage which was nice. We rented bicycles and rode the coastal trail which has a great view of Mt. McKinley. Once the conference ended, we rented a car and drove to Homer which was awesome. On the way to Homer, we had a great view of Mt. Redoubt which is currently an active volcano. It was releasing a decent amount of ash, but it did not affect our travels at all. In Homer, bald eagles were all over the place. Mainly, they just hung out around the beach. We also took a boat ride to Gull Island to see some puffins. After Homer, we drove to Seward and spent most of the day at Exit Glacier and with sled dogs. We even took a sled ride pulled by the dogs. They sure are good at what they do!

We saw four moose, two lynx, beavers, a harbor seal, numerous fish and bird species, but Julie was partial to the dogs! It was a really nice trip.

Kevin

Photos: Julie and I at Exit Glacier. From the dog sled. Biking the coastal trail

Sunday, May 03, 2009

Meet Magellan




Meet Magellan Hayes Romig. He is our newest pack member that we adopted last Thursday. We rescued him from the German Shorthair Pointer of North Texas Organization. He is a cross between a German Shorthair and German Wirehair Pointer. We do not know a lot about his previous living arrangements, but he loves to play with Moses and Lazarus, and he is super-interested in Grace. Way too interested in her opinion. He is about 1.5 years old, and he is full of energy, healthy, and is super sweet. He likes sniffing around the yard, going on long walks, and so far he is not too fond of swimming at the river-- although he did try it. We anticipated picking him up after our trip to Alaska, but the rescue organization was in need of opening a slot in foster care so much! We believe this is another situation arising from the economic meltdown, thanks again Bush and Cheney!

You might be wondering how he got the name Magellan? His name had been Charlie, but we did not think that went with his personality. We had explored many biblical names to keep our theme going such as Elijah, Abraham, Obadiah, Solomon but none of those worked. We also considered other names like Angus, Fredrick, Deupree, Granite, and Inspector McBirdie. So, we went for a walk this evening in the canyon, and I had the insane idea of letting all three dogs off leash. Lazarus went off to poop immediately like a super-good boy. Moses, did his small circle route before rejoining the pack after about 15 seconds. Charlie, went tearing off through the woods. We lost sight of him after about 10 seconds. We all went after him and called his name over and over. We walked about a mile through the canyon looking for him. It got dark, so we decided to go home. When we arrived home, here is the dog waiting for us at the garage. He went off exploring and ended up circumnavigating the neighborhood! His name became Magellan. As for the middle name, it celebrates Rutherford Hayes who was one of our most famous bearded presidents.

The pack will be in good hands this week with Kayla house sitting. She already mentioned possibly going tubing with Laz!

Kevin