Saturday, July 24, 2010

Alden Lane Adventure

Reyna and Wendy sitting in front of a cut out of an old red truck that says Alden Lane Nursery.

On Thursday, Glenda and I took a trip to Livermore to the Alden Lane Nursery. Of course, Reyna and Wendy came along too! I am in the middle of remodeling my backyard, and I wanted to get some ideas for plants and landscaping. This was really the perfect place because they have such a large selection of plants. Wendy and Reyna enjoyed walking around and smelling the flowers. Both dogs were very good as Glenda and I stopped and looked at the plants and wrote down which ones I liked.

Reyna in a sit and Wendy in a down in front of the water foutain at the nursery.

There was a very pretty fountain in the middle of the nursery, so I thought it would be a nice spot for a photo op. Wendy and Reyna were happy to take a few photos, but then they both wanted to continue to explore the nursery. One thing that was really neat was there were these HUGE oak trees everywhere with really, really long branches. They were pretty amazing to look at. I found one tree that had a branch that went from the ground all the way up to the trunk of the tree. It was sort of like a balance beam, but wider. I showed it to Reyna, and to my surprise, she walk right up into the tree! I guess all of that work with the agility equipment in our club paid off. So there Reyna was, sitting in a tree, literally. She was so confident and you would have thought she had done this a hundred times. So, of course, I had to get some pictures of this. Here are some pictures of Reyna in the tree. She had a blast in the tree and she had to be told to get out of it. I wonder what other people in the nursery thought when they saw a guide dog puppy in a tree? Yep, this GDB puppy has special talents! Check out how happy Reyna was in the tree:

A photo at a distance of Reyna sitting in an oak tree.

A close up of Reyna sitting in the oak tree.  She has a big smile on her face.

These next two pictures might be GDB calendar worthy!

A very close up photo of Reyna's face while she is in the tree.  She has a huge smile on her face you can see her pink tongue.  The background of the photo is all oak tree branches.

A another close up of Reyna in the tree.  This photo is similiar to the last one but it is not taking straight on, it is more of a profile shot.  I am acutally taking this photo from beneath Reyna (since she is elevated).  She is similing with her pink tongue showing.

Wendy was not interested in climbing into the tree, so when Reyna finally got down we took a photo of both dogs in front of one of the trees. You can see in the background the long tree branches. It was very cool!

Wendy and Reyna sitting in front of an oak tree both with very expressive faces.  Oak tree branches are in the background.

After the tree adventure, we went over to check out the water features. I allowed Reyna the opportunity to explore the water fountains because I wasn’t sure if she had ever really seen one up close like that before. She had a great time exploring them, and she kept trying to bite at the water! Silly girl.

Reyna biting at the water in a water fountain.

The other thing that was neat about this place was that they had little buildings everywhere like the one below. This one was the Botanical Bistro, I thought it was so cute that I got a photo of Reyna and Wendy in it. Reyna was happy to do this because it provided her with some shade, and she really needed a break from the sun. It was pretty hot out that day!

Reyna and Wendy sitting on the porch of the Botanical Bistro.

It was a successful trip on two levels. The first was that I found everything I needed to finish my backyard. And second, it was an awesome socialization experience for Reyna (and a good place to take pictures, too!)

Reyna sitting and smiling in front of a field of colorful flowers.

3 comments:

  1. I love the pictures of Wendy and Reyna :) Those pictures of Reyna on the tree are pretty cool!

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  2. Thanks, they are pretty cute together, aren't they? I think it is so neat to be able to spend so much time with my last pup (Wendy) and my current pup (Reyna). It is even better that they are such good friends! They really, really LOVE each other. Hopefully Wendy will like my next pup just as much.

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  3. It is sooo beautiful there. I just went to Alden Lane a few months back for the first time and it was so such a nice place. Those tress are amazing. We took our pup in training Tenaya.

    Great photos and what a brave dog Reyna is. That picture with Wendy and Reyna in front of the fountain or in front of the tree (I can't decide they are all great photos) also looks like great calendar photo.

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