Where Am I going

I am packing my bags to go judging this weekend. I will leave tomorrow and will be leaving wet and windy weather and heading for sunny and temperatures in the high 70's....

This is a statue that I could see...but I actually am more likely to see the inside of a shopping mall...The first of my "guess where I am"? quiz

Weather

Yesterday we left Orlando in 90 degree heat (and 90% humidity) and flew to Denver where there was about 6 of snow on the ground!

The flight that had the plane we were to fly to Portland on, had been delayed somewhere so instead of leaving Denver at 8.55pm we left the gate at 10.25. Then because of the weather we had to get in line to be de-iced...you know how it is when you are at the supermarket and all the lines are going faster than yours...well this was the case at the de-icing station - all lines except ours kept moving along - the pilot kept apologizing for the delay...anyway we finally took off a couple of hours late and arrived (with time changes) back at Portland at 1.30 in the morning and were sound asleep in our own beds at 2am!

Awoke this morning to rain....

It has been suggested to me, that following my blog is sort of like guessing "Where in the world is Lesley?", so with that thought in mind and with upcoming trips, I may post a couple of Where am I?" questions, and see who is good at geography?

Are we crazy? ........Maybe

David and I are on a mileage run. For those of you are not dedicated
mileage addicts like me... This is where you take a quick inexpensive
trip to a destination far away, solely for the purpose of earning miles.
So yesterday we flew to Orlando and are flying back today. We earned
about 12,000 miles for the trip- and these are the miles that count
for status. We want to maintain our 1K (100,000 "bum in seat" miles)
for this year, because of the wonderful upgrade perks.
We had a free night at the hotel, and went shopping at Dillards and
gave the credit card a workout- now waiting for plane and heading home.

High's and Lows

On Saturday David showed our Danish boy - Thomas - Ch Gold Line's Global Dark Horse to a group 3, which was a nice start to their show career, following up on some group placements earlier this summer, when I handled him.

Then today we said goodbye to Java, who was 14 1/2 years old. He is shown here a couple of years ago, with one of his favorite toys. Java was not a show dog (due to an injury as a puppy), nor was he a great sire but he was a beautiful beagle with a glorious head. He lost his battle with cancer but for the 10+ years we had him, he had a very good life. He was registered as Bayou Oaks Zydeco (Ch Starbuck's Hang 'em High x Ch Bayou Oaks Chianti)

Some more pictures from our trip to Europe

I have just received the pictures in this posting from our friend Pia, with whom we had dined in Bratislava. This is the restaurant that we dined at - by day and by night (below)
And then this was the most unusual toilet in the men's room - it was a bucket, which doubled as the urinal. No - Pia did not take the photo, she sent her husband, Knud into the toilet to record this unusual arrangement!

California

Last Friday morning we headed off on our 800 mile drive to the dog show in California.


We drove down I-5 and the fall colors were great and the temperatures were in the low 70's. This is a picture of Mt Shasta (a 14,000ft mountain just across the California border)


This is the spectacular Sundial Bridge in Redding California. It is a functional sundial as well as a foot bridge across the Sacramento River. We stopped near here to exercise the dogs.




On we drove - it was starting to be a long day - we had left at 9am and did not arrive in Pleasanton until 10pm that night. We had all sorts of gourmet food on the trip (not!!) coffee and chicken wraps from Mc Donalds...



Fortunately on Saturday we started about noon, which enabled us to sleep in a bit. The day was moderately successful with Susan winning Best of Opposite in the Sweepstakes and Zoey winning Winners bitch and thus becoming a new champion, at just 11 months - shown here with David.

Susan was WB the next day (but the major broke) none of the other dogs did anything.

We did have dinner with friends Terri & Dan on 2 nights and with another friend on the Monday night.

We decided to stay over Monday night and then make the trip home on Tuesday. So north we drove and passed Shasta Lake, which had a low water level

Finally we saw the sign which told us we were getting closer to home










We had a great time on the trip, but now we have a few days close to home, to get caught up - I do have a HUGE pile of mail needing attention!

Getting ready to leave....

The colors are really gorgeous this year and I am sure that we will see more of them as we head south to California tomorrow. We are going to the specialty and the 2 Del Valle shows (which have entries close to 5000 dogs).
Car is packed, dogs are bathed, suitcases repacked after unpacking them on Monday night and everyone is ready for the shows!

Home for a few days

Home at last and some time to upload my photos before we go to California for shows this weekend. We start off in Dubrovnik and one of the first places we saw, inside the walls is the Onofrio Fountain (famous name to those of us who show dogs in the USA as they are one of the largest superintendants) apart from the fact not much water was coming out of the fountain, and it was a bit plain, it was still a good start to the day.
The vineyard we went to was http://www.vinarijabartulovic.hr/ and our tour guide for the day was Mario, the owner/vintner and he gave us a fabulous trip of not only his vineyards but those of his famous neighbor Grgich, who is also based in Napa Valley





Then we move to Vienna, where we took a catamaran along the Danube to Bratislava - where the World Dog show was held. The final pictures are in Brussels where we spent 2 days before coming home.

Sunday in Brussels

Its a cloudy day and apart from lots of tourists meandering around the streets, not much going on. We are enjoying our stay in the VERY nice room, had a breakfast in a restaurant off the Grand Place have walked the streets and window shopped and are now back relaxing before making the big decision - where to have dinner!

It will undoubtedly be more mussels - just which restaurant.....

Home tomorow.

world show winner

http://www.alotorius.pl/eng-woods.html
is the link for the group winner at the World Show (and pedigree)

we are in Brussels now and will have dinner tonight at a nice restaurant. We are staying at the le meridien opposite the central station - and have been upgraged to a junior suite...nice

Regards,
Lesley Hiltz

Website www.starbucktorbay.com
Blog lhiltz.blogspot.com

Tonight we are dining with friends at this restaurant on the top of the bridge over the Danube (pictured below)

Judging and Dinner tonight

After 216 beagles in 3 separate, tiny rings the ultimate BOB winner
was a dog from Poland ( have to get catalog for more information)

Bratislava

Dinner in Bratislava

We went for a walk to the old town, in search of a restaurant for
dinner. Found an Italian one (but it paled, compared to last night)
The executive lounge here is deserted - we are the only people here.
The front desk could not recommend any restaurants.....sigh.

Dubrovnik, Vienna, Bratislava

We left Dubrovnik around 3pm and had an easy flight to Vienna then
caught a taxi to the city. We got a bargain rate at the
Intercontinental (just 5000 priority inn points) although the hotel
had been recently refurbished and was well appointed, the room was
tiny - about 1/3 the size of the Hilton in Dubrovnik. We found a
family run Italian restaurant and had a great meal sitting outside
enjoying the mild evening. This morning we found a typical Viennese
Coffeehouse for breakfast. Then we headed for the Danube where we
caught our catamaran for the 75 minute cruise to Bratislava. There
were some of the judges on board as well as some exhibits.
The cruise was scenic and relaxing.
We are now at the Crown plaza relaxing in the executive lounge before
meeting some friends for dinner.
Bratislava is a bit stark and depressing the view from the hotel room
is of "exotic sex shop"........

Frustrating

Technology is frustrating me.. It keeps losing my text and then when I
try to do editing, it is in the local Slavic language which I can't
read!

Vienna to Bratislava

Missing text

>
Somehow the text did not accompany the photos so I will add it again

> Yesterday we took a trip on a small boat to Cavtat a town about 15
> miles south of Dubrovnik. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in
> the sky, high 70's and the deep blue, Adriatic sea. We strolled
> around the town, climbed to the high point, for some great views and
> enjoyed a superb gelato before returning on the boat to Dubrovnik.
> Had another Octopus salad (definately our favorite seafood here) and
> then headed back to the hotel

> Here are pictures of the Hilton where we have been staying while in
> Dubrovnik and the view of the old town from the balcony of the
> executive lounge.
> We leave here today and go to Vienna for the night. I hope that I
> have as good an Internet connection there.

Time to move on...

Boat trip to Cavtat

Croatian wine

Today we went on a tour of the Peljesko peninsular with a wine maker.
It was a fantastic experience. We saw the vineyards where they grow
the Plavic Mali grapes (a descendant of Zinfandel) these vineyards on
the steep slopes where the mountains come down to the sea. The
vineyards are so steep that when they pick the grapes they tie ropes
around their waists and rapell down the slope. We were then treated to
a typical lunch of Lentil soup and veal, sauted vegetables and
anchovies - all of which were delicious.

More thoughts on Dubrovnik

The tobacco industry is alive and well here!
The city is amazingly clean - and the white stone that the homes are
built from, creates the illusion everything has just been washed.
The seafood is dissapointing and expensive for a sea side resort.
Cruise ships are a fact of life

Lunch in Dubrovnik. David ordered small fried fish-see below. I tried
one but was not impressed but my salad was good!
We did another cardio workout, climbing up the many steps at the fort
before going to the old town for lunch and cappuccino.

The wall at night

Photos from Dubrovnik

Had a drink here yesterday

Observations on Dubrovnk

Lots of cats
Lots of steps
Great Octopus Salads

Dubrovnik wall walk

Our cardio workout today was the 2 mile walk around the old city.
There were lots of steep steps, lots of tourists, lots of spectacular
views.
I just have to find a way to get pictures off my camera onto some
online storage site, so I can link to them. This post is being made
from my iTouch using my Boingo account(which is much cheaper than what
the Hilton wants to charge for the same Internet access point!)
Must go - off to try some local seafood