Took a little roadtrip with Maika, Kayla and Ana. Ana is being so good!
Hey, what is that little piece of white stuff near her?
Oh my!
OK—other than TP’ing the room behind my back, she is being very good!
Decided to take a little side trip on the way back to Florida. Thought it seemed like a good idea to stop at Ruby Falls for some pix and fresh air for Garbo. Imagine my surprise when I found out that Ruby Falls was inside a cave! To top it off—no dogs were allowed! Ruby Falls is the largest underground waterfalls ever found in the US.
The natural carvings inside the cave were actually more impressive than the falls itself.
This was on one of the side walls. It is a little over a half a mile walk inside the cave to reach the falls. The pathway varies in size—sometimes very narrow, or things hanging overhead.
There are little lights shining on key items for you to view. Then as you get closer to the falls, the guide shines a flashlight—the area at the falls is kept dark. For viewing, there are different colored spotlights shining from under the falls. The lights are kept on for 7-8 minutes and then you are back in total darkness—except for the guy’s flashlight. ??
The lights change color every few minutes—purple, red, green, blue. I would have preferred natural lighting.
When the lights went off, I blindly took this shot of the falls. This is just light from my flash. At least you can see the natural color of the rock. I managed to get a few good “blind” shots.
On the way out, I hung back from the pack and tried to find pieces that weren’t on display with artificial light.
Every so often, there would be little pools of water that were just a few inches deep.
This is part of a side wall. It is the original size of the path when Ruby Falls was discovered. Not a very big space—a lot of crawling involved!
If an Alta-Tollhaus dog is with me, you know there will be travel involved. Kayla was always ready for an adventure and this little G-Force pup is no different. Garbo thought that a road trip to Canada seemed like a good idea. This is after a long day of travel…
Proof that she does hold still.
Ahhhhh….bed! Much better than floor!
Garbo reminds me so much of Kayla!
I might be slightly biased, but this girl is a beauty! Thank you, Julie for breeding such great pups!
I thought I’d share a little about what I’m doing when I’m not at training or showing my dogs and how Nikon got his registered name (Alta-Tollhaus Bono). You know how much I love dogs/GSDs, well, I love U2 and Bono even more. U2 concerts are like my church, my high, my journey to mecca. So this past weekend we went to Chicago for the kickoff ofr the USA leg of their current tour. We went with a friend from town who I met in summer of 2003. I was fixing the printer in her office and she noticed I was wearing a U2 t-shirt. She showed me the U2 picture on her computer desktop, and the rest is history! Now we are really good friends. We met up with more U2 friends from all over (Iowa, Boston, Miami…). These are people I share hotel beds with or sleep out on the cement with once every 4-5 years but when we get together again for another show it’s like we’ve only been apart for a few days. We share a common bond in being obsessed with people who barely know we exist 
I say “barely” because we have met them multiple times, but I doubt they’d remember 
M, Me, and R in front of The Claw. The shirts are concert shirts with the venue and date on the back…..
Phil and I with our friends. The second night, we got in line at 5:30pm (as opposed to 5:30am on Sat) and hung back by the soundboard. The sound and view from back here cannot be beat. Also this is where the VIPs and band people (like the crew, manager, family, etc) hang out.
The mask on my leg is Aung San Suu Kyi. U2 have a lot of political and human rights themes in their songs and concerts. During “Walk On”, people hold up the masks of her face as a protest. They also did bits on the Green Revolution in Iran and a video speech by Desmond Tutu.
R and I with the signs I made last tour (when we are front row we hang them on the rail). R has been a fan way longer than me but it’s not my fault I wasn’t born yet! The last time U2 played in Grand Rapids was 1981, though I did see Bono speak downtown in 2004.
Zombie-like smiles. Saturday we got in line at 5am. There were maybe 100 people ahead of us and we were in the first group let onto the floor. Go big or go home!
The line near us, about 7:30am. Do you know what it’s like to be packed into corrals for hours and then herded like cattle? I do!
These are not my pics (my lenses are not allowed in the stadium, poo!) but this is what the whole monstrosity looks like:
Here it is in Soldier Field before our shows. They have three of these because it takes so long to set them up. At any time, one is setup for shows, one is on the road, and one is being assembled.
Anyway, there you have it, a small taste of my real obsession. I’m still in U2 mode, used to doing a lot more shows in a row than just two but I’m sure they will be back to the USA next summer. Even though I boarded the dogs for five days, I think my lingering euphoria is paying off because Nikon has been doing super in training with me the past few days. The dogs got to meet a Llama while I was gone, maybe that’s about as exciting for them as U2 is for me.
Ok, here’s the skivvy on Pier Cove Beach – officially, pets are no longer allowed. I contacted Ganges Twp and their supervisor told me they were advised by the health dept in Allegan County to stop allowing pets after multiple complaints of poo on the beach. The supervisor’s tone seemed sympathetic and agreed this was another case of a few ruining it for everyone. I made a suggestion that they add some wording to the sign so that people know this is official (people I talked to assumed some disgruntled person put a sign up on their own).
Speaking of skivvies on Pier Cove Beach…
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