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Photo Friday: Walking the National Mall (Washington, D.C.)

Today’s photo was sent to me by Heather Kalinowski, an animal lover who is owned by two dogs – a Spaniel mix named Jackson and an Italian Greyhound named Ava. While she has traveled all over the country, she has settled in Seattle, where she is the internet journalist at Trupanion, a pet insurance company.

The National Mall is an enormous open space in the middle of Washington, D.C., stretching from the U.S. Capitol at one end to the Lincoln Memorial at the other and passing, along the way, most of the Smithsonian Museum, the Washington Monument, the Tidal Basin, the Reflecting Pool, and a clutch of war memorials, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial designed by Maya Lin. It is, in effect, America’s front lawn — a vast playground, picnic area, promenade, and gathering point. A particularly beautiful time to visit is in last March/early April, when the cherry trees around the Tidal Basin bloom. In the summer, Washington, D.C. is blisteringly hot, and also humid, so be sure to take Heather’s advice: Walk slowly and carry lots of water.

Heather and family at the west end of the Reflecting Pool. Unfortunately, the Washington Monument, seen over Heather's right shoulder, does not allow pet dogs inside.

Here’s what Heather said about the afternoon: “When we reached the Lincoln Memorial, we sat on the steps to rest for a while. The sun was starting to set and the view was amazing. The dogs seemed to sense the history of that place as much as I did and stood looking around for a few minutes. My husband re-stocked up on water and I sat there for a long moment with my two fur-kids, just soaking it all in.”

I’d love to see how you and your dog spent time together this week — please post your pictures on Dog Jaunt’s Facebook page, so we can all see them!

Reader’s report: Dog-friendly Sheraton Hotel in Bellevue, WA

Bellevue, to the east of Seattle, across Lake Washington, is starting to steal a little of Seattle’s thunder. If nothing else, the parking is better on the east side of the lake, and the new-ish Bravern mall is the closest the Puget Sound area gets to glam. And being on the east side, it’s close to Microsoft and Google, and a host of smaller companies. I was happy, therefore, to get a report from reader Jennifer about her recent 4-day stay at the Sheraton Bellevue. She was traveling with her husband and Sophie, their 13.5 week-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy.

It is my firm belief that there is nothing in the world cuter than a Cavalier puppy. I realize I'm stepping on some toes by saying that, including Chloe's, but...damn.

Never fear, there will be more Sophie pictures. Here’s the report:

Sheraton offered a dog bed, biscuits, and bowls for Sophie, but we declined them since we had brought our own supplies. The booking and front desk staff was very positive and enthusiastic about Sophie visiting, and they had dog biscuits ready to go in the lobby. The front desk help were very accommodating about making sure we had our room in the optimal location for her to go out and use the “facilities”.

The grounds are mostly bark with some low lying ground cover, but no grass. The rooms are smallish, but our ground floor room is quiet with just the vaguest hint of road noise. It was adequately clean, but not really clean to the level that one would hope for. The building was remodeled in 2008 and our room has a nautical feel with local boat pictures from UW and the harbor. The beds are adequately comfortable, and the pillows and comforter are very plush and cozy, but not really elegant or upscale. It is a basic smallish business class hotel that does the job without many frills. There is a large flat screen TV in the room, which my husband appreciates. So far it’s gone great with Sophie, except she has been reluctant to go potty, but did eventually go outside, thank goodness.

I loved your idea of oil cloth to keep the hotel (and other) floors clean, so I got my own to go under Sophie’s water bowl. I ordered three yards and cut the cloth in half so I have two equal pieces that can overlap to form a square. It is thick and impermeable, and easy to clean up with enzymatic cleaner. For this current trip, I only brought one section and folded it to go where her food and water are located. I took note of how you pointed out the pattern on your oil cloth competed with the carpet pattern in your hotel [“Chloe’s digs: A consistent set-up for a small dog in a hotel room“] and found a pretty pattern in brown and white, that would go OK with many backgrounds.

[Jennifer used the same oil cloth in a different configuration under Sophie’s play pen, when she brought her to her workplace so her students could meet the new puppy:]

I also brought a sheet from home to put on the hotel bed to keep it as fur-free as possible, with limited success as you can see — of course, that’s our fault for not having her stay on top of the bed.

Jennifer included some pictures of how she and her husband set up their hotel room during their stay. I note that they’re training Sophie with Poochie Bells, and I like their storage baskets — a very chic alternative to my totes:

And it’s always nice to see a puppy that’s content in her crate:

She's in there, snoozing -- see her nose and paws on the right?

This was Jennifer’s first hotel stay with Sophie, and it looks like she and her husband handled it beautifully. Thank you so much, Jennifer, for your report, for your kind words of praise (“I’m constantly telling my husband, ‘Well, Mary-Alice says… on Dog Jaunt…’ when we are trying to make decisions about how to transport Sophie, or when thinking about what products to purchase”), and for the pictures. Oh, the pictures!

Making a reservation on Allegiant with an in-cabin dog

This is just a quick post to highlight a recent change in Allegiant’s pet policy. In another post, I’ve mentioned the problem you sometimes run into when you make your plane reservation on-line: If you’re not able to add your pet to your reservation on-line (and most airlines don’t yet allow you to do that), you run the risk of calling to add your pet to your reservation and learning that all the spaces for in-cabin pets on your flight are already taken. If you call to make your reservation, however, you may pay an extra fee, and potentially forego mile awards for booking on-line.

Airlines handle the problem in different ways, but Allegiant’s policy now says: “To book a reservation with a pet, please contact the Allegiant Reservation Center and use option 1 and tell the agent you are booking with a pet. The per segment Booking Fees will be waived.”

Chloe’s Clicks: Last week’s best dog travel links

I relaxed a little too much this weekend, and failed to write my Chloe’s Clicks post yesterday. Never mind — here it is, and it’s a good one.

We begin with a terrific series of posts that Edie Jarolim, blogging at Will My Dog Hate Me?, wrote about her recent flight from Tucson to San Diego (and back, of course) with her dog Frankie. Edie is a wonderful writer, and she handles her issues (anxiety over Frankie) and Frankie’s issues (diabetes, and potential anxiety, given his unhappiness with car travel) with humor and style. The series begins with making travel plans, continues with buying an in-cabin carrier, considering ways to reduce Frankie’s travel anxiety (wherein it is revealed that Edie “used to love Quaaludes”), and feeding Frankie while traveling, and concludes with the triumphant news that Frankie flew like a champion and Edie did too.

The rest of this week’s links hop around the country, and the globe. Starting here in the Pacific Northwest, CityDog Magazine published a list of beautiful dog-friendly campgrounds in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, and British Columbia. The folks at youdidwhatwithyourweiner took themselves and a group of intrepid friends (including two more intrepid Dachshunds) on a serious hike in the Seattle area — the gruelling Mount Si hike — and both species had a great, though exhausting, time.

Dropping down the West Coast, Sue Hecht at Have Dog Blog Will Travel wrote a quick post about dog-friendly places to stay in lovely Ojai, CA. Heading east and north, Tamar Fleishman wrote a very tempting article in the San Diego Reader about visiting Pelee Island, in Ontario, with her dog Jeffy.

We re-enter the States and visit Hershey Park, in Pennsylvania, with help from Amusement Park Mom, who recommends leaving your dog not at The Barking Lot but rather at Club Fido. We head east to catch up with the Kimpton Crawl team, which reported on the dog-friendly B&Bs they found in Maine, Vermont, Quebec, upstate New York, and Ohio.

Down the East Coast we go, to Hilton Head, SC — The Road Unleashed team wrote a post about three dog-friendly restaurants they found, and the photos have me gnawing on my keyboard. We end up in Sarasota, FL, with an article from the Herald-Tribune about the area’s dog parks.

One way to travel between all these stops would be by RV, and who better to write a post about RV rental companies with dog-friendly policies than the Take Paws team? As I said on Dog Jaunt‘s Facebook page, this is a post that I wish I had written.

I’ll leave you with two links from abroad — one is a cautionary post from an Ecuadorian condo rental company, about the hazards of bringing a dog to Ecuador. I include it because it’s helpful to know in advance about the way an unfamiliar culture feels about pet dogs. Despite the warnings, I would travel to Ecuador with Chloe (if the opportunity arose!) — I would, however, use the warnings to help me prepare carefully, and travel respectfully. Compare and contrast this wonderful post from The Vagabond Adventures team, about their recent visit to the Victoria Falls, in Zimbabwe. All of the pictures are marvelous, but I was riveted by the shot of Bow Wow approaching a jackal — read the caption for the whole story.

Photo Friday: Ceri the Cavalier at Cannon Beach

Today’s photo was taken about a week ago by reader Yvette. Yvette and Ceri, her 10 month-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, took a road trip to Cannon Beach, OR, and here’s part of her report:

We’re having a blast in Cannon Beach — it’s been interesting for me figuring out what to do with her when I want to go in a store and all that, but so many places here just have me bring her in with me.  And thankfully enough places have decks and the weather’s been gorgeous so I just eat outside (and my oh my if that wasn’t lucky yesterday when I stumbled on a fantastic burger and beer!). Plus, even though I’m not 100% confident in her recall (she’s smart, but like all Cavaliers a bit ditzy when there’s a seagull to chase), I decided to put her off-leash on the beach since there’s really nowhere for her to “escape” to – and that’s been super fun for both of us…I think I turned her into a fetch addict!!!

How -- how?? -- is it that Ceri's paws are still daintily white? Chloe is such a grub-ball compared to this lovely lady.

I’d love to see how you and your dog spent time together this week — please post your pictures on Dog Jaunt’s Facebook page, so we can all see them!

My 7 links: The pick of the litter

Until last night, I didn’t know I was going to write this post. I wasn’t aware that Tripbase, a traveler’s resource site, had started a — well, a movement, really — called “My 7 links,” designed to get travel bloggers to highlight their best posts and their most interesting colleagues. I certainly had no idea that lovely Chris Faust, who writes a really outstanding travel blog called Chris Around the World, would nominate me to participate (here is her “My 7 links” post).

What a fun way to spend the evening, though — looking back through the posts on Dog Jaunt, and really thinking about which posts have worked, or sort-of worked, or, alas, didn’t work. How fun, too, to think about the travel bloggers I know, and to choose five of them to ask for their thoughts on their writing (my five picks are at the end of this post!).

Thanks so much, Chris, and here are my seven links.

1. My most beautiful post

Here’s the problem: I don’t actually write “beautiful” posts — I’m a how-to blogger, and my best posts are likely to be described instead as “thorough,” “well-researched” or “useful.” I also take terrible pictures — I use my phone camera, generally, and Chloe’s made a habit of tugging on the leash just when I click the button — so I can’t even give you a picture of a Big Sur sunset.

For me, then, my most beautiful post is a report from our first trip with Chloe to Paris, last September, because it describes an ambitious trip (for a traveling dog owner) that worked perfectly. Having Chloe with us added a remarkable new dimension to our enjoyment of a favorite city, and I hope the post, and the others from that trip, encourage other people to make similar plans.

2. My most popular post

Oh, this one’s easy. My collection of actual measurements of airplane under-seat spaces is crucially important for people planning to travel with an in-cabin dog, but I suspect that a substantial number of the people who find the page aren’t dog owners at all. How surprised they must be to end up at Dog Jaunt!

3. My most controversial post

I wrote a post last June about Chloe’s “stealth bag,” and my thoughts on when I will, and will not, choose to sneak Chloe into a place where she’s not allowed. It generated a lot of comments, and rightly so — I’m certain, of course, that the lines I draw are sensible and appropriate, but so is a person whose behavior I deplore. I think it’s helpful to have the discussion every so often, so that the arguments from all directions can be aired.

4. My most helpful post

It has to be the post I wrote about choosing a microchip for your dog. You cannot — you simply cannot — imagine how Byzantine the story of microchipping is, and how tricky it is to understand the differences between the available chips, and decide which makes the most sense for a traveling dog. I think this post does a good job of sorting through the issues — “I tore my hair out, so you don’t have to,” is Dog Jaunt’s motto.

5. A post whose success surprised me

I cannot account for the crazy success of a recent post reviewing the new Timbuk2 “Muttmover” dog backpack. My best guess is that a corporate directive went out, requiring every employee of Timbuk2, plus all their relatives, to Stumble it. Either that, or people were enchanted by the Pre-Raphaelite beauty of Chloe’s ears.

6. A post I feel didn’t get the attention it deserved

I was reading through a week’s crop of dog travel links about a year ago, and came across an article by a guy who questioned why anyone would bring their dog to Oaxaca with them. It struck a nerve, and I wrote what was, for me, an impassioned response. Some good friends commented on it, at the time, but it soon disappeared from view, and I’m not sure why.

7. The post I’m most proud of

Last year, a reader wrote and asked how her car-less aunt might travel up the East Coast with a dog, and it prompted me to pull together a bunch of work I’d done about taking a small dog on various East Coast transit systems and see if they could be linked up to create a workable journey between Washington, D.C. and NYC using just public transit. It turns out that you can’t…quite…do it, because SEPTA and MTA Maryland don’t overlap. I love transit maps, and logistics, and it was a joy to dig into the various systems involved and see how they could work together. Remember? “I tear my hair out, so you don’t have to.”

Here are five travel bloggers that I’d love to see a “My 7 links” post from:

The Global Citizen Project

The Carey Adventures

Delicious Baby

travellious

The Road Forks

How much does it cost to travel with a dog? The cost of two recent trips

So how much does it cost to travel with a dog? There are as many answers as there are travelers — someone traveling cross-country by car will have one answer, someone traveling by RV will have another. A traveler on a tight budget will have a third, and so on. That said, I thought it might be helpful to share with you the costs of a couple of trips I took recently, focusing on how much I spent to bring Chloe with me and comparing those costs to the cost of leaving her at home, in someone else’s care.

It’ll help you to know that I’m a luxury-loving traveler, but I have my limits. I’m typically willing to spend between $100 and $250 a night on a hotel, which puts me in hotels like Hampton Inn & Suites (on the lower end) and the Kimpton Group (on the upper end). I will not sneer at a La Quinta, and on a special occasion I will splash out on a fab hotel. Similarly, I will pay more for extra legroom on a domestic flight, when it’s offered (typically, Economy Plus on United), and I will save my miles until I can afford a business-class ticket for international travel, but otherwise, I’m an Economy kind of gal.

A weekend trip from Seattle to San Francisco

My most recent trip was a weekend trip (Saturday to Monday) from Seattle to San Francisco. I flew on Virgin America, and I stayed at a Kimpton hotel on the waterfront. The cost of bringing Chloe with me was $296, broken down as follows:

Virgin America pet fee (in-cabin): $200 ($100 each way)
Health certificate: $96 ($68 for the exam, $27.85 for the certificate) [3/9/12 Virgin America no longer requires a health certificate]

There were no other pet-related costs, since the Kimpton hotels do not have a pet fee.

If I had left Chloe behind, I would have either had to hire a petsitter or leave her in a kennel. Here, too, personal preference and budget plays a part — you can find kennels and petsitters in all price ranges. I might consider leaving Chloe with Seattle’s Downtown Dog Lounge, which charges $44 per night (for stays under seven nights). I’d be more likely to have the folks at Little Furry Things stay in the house and walk her three times — the third walk is extra, so I’d be spending $70 a day plus $20 for the extra walk.

My costs for leaving Chloe at home last weekend, therefore, would be either $132 (I returned home too late to pick her up on Monday, so she’d have spent three days at the Downtown Dog Lounge) or about $200 (depending on how much Little Furry Things charged for an extra walk on Saturday, and an evening visit on Monday).

A three-week car trip around New England

My previous trip was a three-week driving trip with Chloe around New England. I stayed in three hotels, but otherwise slept in friends’ guest rooms (thank you, dear friends!). I flew to Manchester, N.H. on Southwest, and returned to Seattle from NYC on JetBlue. The cost of bringing Chloe with me was $341, broken down as follows:

Southwest pet fee (in-cabin): $75
JetBlue pet fee (in-cabin): $100
Health certificate: $96
Hampton Inn (Nashua, NH) pet fee: $50
Cassio Pet Resort daycare fee (see below): $20

Neither the Hotel Marlowe, a Kimpton hotel in Cambridge, MA, nor the Inn at Saratoga, in Saratoga, NY, charged a pet fee. There was no fee for taking Chloe on the Metro-North trains, and it did not cost anything to bring her with us on the New York City metro. We left Chloe at the Cassio Pet Resort in Newtown, CT one Sunday afternoon, when we could not bring her with us to an appointment.

The cost of leaving Chloe at home would have been either $840 (the rate at the Downtown Dog Lounge drops to $40 per night for stays longer than a week) or $1890 (the Little Furry Things site doesn’t mention a discount for longer stays).

Your results may be different, as I said — you, indeed, may have friends or family who will petsit or housesit for free. But these two trips show that while a weekend trip with a pet dog can be pricey (I essentially paid $100 for the pleasure of Chloe’s company), bringing your dog with you on a longer trip may actually save a significant amount of money. I’m not counting, of course, the “cost” of leaving Chloe behind, and worrying about her well-being, nor am I counting the benefit of having her with me — I’m just talking dollars and cents.

Photo Friday: Another city, another scoop law sign

Actually, I’ve got two scoop law signs for you from our recent trip to Vancouver, B.C. The first is from a city park in downtown Vancouver, and although it gets around the problem of depicting dog poop too realistically, I think it goes too far in the other direction:

Also, please note how the dog's owner is making no move whatever to pick up the poop. Or the ball. Or whatever that object is. (And yes, I agree -- just ask her out.)

The other sign is one that I saw frequently during the course of the afternoon. Here’s what it normally looks like:

I have no idea what the owner is using to clean up with -- my best guess is a plunger and an omelette pan

And here’s the version that had me crying with laughter:

There really is nothing that can't be improved with googly eyes

I hope that you and your pup had a marvelous week. If you were out and about together, please post your photos on Dog Jaunt’s Facebook page so we can all see them!

New York’s Tenement Museum: Walking tours

When we visited New York last summer, we took the advice of a friend and went to the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side. The museum brings to life, through a series of guided tours, the tenement at 97 Orchard Street. It was built in 1863 and, over the decades, housed immigrants from all over Europe. The tour we went on was called “The Moores: An Irish Family in America,” and it was fascinating. I was happy, therefore, to see that the Museum now offers a couple of walking tours which explicitly do not enter any buildings — perhaps it would be okay to bring a dog along, I thought, so I called the Museum this morning and asked.

The person I spoke to didn’t go quite as far as saying that pet dogs were not allowed (service dogs are, of course, okay), but rather said that they were strongly discouraged, because they would be “distracting.” What if they were in a carrier, I asked, and I got the same response, but with a certain lack of conviction. Here’s what I think: I think that if you showed up with your dog in a stealth carrier and didn’t draw attention to her, you’d be fine. You might even get away with an exquisitely-behaved leashed dog, but I’m not so confident about that. Chloe is not exquisitely-behaved, so I plan to take the stealth bag approach — but I plan to do it sometime other than the summer, when the Lower East Side is scorchingly hot, even outside the tenement building.

There are currently three walking tours on the Museum’s site. One is a food-tasting tour, called “Taste of the Lower East Side.” Given how squirrelly food establishments are about dogs, I’d either avoid this tour, or make sure that Chloe was entirely invisible in her stealth bag. The other two tours, “Immigrant Soles” and “Next Steps,” do not involve food tasting. It’s not clear from the descriptions how they differ, other than that “Next Steps” crosses Delancey Street, and is apparently longer than “Immigrant Soles.” It’s important to note that both are very long (90 minutes and 2 hours), so eat your Wheaties before hoisting your dog onto your shoulder.

San Francisco, CA dog-friendly hotel: Harbor Court Hotel

You know from previous posts how much I adore Kimpton hotels — they welcome dogs with open arms, they have an irresistible, quirky decor, they ply guests with refreshing/cooling/restorative beverages and nibblies at all hours, and the company nobly supported the most recent travel bloggers’ fundraiser (Passports with Purpose), contributing in no small way to the building of a village in India. The weekend I just spent at the Kimpton’s Harbor Court Hotel in San Francisco, however, was not blissful, because of the room I chose. I should mention that I paid my own way at the Harbor Court Hotel — I’ll always let you know when something I’m reviewing has been paid for by someone else.

On the positive side

The hotel has a fantastic location on the bay, just across from the Ferry Building (nirvana for anyone who loves food) and with a magnificent view of the Bay Bridge. It’s a mere matter of crossing the street to find a beautiful walk along the Bay, and an excellent piece of lawn, just under the “Cupid’s Span” statue.

"Cupid's Span," a Claes Oldenburg sculpture across the street from the hotel -- and a small park perfect for a visiting dog

The hotel building itself, the 1908 YMCA building (and still partly occupied by the YMCA), is lovely — you can’t tell it’s lovely from what’s now the main entrance, on Steuart Street, but when you’re walking on the Bay, look back at it and admire.

The Harbor Court Hotel building, from the Embarcadero. Ozumo, the house restaurant, is on the ground floor on the right-hand side

The hotel restaurant, Ozumo, is outstanding. I went there with friends on one night, and returned alone the next night, and I’d return tonight if I could. The food is delicious, the service is attentive and kind, and the restaurant has the same Bay views the hotel has.

We were welcomed warmly, and enjoyed, at various times, coffee and wine in the lobby. There is a hotel dog, a French Bulldog belonging to one of the staff members — he was friendly, but we didn’t see much of him. Because I’m a Kimpton InTouch member (and you should be too), wifi was free and I received a $10 minibar credit, which I promptly spent on chips and a beer. There was no pet fee, and there are no pet size maximums.

On the negative side

The room I chose (a “Queen Room”) was tiny and overlooked the air shaft. The bathroom was small and unimproved. When I tell you that the TV was located near the ceiling, over the closet door, and that after one look outside I never opened either the sheers or the blinds, you’ll get the idea. The friend I was visiting, a veteran of the hotel, tells me that it’s crucial to reserve a “Bay View Room.” It won’t be any larger, but having the windows open, and seeing what you’ll see, will improve your spirits considerably.

The front desk is warm-hearted, but certainly not polished. I find that charming, but it may test your patience. Breathe deeply, and think about the restorative beverages.

*  *  *

The friend I mentioned ended up staying at another San Francisco Kimpton hotel, the Hotel Palomar, because the Harbor Court Hotel was full by the time she made her reservations. I had a chance to see that lobby, and her room, as well, and I can report that the Hotel Palomar (at 4th and Market) is nicely located for downtown shopping, the hotel dog (a senior chocolate Lab named Maverick, who sleeps on a low-lying part of the reception desk) is a sweetheart, and my friend’s room was about three times the size of mine (and her bathroom was glamorous). On balance, though, I preferred the Harbor Court’s location and restaurant — and next time, I’ll spend a little more to get a room that doesn’t depress me.