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Interlaken Park: A dog-friendly forest in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood

How embarrassing! I’ve lived on Capitol Hill in Seattle for five years now, and only this past weekend discovered the trailhead for Interlaken Park, a 51-acre chunk of forest in the middle of a very urban neighborhood. Normally when Chloe and I reach the five-way intersection at Galer and 19th Avenue E., we head east to walk past the beautiful homes between 19th and 23rd. Last Friday, though, we turned north instead, and found a bit of dog heaven. The trails are steep (a friend who works at the nearby Volunteer Park Café advised us to “go down, not up” — which, sadly, isn’t possible), but they’re well-maintained, and lots of flagged seedlings and other plants demonstrate that the park is being carefully restored and tended. I haven’t found a good trail map yet, but as you’ll see when you look at the street map, the park isn’t big enough to get lost in.

I swear my legs are not this short in real life.

Leashed dogs are welcome (be sure to bring your own poop bags). You’ll encounter lots of off-leash dogs and their owners too; so far all of the dogs we’ve met have been well-behaved and civil.

Our next adventure, when I’m feeling extra-fit, will be to walk from Interlaken Park to the Arboretum, which also welcomes leashed dogs (though not in the Japanese Garden). The most attractive way to go would be along East Interlaken Boulevard, another link in the necklace of parks and boulevards crafted by the Olmsted Brothers at the beginning of the last century, but I don’t think Interlaken has any sidewalks. Boyer Avenue E. does, but perhaps not east of 24th. I’ll check it out and report back to you. [2/15/11 I’ve checked now, and Boyer Avenue E. does have sidewalks east of 24th — so that’s the way I’d suggest you head east to the Arboretum, once you make your way to the northeast corner of Interlaken Park, which is pretty much at the corner of Boyer and 24th.]

Reader’s report: Flying with an in-cabin dog on a Sun Country 737-800

I don’t fly on Sun Country, so I was delighted when reader Bev sent me an e-mail (with photos!) about a couple of recent trips she took with her Shih Tzu on two Sun Country 737s (one an -800 series, and the other either an -800 or a -700 series). Since she didn’t have a tape measure with her (and who, besides me, does?), Bev cleverly measured the available under-seat space with her feet and a laptop case.

She told me that her Shih Tzu traveled in a medium Sherpa carrier, which she oriented front-to-back (not left-to-right) under the seat in front of her. A medium Sherpa carrier is 17″ long, 11″ wide, and 10.5″ tall. She sat in a middle seat, since Sun Country does not allow in-cabin dogs under aisle seats. She measured the width of the under-seat space using her feet:

“There was about 4″ on the left side of the carrier to the leg of the seat (enough for my shoe), then maybe 3″ on the right side (tight fit for my shoe). The front of the bag did stick out a couple of inches but not enough to create a problem.”

View showing space on either side of a medium Sherpa carrier

And the height? On her first flight, she observed that “the top of the carrier had maybe a 1/2″ inch to spare but I wouldn’t say for sure. I did not have to force it so there was some space to be able to slide it in.” On her return flight, she propped a 13″ laptop case up next to her dog’s carrier, and decided that the available space is “probably 9.5 or 10″ high.”

Bev noted that “the carrier has to be tilted to get it into position under the seat,” and on the return trip she noticed an obstruction under the seat. She wasn’t sure what it was, but her guess (and mine) is that it’s a container for a flotation device. Since Sherpa bags have pretty rigid ends, but flexible tops, that makes sense to me — she’d have to tilt the rigid end under the flotation device to get the carrier past it, then the top of the carrier would flex to fit around the container.

It’s likely that Bev couldn’t reach the obstruction to figure out what it was, given how short Sun Country’s pitch is. As Bev said, “I can’t stress enough there is not much room between your seat and the back of the seat in front of you. I could not reach down to the carrier without intruding on the person’s space on either side of me.”

Sun Country has an upper weight limit of 16 lbs., for pet plus carrier, which Bev knew. “At check-in they weighed her inside the carrier at 19.5 lbs, but before I left home I weighed her inside the carrier at 14.5 lbs. She weighs 11 to 14 lbs and the carrier weighs 2.87 lbs. The clerk just marked 19.5 lbs on the slip that is attached to her carrier and no one said anything about being over the 16 lbs.”

Bev sent me a picture of the aisle’s under-seat space, and it looks like it’s very narrow indeed — probably wide enough for Bev’s carrier, oriented front-to-back (so I appreciate her regret that that space isn’t available to in-cabin dogs), but much too narrow for Chloe’s large SturdiBag, oriented left-to-right.

This post is part of an ongoing series recording under-seat measurements of the various planes we fly on. Keep in mind that most domestic and international airlines have rules about the maximum size of in-cabin pet carriers they allow on board (see Dog Jaunt’s handy charts under the “Taking your pet on a plane” tab above).

Chloe’s Clicks: This week’s (and last week’s too!) best dog travel links

I have such a backlog of dog travel links for you (two weeks’ worth, plus a little!) that the only thing to do is tell you about them in the order they reached me — starting with the wonderful Maggie in Venice, mentioned in previous Chloe’s Clicks. The Imbodens have returned to Venice with Maggie, their Bearded Collie, and their recent posts include a view of their new home, a post about the logistics of flying with Maggie from New York, a not-to-be-missed short video about their trip (including — ah, Venice! — Maggie’s water taxi ride), and a visit to a favorite (and dog-friendly) bakery and pet store. If I were you, I’d just go ahead and follow the site. Whenever I read their posts, my fantasy of living in Paris part-time with Chloe seems achievable.

Speaking of traveling to Italy, here’s a great post, with lots of pictures, from To Dog with Love about Diane and Cosmo’s arrival in Rome. Since I’ve waited so long to write this post, I can also point you to two more posts Diane wrote from Rome — one about a walk with Cosmo in the Parco della Villa Borghese and another, with divine pictures, about eating out in Rome.

And here’s a third post about traveling to Italy, but this time from the U.K. Author Willemijn Lindeboom talks you through the steps to take going in both directions (don’t miss the comments, which provide additional information), and offers very useful advice about, among other things, avoiding poison set out by territorial truffle hunters. Her website, villainumbria.com, “has a list of private villas where dogs are welcome and also a list with dog friendly holiday apartments.”

Since we’re talking about abroad, I’ll reshuffle a bit and point you to an article from The StarPhoenix about Pet Delicia, a new restaurant in Rio de Janeiro offering “all-natural” food for dogs — eat in, or take out. Another blogger, Unreleased Bitterness, posted pictures of the menu from Michi, a pet-friendly Japanese restaurant in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. In the Edinburgh area, check out The Wally Dug, a dog-friendly pub praised in Dugs ‘n’ Pubs.

Not to be outdone, Los Angeles now has an ice-cream truck for dogs, called Phydough. Check out these posts from Eater and from Drink Eat Travel for more details. Chloe wouldn’t need more details, once she learned that Duckfat was one of the ice cream flavors….

Here a link that will help you travel all over the world. Our friends at Kimpton Crawl tweeted about Boutique Homes, featuring architecturally-pleasing “contemporary vacation rentals from ocean front, city apartment to mountain cabin.” You can’t search up-front for dog-friendly rentals, but each property indicates whether dogs are welcome. It looks like a great resource, and I’m grateful to Kimpton Crawl for bringing it to my attention.

If abroad is a little too ambitious right now, take a look at Audrey’s Farmhouse B&B, in Walkill, NY (less than two hours north of NYC), praised in this post from the PawFun Blog, and consider staying at Barkwells, a collection of dog-friendly vacation cabins just south of Asheville, NC. I learned about them from a post on French Broad Rafting Expeditions, which offers white-water rafting on the French Broad River, just outside Asheville. The company’s expeditions are not dog-friendly, alas, but the rafters among you should certainly check out the owner’s pictures of a rafting trip he took with his dog Gunny.

The ohmidog! team wrote an excellent post about their experiences across the country with Motel 6 rooms (the chain, reasonably priced and reliably dog-friendly, is a favorite with travelers driving with a dog). Be warned, though, that the story includes that mugshot of Jared Loughner I can no longer bear to see.

Something I want to see a lot more of is Will My Dog Hate Me‘s new feature, Pet Travel (Book) Tuesday, launched by blogger Edie Jarolim to encourage herself to work on her new book. Edie is a marvelous writer (I’ve raved in an earlier post about her current book, Am I Boring My Dog?), and I’m looking forward to both her weekly “column” and her pet travel book. Also from Edie: A guest post from Fido Friendly‘s Carol Bryant about the magazine’s 2011 guide to dog-friendly cars (and an online link to the guide!).

The last two links I have for you are related: The Palm Beach Post News reported last week that Fort Worth, FL may soon allow “domesticated dogs in city parks and the Cultural Plaza downtown” (though not at the local beach), while on the other side of the country, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that a new federal proposal to require leashes in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and limit access by dogs to some environmentally-sensitive areas, has Bay Area dog-owners “barking mad.”

Photo Friday: A senior dog and his family

My husband and Chloe and I were out on a walk when we encountered this family and their fleet (well, there were two) of strollers. One held a very young child, wrapped up for the cold, and the other, larger stroller held a senior dog curled up on a thick plaid blanket. I found it very moving that they had made such an effort to include their companion in their outings. And he was by no means a small dog — some kind of medium-large Husky mix, was my best guess.

A family of several adults, a child in a stroller, and this senior citizen in a stroller

A better blogger would have gotten the name of the stroller they were using, but at least I had the presence of mind to ask them for a picture. Here’s a link to a page on the Just Pet Strollers site that lists several similar strollers for larger dogs.

I’d love to see your pup, and hear what you’ve been up to together this week — please post your photos on Dog Jaunt’s Facebook page so we can all enjoy them!

Reader’s report: Pet relief area at Indianapolis International Airport

Reader Karen, returning to Indianapolis from a visit to Long Beach with Ezra, her Papillon, wrote to tell me about the pet relief area at the Indianapolis International Airport (IND). I knew from the airport’s site that there are two official outdoor pet relief areas, “in the grassy areas of the North Garden and the South Garden.” Karen provided more information:

There is a nice pet relief area just outside baggage claim area no. 5 of the new terminal building. While it was labeled “Service Dog Relief Area”, we certainly did not hesitate to avail ourselves of it.  The surface appeared to be mulch, as best as I could tell in the semi-darkness, and it was located directly outside of the terminal.  That convenience was great on such a cold night.  It seemed more than adequate to me.

I wonder if the information on the airport’s website is a little out of date, since the surface Karen encountered was mulch rather than grass. Given that Karen just visited the area in December 2010, I’d follow her directions!

Thank you, Karen!  I’ve added this post to Dog Jaunt’s ongoing series of reviews of airport pet relief areas. To see others, visit Dog Jaunt’s handy guide to airport pet relief areas.

Dog-friendly treehouse hotels? Well, there’s one, sort of…

I just re-read Swiss Family Robinson, and although this time I jeered a bit at the endless bounty of Happy Island, and the unfailing competence and amiability of the Robinsons, I still loved reading about the treehouse they build in Chapter 11:

By degrees, our dwelling began to assume a distinct form; the sailcloth was raised over the high branches, forming a roof…. The immense trunk protected the back of our apartment, and the front was open to admit the breeze from the sea, which was visible from this elevation.

What could be more appealing, especially once they add, in Chapter 26, a spiral staircase in the trunk of the tree? Not surprisingly, I’m not alone in loving a treehouse — there are some marvelous books out there about treehouses (look for author Peter Nelson), and there are several treehouse hotels in the U.S. and abroad. Do any of the ones in North America welcome pet dogs, I wondered — and I grabbed the phone.

The short answer is, essentially, no. There is, however, one place — arguably the coolest of all — that will let you bring your dog on the property, but she must sleep in your car. Here are the details:

All of the following treehouse properties do not allow pet dogs: Out ‘n’ About Treesort (Cave Junction, OR); Cedar Creek Treehouse (Ashford, WA); Tree House Point (Issaquah, WA); Carolina Heritage Outfitters/Edisto River Treehouses (Canadys, SC); River of Life Farm treehouse (Dora, MO); and The Original Treehouse Cottages (Eureka Springs, AR). The Treehouse (in Lanark, Ontario) is no longer offered as a vacation rental.

Photo by Canadian Design Resource

However, take a look at Free Spirit Spheres, a collection of three handcrafted spheres suspended among the conifers of Vancouver Island’s west coast. Eve, the smallest, is best suited for a single, but Eryn and Melody will comfortably hold a couple. They look utterly enchanting. Inventor (and innkeeper) Tom Chudleigh hopes someday to raise a pet-friendly sphere, but your dog may not join you in the three existing spheres. However, your dog is welcome on the property, and may sleep in your car at night. I was initially dubious about the idea, but it would actually work fine in mild weather — it would be just as if Chloe were sleeping in her crate on another floor, which she often does when we travel.

Do you know of a dog-friendly treehouse hotel or B&B in North America that I’ve missed? If so, please leave a comment. Heck, I’d love to hear about any dog-friendly treehouse I could stay in, wherever it’s located!

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

I have just a handful of dog travel links for you this week — let’s start with The 50th Plate, which was featured last week too (remember the Corgis on the beach at Carmel?). This week, I loved author Sherry’s post about the dog-friendly Carmel Valley Ranch Resort, a place I’ve been eying for a while, as well as other Carmel-area attractions that welcome dogs.

Another reprise from last week’s Chloe’s Clicks? Fido Factor, which visited most of the Russian River area dog-friendly beaches mentioned in their tweet, and posted some fine pictures of their dogs Captain and Trax playing.

I just learned this week about Kimpton Crawl, a blog written by Sara, Marty and Oscar the Golden Retriever about their cross-country trip staying in Kimpton hotels (and other hotels too). Their current post is about taking Oscar to a Northern California redwood forest (not an easy thing to do, it turns out, but they have a trick to share) — look in their sidebar under “Archive” for their past posts, which are all terrific.

Changing coasts, Greyt Black Dog wrote a fun post about taking greyhounds Seka and Roxy on a trip to (and around, by trolley) Savannah, Georgia. And the excellent Travels with Ace team (author John and pup Ace) made their way across Tennessee and into North Carolina, objecting vigorously to hotel pet fees — and regretting the absence of the “kudzu dogs” that had cheered their Summer 2010 travels around the South.

What do I think about hotel pet fees? The argument is, presumably, that the fee covers the cost of the extra time it takes to clean a room that’s been occupied by a dog. That only makes sense to me if something really remarkable happens during the cleaning process, like steam-cleaning the rug. If, however, the cleaning process involves vacuuming the rug and other soft surfaces thoroughly, scrubbing/disinfecting the hard surfaces, and changing the duvet cover and shams (as well as the sheets and pillowcases), it seems to me that those are things that should happen after every guest, not just guests with dogs. I do not believe that a fee should cover anticipated damage to a room — that concern could be handled by a refundable deposit. What do you think about hotel pet fees?

Photo Friday: Chloe at Lowe’s

I’d forgotten that we took this photo! We were visiting Florida back in December, and took Chloe with us on a trip to the local Lowe’s store. It was her first time in a shopping cart, but she settled down once I spread a store flyer out under her (she doesn’t like open metal mesh under her paws).

When Chloe looks mournful like this, my husband is putty in her paws.

The Lowe’s staff couldn’t have been nicer to her — the check-out lady you see in the picture cooed at her, and a colleague brought her an enormous Milkbone treat. Since then, we’ve been to a couple more Lowe’s stores, and they’ve all welcomed her with open arms.

I’d love to see your pup, and hear what you’ve been up to together this week — please post your photos on Dog Jaunt’s Facebook page so we can all enjoy them!

Update: Height of Southwest’s under-seat spaces (737 -300 and -700 series)

Back in September 2010, I reported that the height of Southwest’s under-seat spaces, at least on a 737 -700 series plane, was 11 inches. In December 2010, however, reader David alerted me that on his flight, the under-seat space was reduced to 8.5 inches by a life-vest container. I was surprised and concerned, but, happily, I had five Southwest flights scheduled for December and could check the situation out for myself. Here’s what I learned.

We flew on three 737 -700 series planes, and two 737 -300 series planes. The measurements I made on all of our flights turned out to be the same, so there were no differences in this regard between Southwest’s -300 and -700 series planes. The under-seat width measurements were the same as those I reported in my December 2009 post. Now for the height measurement: On every flight, there was a hard plastic container for a life vest that reduced the under-seat space height to 9-9.5 inches. However, that container is positioned pretty far forward — about 7 inches from the part of the seat closest to your knees. The container itself is about 7 inches wide, so it leaves some full-height space on either side of it.

Chloe's carrier, oriented left-to-right on our SEA to STL flight

Because we typically use a large SturdiBag for Chloe, oriented left-to-right, the hard plastic life vest container was no problem for us. Our SturdiBag (and I swear I am not affiliated in any way with the SturdiProducts company!) is rounded on top, besides being very flexible, so it never ran into the life vest container.

I am also not surprised to hear from reader Lizabeth that her pup Avery traveled comfortably under a Southwest seat in her Sleepypod Air carrier. The picture Lizabeth posted on Dog Jaunt’s Facebook page shows Avery’s carrier oriented front-to-back under the seat — which would work, even though the Sleepypod Air is 10.5 inches tall, because the life vest compartment is not perfectly centered (at least under the middle seat), and the top of the Air will deflect a bit to one side.

I can well imagine that a large, rigid rectangular carrier (and when I say “rigid,” I mean not only hard-sided carriers, which you don’t see much these days, but also soft-sided carriers with firm edges) more than 9 inches tall would have some troubles with Southwest’s under-seat spaces.

I’m left, of course, wondering whether the one plane I measured last September was the only one in the fleet not equipped with hard life vest containers (because yes, I did reach all the way under to feel for obstructions)! This is yet another example of the awesomeness of Dog Jaunt’s readers. My thanks to reader David, and to all of you, for helping to make Dog Jaunt a better, more useful blog.