MACINTOSH MONDAY

Macintosh should have been a mountain goat. Our dog is obsessed with climbing and scrambling up things, especially mountains. It doesn't matter what the surface is, rock, mud, dust, stone etc, he'll climb it. Whenever we go on a walk he'll always find something to scramble up. It's usually very precarious looking and inevitably ends in us having to coax him down but he does it every time without fail.

This past week Andrew and I went to Tehachapi Mountain Park for a walk. It was a beautiful day (as they all are) and we were hiking up towards the Tehachapi Mountain Peak. The trail was wide and fairly obvious but had steep banks either side as you snaked around the edge of the mountain. Instead of walking along the trail Macintosh obviously wanted to climb up the steep banks! That's where the animal smells are and that's where its more interesting.

Obviously being the kind and loving dog-parents we are we didn't instruct him how to get up and down safely, no instead we just took pictures and videos and laughed at him. But in our defence, we knew it would be funny for you guys to watch too! So here are some pictures for you. The first two pictures put into context the steep banks so that you get the idea of what he's climbing up, otherwise the pictures make it look flatter than it is! 




Now here is the mountain goat himself in action!






Due to the dust over here Macintosh pretty much looks like a brown dog all over by the time we head home. Here's a video of him climbing one of the softer and less steep parts of the trail but just watch the dust storm he creates!! (and ignore my voice...)
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THE WOODRUFFS GO TO HOLLYWOOD

Yesterday Andrew and I decided to live the high life whilst exploring Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Neither of us are huge celebrity followers but we both wanted to see where the showbiz industry started. We didn't have high hopes of seeing any celebrities which was good because we saw none. Well except Bumblebee...


We arrived at Hollywood Blvd fairly early in the morning and started the day strolling down the street looking at all the stars on the Walk of Fame. There were so many stars and the street was becoming increasingly more crowded so it was hard to take many pictures. We didn't find everyone we wanted too but we found some favourites. As its hard to read Andrew and Macintosh are on the star that says 'The Muppets'. 





As well looking down at the floor we also had a good wander around Hollywood Blvd and Sunset Blvd where all the old film studios were and where in the old days the stars used to hang out in regular places. There were lots of strange sights and some interesting parts but we saw some incredible (or crazy) architecture too. It's obviously very different down there now, but it was fun imagining what it would have been like in the old days. 









After a quick bite to eat at Johnny Rockets we got back into the car and took a drive through Beverly Hills. I have to say I have never seen such opulence ever! The sheer size and scale of the houses were insane! It was hard to capture many decent photos whilst driving around but here's my two favourite houses. I have no idea who lives in them or why they are significant, they are just beautiful! But I also don't want a house that big because although it would be lovely just imagine cleaning it!!



Heading on from Beverly Hills we drove up to Griffith Park to the Griffith Observatory which looks out over all of LA. It was pretty busy so we parked part way up and walked the rest. This properly tired out Macintosh who was already flagging at this point! We enjoyed a wander around though and got to see the telescope inside which was pretty impressive. The views over LA were hard to capture on camera as the haze was quite bad. But its nice to just remember some things and not capture everything!




Then came the long drive home, in traffic too, which I don't remember as I typically fell asleep! Thank you to Andrew for sticking that out, LA traffic is not my favourite. Overall it was a great day out though and despite the crowds we enjoyed visiting Hollywood. Just need to work out which district of LA we're planning on conquering next...
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MACINTOSH MONDAY

This weekend Andrew and I took Macintosh down to Arroyo Burro beach just outside Santa Barbara for his first taste of the beach. Well I say first taste, he's been to a cold and wet beach in England once but that's not quite the same thing! The beach was a special dog beach so if you wanted you could let your dog roam wild but knowing Mac's ability to disappear and not come back we opted to keep him on the lead. The first thing we did was allow him to explore the sea. 

Usually Mac isn't a fan of water. He doesn't mind paddling in it but if it gets up to his stomach he begins to panic and backs out. This was the reaction we expected here, especially with the waves, we assumed he wouldn't be too keen. Well we were right about the waves, he wasn't overly keen of them and tried to run away from them a lot but within a short while he was pretty much fully covered in salt water. He wasn't swimming but he was certainly enjoying running about in it. Here are a few photos and a video from early on in the sea experience.






After being in the sea the funniest part Macintosh would stroll back up the beach to where we were sitting and after a few shakes to get rid of most of the salt water he would then proceed to rub himself along the sand covering himself from head to toe in wet sand! He absolutely loved it though and wasn't bothered about getting a sand moustache either. 

Here are a few more pictures of Macintosh enjoying the beach. 






With the success of the first beach trip I'm now looking forward to visiting a few more dog beaches and spending some more time soaking up the sun. Andrew typically doesn't enjoy beach life as he can't sit still for extended periods, so having Mac there he's more entertained leaving me able to just chill! 
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For a few more beachy pictures just click on our Instagram accounts on the right hand side of the page. You'll even see our dinner that we ate on the beach! Very American!

LIVE MUSIC IN LA

This Tuesday at short notice we headed of to LA for some live music. Fyfe Dangerfield, the lead musician from the band The Guillemots, was in town visiting a friend and decided to play a small gig. We haven't really explored Los Angeles much so heading in to find a small bar at night was a little crazy. But after finding some parking nearby we headed to the Hotel Cafe, the small venue tucked away in a side alley a block from Hollywood Blvd.

The music was soooo good and we were amazed at the incredible talent of Fyfe and the other two musicians playing. The incredible thing was that he had come over on his own so the drummer he played with that night had never played with him before! Yet it still sounded really incredible. 

Here are a few photos and videos of the night. We even managed to say Hi to Fyfe afterwards who was a little surprised to hear some English accents!

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MR MACINTOSH TURNS 2!

Today, June 18th 2014, is Macintosh's 2nd birthday. He has officially moved from puppyhood into adulthood, or so the theory goes! Admittedly he is only just a dog but in fact last year when he turned that all important 1 we were out of the country sunning ourselves on a beach in Majorca with the Keble clan. So we decided to make more of a deal out of it this year. Now before you all freak out we didn't decorate the house or buy him a birthday card or anything weird. We just forced him to wear a birthday hat...



And then gave him lots of presents which he really didn't know what to do with. Usually he shreds paper to get through it but this year (perhaps a sign of his maturity) he let us do all the work for him! 







He has enjoyed the morning so far by playing with his toys and sniffing away in the backgarden at all the American smells out there. There'll be a nice long walk in the hot sunny desert and then he's got a real treat at lunchtime as he's off to make some new friends. This evening he'll have a special wet food dinner to celebrate. All in all a great day for a dog. Or in reality, no different to pretty much any other because he has no idea what's going on. This is us purely for us. See!

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Andrew wanted to clarify. This is in fact the best day ever for Macintosh because pretty much every day is the best day if it involves eating, walking and playing. "This is the best day ever!" 

AT THE OLD BALL GAME

"Take me out to the ball game
Take me out with the crowd
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack
I don't care if i never get back
Let me root, root root for the home team
If they don't win its a shame
For its one, two, three strikes, your out
At the old ball game"

What do you know of baseball? This is what I asked myself. I know its kinda like rounders and with reading 'One Summer in America 1927' by Bill Bryson I thought I knew a little bit more than most but when it came to the basic rules, I didn't have a clue! This last Friday we were invited to watch the Jethawks, Lancaster's Baseball team. So with this being the first time either of us had watched a baseball game in its entirety, not just clips or read stories of it was a interesting learning experience.

I'm not going to bore you by explaining how it works now, someone has probably done a really good job on Wikipedia (something I should have checked out first before going maybe). We obviously started by having a hotdog and a burger, I mean you have too! They were so tasty so must be terrible for you, then we found our seats.

I didn't realise how may breaks there are in a baseball game. This particular baseball game was Starwars themed so the breaks had themed entertainments, such as wookie impressions to storm trooper dance offs.

The more the game went on the more we realised it wasn't so much about the game, though to some people that was a big deal (especially to the two guys sitting three rows behind us!!), it was more about the atmosphere. Most people were there to enjoy an evening out with family. The night was finished off with a firework display and some live music. A great evening that we will have to do again soon!

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