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Oct. 8th, 2007 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogAndrea and I got Kuma into the backseat of the KIA and left Kenosha a little after seven on Saturday morning, meeting up with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
posicat around eight. Posi attempted to introduce one of his cats to Kuma, but Recall was definitely not amused. Kuma was placidly interested, but Recall yowled all the way back up the stairs (Posi brought him down because Kuma wasn't up to climbing the three flights of stairs to his apartment).
We checked out a church rummage sale before leaving town and and Andrea found a shiny pair of slippers to replace the flip flops that, coincidentally, disintegrated on her in the parking lot.
We stopped at a gyro place called Goodfellas for brunch and made it to Oregon, Illinois a little after noon I think. As well as the Renaissance faire occurring up in the hills by the nearby Rock River, Oregon was having it's yearly harvest days celebration and the five of us wandered about, looking at arts, crafts, and knick-knacks.
I now know exactly where to go if I ever have problems with a small engine. How could you go wrong?
My sweetie looked typically beautiful in the bright midwestern sunlight, but Kuma was having a little trouble with the heat. One of the first places we went was my all-time favorite public fountain for Kuma to get a drink. If you look at the base, you can see "Humane Society" cast into the iron pedestal. The fountain has a bowl at the bottom for dogs, a large basin facing the street at about waist height for horses, and a nozzle at the top for humans. I want to come back and take more pictures of this unusual public work that's so appealing to the animal lover in me when there aren't so many people blocking the way. Is it silly that, now that our trip to Stronghold is a three year old tradition, that I look forward every year to seeing this thing?
I of course got a shot of the Oregon Theatre,a forlorn looking 400 seat Vaudeville theatre that's been converted into an electronics store. Once again, too many people and cars for a good chance for good photos. Maybe when we come back.
Kuma got tired faster than the rest of us and I found a shady spot to sit down with him while the rest of the group finished wandering the craft faire. When they came back to find me, Andrea was carrying a gift!
Squee!! I have a puppy-girl!!
On the way up to the castle, we passed the low, wide dam across the river on the way in to town. I cajoled my companions into stopping so I could look more closely. As well as the picture below, and a lot of others, that's where the animaged picture of Posi skipping a rock that I posted earlier came from. I played with shooting the froth at the bottom of the spillway at very high speeds and got interesting effects. Some of the pictures at 1/8000th of a second freeze the dancing, churning foam into delicate crystals of ice.
We made it to Stronghold faire sometime in the afternoon; maybe three-thirty or four, though I don't think any of us were paying much attention to time. Kuma's great popularity continued unabated. The whole time we were in Oregon we were being asked all sorts of questions about him. What kind of dog is he? How old is he? Is he friendly? Can I pet him? I've never seen an Akita in real life! In a quiet, shady part of the castle grounds, near the empty pool, we stopped for a bit of a rest and a drink. It wasn't long before Kuma was swarmed with admirers.
The picture below is my favorite out of all the pictures that I've yet taken of my dog. I think it's safe to say he was having a good time.
There were a couple of odd vehicles that caught my eye. This one seemed to have a spare tire mount cut into the side of the bed, but I looked in the back window and it looked like the extended wheel well came from the factory like that.
And then there was this truck.
What's that sticking out of it? I looked closer.
I have no earthly idea what that's for. It's interesting though.
tybis and I listend to a talk about the practicalities of medieval warfare, from the politics of taking prisoners to the typical composition of a battle force, to just how mobile someone in a forty pound suit of plate mail is. (Pretty mobile as it turns out.)
He had a very well trained horse who he let me approach and whose head and mane I stroked. That was after the demonstration of just how easily he could rear up on his hind legs and kick someone's head in.
After finishing at the faire, we met up withsabrinageek who I completely forgot to bring Amiga hardware for. *sighs* Next time. The now five humans of the group ate dinner at one of the best Chiense buffets I have ever been to. The crab rangoon was a little bit lacking, but the huge variety of really good food more than made up for it. I even had those little crab-seafood fried biscuit-cake things that I haven't had since going to the buffet near our apartment in Michigan. I so want to go there again!
After that we stood around in the parking lot talking 'till quite late while we watched several cars drive by and poke at the strangely lumpy rolled up carpet that had been dumped in the middle of the parking lot. I looked closer and it didn't seem likely that a body could fit in it, but we decided not to find out for ourselves. Oddly enough, it didn't occur to me to take a picture of it.
Kuma napped in the back of the mini-van while we ate; he was really worn out after his long day of tromping around new places. He was pretty mellow most of Sunday too. I guess I can't blame him; it was a lot of exercise for a puppy who usually only gets a few walks around the block during a given week.
posicat around eight. Posi attempted to introduce one of his cats to Kuma, but Recall was definitely not amused. Kuma was placidly interested, but Recall yowled all the way back up the stairs (Posi brought him down because Kuma wasn't up to climbing the three flights of stairs to his apartment).We checked out a church rummage sale before leaving town and and Andrea found a shiny pair of slippers to replace the flip flops that, coincidentally, disintegrated on her in the parking lot.
We stopped at a gyro place called Goodfellas for brunch and made it to Oregon, Illinois a little after noon I think. As well as the Renaissance faire occurring up in the hills by the nearby Rock River, Oregon was having it's yearly harvest days celebration and the five of us wandered about, looking at arts, crafts, and knick-knacks.
I now know exactly where to go if I ever have problems with a small engine. How could you go wrong?
My sweetie looked typically beautiful in the bright midwestern sunlight, but Kuma was having a little trouble with the heat. One of the first places we went was my all-time favorite public fountain for Kuma to get a drink. If you look at the base, you can see "Humane Society" cast into the iron pedestal. The fountain has a bowl at the bottom for dogs, a large basin facing the street at about waist height for horses, and a nozzle at the top for humans. I want to come back and take more pictures of this unusual public work that's so appealing to the animal lover in me when there aren't so many people blocking the way. Is it silly that, now that our trip to Stronghold is a three year old tradition, that I look forward every year to seeing this thing?
I of course got a shot of the Oregon Theatre,a forlorn looking 400 seat Vaudeville theatre that's been converted into an electronics store. Once again, too many people and cars for a good chance for good photos. Maybe when we come back.
Kuma got tired faster than the rest of us and I found a shady spot to sit down with him while the rest of the group finished wandering the craft faire. When they came back to find me, Andrea was carrying a gift!
Squee!! I have a puppy-girl!!
On the way up to the castle, we passed the low, wide dam across the river on the way in to town. I cajoled my companions into stopping so I could look more closely. As well as the picture below, and a lot of others, that's where the animaged picture of Posi skipping a rock that I posted earlier came from. I played with shooting the froth at the bottom of the spillway at very high speeds and got interesting effects. Some of the pictures at 1/8000th of a second freeze the dancing, churning foam into delicate crystals of ice.
We made it to Stronghold faire sometime in the afternoon; maybe three-thirty or four, though I don't think any of us were paying much attention to time. Kuma's great popularity continued unabated. The whole time we were in Oregon we were being asked all sorts of questions about him. What kind of dog is he? How old is he? Is he friendly? Can I pet him? I've never seen an Akita in real life! In a quiet, shady part of the castle grounds, near the empty pool, we stopped for a bit of a rest and a drink. It wasn't long before Kuma was swarmed with admirers.
The picture below is my favorite out of all the pictures that I've yet taken of my dog. I think it's safe to say he was having a good time.
There were a couple of odd vehicles that caught my eye. This one seemed to have a spare tire mount cut into the side of the bed, but I looked in the back window and it looked like the extended wheel well came from the factory like that.
And then there was this truck.
What's that sticking out of it? I looked closer.
I have no earthly idea what that's for. It's interesting though.
tybis and I listend to a talk about the practicalities of medieval warfare, from the politics of taking prisoners to the typical composition of a battle force, to just how mobile someone in a forty pound suit of plate mail is. (Pretty mobile as it turns out.)He had a very well trained horse who he let me approach and whose head and mane I stroked. That was after the demonstration of just how easily he could rear up on his hind legs and kick someone's head in.
After finishing at the faire, we met up with
sabrinageek who I completely forgot to bring Amiga hardware for. *sighs* Next time. The now five humans of the group ate dinner at one of the best Chiense buffets I have ever been to. The crab rangoon was a little bit lacking, but the huge variety of really good food more than made up for it. I even had those little crab-seafood fried biscuit-cake things that I haven't had since going to the buffet near our apartment in Michigan. I so want to go there again!After that we stood around in the parking lot talking 'till quite late while we watched several cars drive by and poke at the strangely lumpy rolled up carpet that had been dumped in the middle of the parking lot. I looked closer and it didn't seem likely that a body could fit in it, but we decided not to find out for ourselves. Oddly enough, it didn't occur to me to take a picture of it.
Kuma napped in the back of the mini-van while we ate; he was really worn out after his long day of tromping around new places. He was pretty mellow most of Sunday too. I guess I can't blame him; it was a lot of exercise for a puppy who usually only gets a few walks around the block during a given week.
