Carmel Eskie Meet and Abby's Barkday

I have to thank my parents for being instrumental in chauffeuring me to various tourist destinations this season to keep me entertained. Thanks Mom! Thanks Dad!

Our latest tourist destination was Carmel, CA, yesterday, for an Eskie Meet that included a 7th Barkday Pawty for Abby. Teddy, it's too bad you guys were unable to make it, but there's always next time!

We first made sure that I passed Casper's health checklist! Yay, I passed the test!

Here I am getting stuff ready for our pawty. We made peanut butter pumpkin treats.



Abby is wondering why our people put her doggie pupcake treats so low to tempt us. Casper's Mom made the peanut butter carrot cake treats! Yum! Perfect size for dogs like us.

We visited a store is called Diggidy Dog. They had self-service treats at our level. We were all good; we did not sneak any to eat. Well, I can really only speak for myself.


This is Oliver, an eskie wannabe. His brother is Cappy the Eskie. They visit our blogs sometimes. We hope Cappy starts a blog soon. Cappy and his brother were the ones who donated two afghan blankets (pastel, white) for Gypsy's auction.


Cappy arrived in a baby stroller just like this, but pictured here is Casper D Dog. Casper's Mom thought the zip-up stroller is a neat idea because sometimes Casper gets very tired. Not sure what Casper thought of it
.

We ate at a resturant called Forge in the Forest. They had a whole area just for doggies. There were about 10 to 15 tables there, each table having a doggie or two. We had 5 dogs at our table. We give this restaurant 4 paws up!

Here is where Cappy sat for part of the meal... yes, he is in the covered stroller in the corner. He gets a little bit anxious when meeting new dogs and people.


Here's me and Abby, the Barkday girl.


Here you can see some of the other dogs at the restaurant. What's that? A...a..um... is that a poodle? Abby is fascinated. A real live poodle, in person!


Could that be our friend, Layla?


Here is Oliver... and he's... what...I can't believe it... he's making friends with a poodle! How about us eskies?


The black and white dog in the above photo ordered from this menu that's just for DOGS! Casper must be far sighted because it looks like he is awfully close as he tries to read it.


Cappy emerged from his stroller. He is VERY cute! Can you believe he is smaller than Casper.



Abby is a good squirrel hunter. Maybe she gets lots of practice at home. I don't even see the squirrel. Squirrel, what squirrel??


Okay, done with squirrels and off to another store! By the way, Abby and I bought matching leashes.


We had to get our picture taken with famous Wendell. Wendell is a well traveled celebrity.


Our Eskie Board group photo


Abby took to the water:




Instead, I wanted to eat the flowers:


When is our pawpawrazzi going to stop with the photos. We're not even getting paid!


Horses??? at the Spa?


We took another break, this time at the Lamp Lighter Inn. They have cute cottges and bench areas and they're very doggie friendly. We were invited to a "wine and cheese" but maybe the lady didn't know we weren't official guests of the Inn. We didn't attend the "wine and cheese" but I still give this Inn FOUR paws up for the invite! Next time we go to Carmel and need a place to stay, it'll be the Lamp Lighter Inn.


I hope you all enjoyed the stroll through Carmel. You can see a lot more cute photos of us at Casper D Dog's blog! He even got some really good quotes!

Review of Forge in the Forest and Basil restaurants in Carmel

You can skip this part unless you're planning to go to Carmel. These are reviews of Forge in the Forest and also Basil.

I'm giving a good review for Forge in the Forest in Carmel. Four paws UP! They didn't rush us and they let us take our time. It was doggie mayhem when we first sat down. We had to decide who was best seated on the outside/end chairs vs the interior chairs, being traded off as our people had to use the bathrooms, the Dads moving the cars which were parked at 2 hour parking spaces, eating the doggie treats Casper brought, Abby graciously accepting her barkday presents, trying to calm Cappy down, Cappy's parents taking Cappy on a walk in the middle of the meal... seems we are all a handful. But, we were well behaved and patient with our people. The waiter and wait staff were pleasant, food was good, and when we arrived, the wait staff immediately descended upon us as if we were gods (that's "dog", but spelled backwards by the way) and gave us lots of bowls of water. Oh, and there is a doggie gate so if one of us were to get lose, we wouldn't be able to go far. Thank you Forge in the Forest! And thank you Diggidy Dog for making the recommendation.

Also, I am going to give the Basil restaurant a negative review. Four paws DOWN! This was near where we were meeting up. While we were waiting for Cappy and crew to arrive, the waitress at the Basil restaurant was setting up tables outside. From a distance, she told us we were being too loud! Can you imagine that? She said there were businesses nearby and implied we were scareing off their customers. She lost our business. We WERE going to eat there! She was very rude to us! Lots of people actually stopped by to talk to us and ask about us. I think we were actually good for business and brought attention to their restaurant which was way back in the courtyard and quite offset from the main sidewalk.

Basil's rudeness turned out to be a blessing because Forge in the Forest restaurant is 100% times more dog friendly! Don't go to Basil. Go to Forge in the Forest!