Travelog for: DuDette

Hi, I'm DuDette, a small brown mouse. 
The cute guy in the second photo is DuDu, we're going steady. 
He doesn't know it yet.

Nice to meet you,

DuDette

Hi Miss Kate and everyone,

Oh!, oh!, I’m going on my first ToyVoyager’s short trip.  Mom said not to worry, the host there is very nice with lots of experience hosting; in fact there is none better, some are as good but none better.  I might get to meet a TV or two on their way traveling far away.  I am so excited.

Here are some photos of the park outing we did the other day when it wasn’t raining so hard as today.  Mom has been spending way too much time on the internet doing genealogy; the cat started throwing things on the floor for attention, there goes the TV remote, boom.  That’s my dear DuDu on the laptop with me.  I will really miss him but mom says it will be good for me to get out on my own for awhile.  If I get lonely, I’ll ask my host for advice.

Your ever lovin',

DuDette

Hi, this is the happiest day of my life!  My adventure begins.

The day is finally here; I’m going to Sacramento!  All my ToyVoyagers buddies and the cat came to say goodbye, DuDu jumped into my box to stowaway.  Miss Kate will let you know if he got away with it. 

See ya soon,

DuDette

Hello Mom!

I am here and am fine!  I have some pictures so you know I'm okay.  The travelbox was so comfortable and cushiony, though, and I had phone money, so you knew I would be okay. 




First I saw a bit of light, and there was the handsomest -- and smallest -- donkey ever.  He's my size, and his name is HolgiHH.  I could tell he was a little disappointed that I was alone, though.  Was he expecting DuDu?   




I met Peach the Pooch and Sierra and Hypno-dog, too.  I showed them my pretty dollar coins and post cards and told them about San Francisco and cable cars and fog and hills.  I also told them about Cheerio and Julie and you.  They heard about Aslan's travels in San Francisco and about his novel, and they had already heard a lot about DuDu from Miss Kate and his travelogues.



It was good to meet Miss Kate and her kitty Niblet. 



Niblet asked Miss Kate if she and I could wrestle.   



I am happy to report Miss Kate gave a resounding NO!    And took me out of reach. 



Now I can spend some time getting to know Holgi well away from the monster cats.    I am happy and resting ...



I miss you and DuDu already!

Love,

DuDette

Hi Mom and DuDu!

We are on the coast!  Surprise!  It all happened so fast!  Here are my photographs of the trip out here.  We piled into the car and arranged ourselves on the dash.  We left Sacramento heading toward San Francisco, but we didn't go home.  Instead, we turned north toward Marin County.  Sorry, DuDu!   



Here you can see what a stormy day it was. 



This is our exit on Highway 101.  We’ll be heading west again.



We saw grapevines in Sonoma County.  Miss Kate said yummy nummy.



We also saw wet hills with lots of rock slides.



Here we saw some pretty redwood trees.   



We arrived at the Russian River!  Here we are crossing the Hacienda Bridge and now we’ll make a left and follow the river to the ocean.



Can you see me on the dash?  We stopped for gasoline in Guerneville.  Miss Kate found some nice postcards there of the Russian River and of the bridge.  HolgiHH called dibs on the bridge postcard.




This is the Russian River.  It’s named that for the Russians who lived here a long time ago.  It’s very full.



We’re done heading West and will go North on Highway 1.  In just a few minutes we got our first glimpse of the ocean!



Here’s me where the Russian River flows into the Pacific Ocean.  Can you see how brown the ocean is?  Miss Kate says it’s usually the green-blue color, but it’s been raining a LOT and lots of dirt has been flowing down the river. 




Highway 1 has a lot of curves; this is one called a “hairpin turn”.  They made us a little queezy in the tummy. 



There were dozens of trees that had recently fallen across the road.  I couldn’t count how many!



We drove by Fort Ross.  Here you can see the tops of the redwood buildings there.  Miss Kate told us that back in 1812 about 40 Russians with 150 Alaskans came ashore and created Fort Ross in a month.  Russians had been eye-ing Northern California for a long time, but Spain had claimed it.  However, Spain hadn’t moved above the middle of California, where San Francisco is today.  The Russians built Fort Ross so fast and had guns and supplies so that when the Spanish found out, it was too late.  The Russians were moved in!  Oh, and the Russians weren’t the first in this area – they bought the land from the local Native Americans for 3 blankets, 3 pairs of pants, 2 axes, 3 hoes and some beads.  (After seeing all of those fallen trees, they should’ve asked for more axes!)  Hypno-dog was very proud, and he knew that Ross wasn’t some British name, but was short for Rossiya.  The Russians left around 1840 – no war or anything, they just thought there were better deals up north – and they left these buildings, but more than that they left a little bit of Russian with the Native Americans in their language.  For example, the Gualala Indians called milk, moloko, long after the Russians were gone.  Those tribes have blended into the population, so their languages are gone.  We can learn about them only from reading what one or two white men wrote down a hundred years ago.  Now hundreds of acres of land are preserved to keep Fort Ross like it was 200 years ago.





Well, that was one tiring day, but it was fun to see everything.  I’m just glad a tree didn’t fall on us!

Love,
DuDette

Hi Mom!

We got here last night safe and sound with smiles on our faces.  Now we're just beat, putting our little feet up and taking it easy.  We have the ocean waves out this window and a creek out the other window.  The water noises are really nice and make me sleepy.  We're making room for Koko on the window sill, but Hypno-dog is making sure I stay safe. 



Later!  Time to relax ....... 

But soon ... maybe ... I'll be going to the beach!       

Love to you and DuDu,

DD 

Hi Aslan and Mommy and DuDu and Cheerio!

These pictures are from my first walk along the bluff trail in The Sea Ranch.  Can you see the waterfall behind me?  That is the creek that went by our bedroom window ... all of that splish and splash all night and where did it go?  Just into the Pacific Ocean whooooosh all gone!  I hope DuDu isn't jealous, but HolgiHH is good company. 

Love,

DD

Hi everyone! 

We had so much fun playing inside and out. 

We drove to a place to walk along the bluff trail farther from where we were staying.  But first we saw some deer.  I wanted pictures with them, but I almost fell as you can see.  Thank goodness Miss Kate caught me.  The deer seemed curious.  In the end, they always ran away.

We walked through a tunnel of hedgerows and HolgiHH and I rested on a log.

Later in the day, we went with Miss Kate and her cousin and her cousin's dog Luna to the beach.  The beach!  One of my life missions!  I hope you like the pictures ... no swimming, though, because the surf was a bit dangerous.  And I'm a mouse.



Love you all!

DuDette

Hi Mom!

We had fun indoors, too, whale-watching and posing together for pictures.  I hope you think I'm photogenic. 



~DD

Hi!

We found the California poppies were just beginning to bloom on our way home from the coast.  So here is a pretty one with a black sand beach many feet below us.  Miss Kate said it wasn't a windy day or she wouldn't have let us try this!   

Love,
DD

Hello Mom, DuDu and Aslan!

Today I had to say goodbye to some of my TV buddies in Sacramento who are continuing their travels, HolgiHH, Zoe, Hypno-dog and Sierra.  I will especially miss hanging with little HolgiHH on bookshelves and in houseplants.  He is so cute.  We hugged and kissed, but DuDu shouldn't be jealous.    I only go for rodents!    I had a nice chat with Sierra about how to karate chop a monster kitty on the nose if one gets out of line.    But don't worry about me, Mom!  If the martial arts move doesn't work, I am very fast!   

Feeling a bit lonely,

DuDette   

i can't sleep.  now that holgi is gone, i keep thinking about dudu.  what's he doing right now?  is he sleeping or is he thinking about me, too?

Oh, golly, DuDu, you ARE thinking about me!  Thank you for the rose!

Hi DuDu and Mom and Aslan and Bowtie Bear!

We have a new visitor, a giraffe with beautiful shimmery colors.  Zarafeh is happy to meet her, too.  Her name is Sapphire.  She arrived just as we were going out the door to the Sacramento River.  Not the American River, where Hypno-dog and HolgiHH went for a walk. 

Before going to the river, we visited with Miss Kate's friend and her monstrously big dogs (Miss Kate calls them the Brindle Babes. ).  She had beautiful flowers and a reminder that I WAS THERE.   

Miss Kate says that Sacramento is called River City because it has a lot of rivers.  Is San Francisco called Ocean-Bay City?

When we got home, Miss Kate told us our day wasn't over.  We were going to see the Alvin Ailey dancers in Davis.  Wow, nice pictures online.  The men especially look so handsome in their yellow vests.  I wonder how DuDu would look in a yellow vest.  Miss Kate told us that the dance we're going to see, Revelations, is 50 years old.  She said that's a long time.  We read online that "more people have seen Revelations than any other modern dance work, and it has been enjoyed by over 23 million people in 71 countries across six continents."  Wow!  I would like to visit 71 countries, too!  Would you care to join me, DuDu?

In the evening, we got dressed up and went to the Mondavi Center.  It's at University of California at Davis and is very fancy.  Have you heard of it, Mom?  Miss Kate heard of it but had never been there.  We got there a little late, had with us Miss Kate's friend who is disabled and were in such a hurry that we parked in the Vice Chancellor's spot.  We hoped that if the Vice Chancellor came later, he would park in the Chancellor's parking spot, which was still empty. 

We had a special seat in the orchestra box, which gave us a little privacy to take a quick picture, very verboten, but you can see the blue curtains behind me and the man introducing the wonderful, fabulous dancers.  All 4 of us had a great time!

Love,
DuDette

Hi Mom,

I'm feeling a little confused about UrselHH and DuDu.    Miss Kate took me to a movie and dinner to cheer me up.    She invited some friends, too, but Sapphire stayed home to deal with her jet lag.

We saw Paul, which was funny.  It had lots of naughty words, but it was still funny.  Miss Kate's friend is a science fiction writer, and so was Nick Frost's character.  We discussed with her if it was "realistic".   

I had my own junior size bag of popcorn.  Can you see the popcorn in the photo?  It's right below Simon Pegg.  And the yellow is butter.  Scrummy!

After the movie, we had Thai food.  Delicious vegetarian snackers!  What do you think of that, Aslan?   

A trip to the restroom told me I still "got" it.  Ursel's nice, but she's got nothing on me! 

DuDette