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Dear Santa,

It’s me, Jake. Some people also know me as RoadDog.

This year I thought I’d write you a letter, not because you don’t always bring me great things for Christmas, but because I’m a more mature dog now and I have a few larger wishes. I’ll get to those later.

First of all Santa, I hope you and Mrs. Claus and your elves and reindeer had a wonderful year. I’ve never met a reindeer, but I like to watch the deer in our yard sometimes and sniff where they’ve walked, so I’m sure I’d like your reindeer too.

Come to think of it, I’ve never met an elf either, but they seem like lots of fun and I really love to have fun, so I’m sure I’d like your elves. Mom has a new elf thing that she really likes that lies around the living room. He’s pretty quiet but he has a mischievous look and I’m hoping he’ll cut loose one of these days and play with me when Mom and Dad aren’t home. Mom doesn’t seem to think that’s such a good idea though.

So, Christmas is coming soon. Please, if it’s not too much trouble, could you fill my stocking with treats and toys like last year. I’m all about my belly and I love treats. And even though I have dozens of toys (yes, I am a bit spoiled that way) I always like to have new squeakies to play with, especially on Christmas. I even take them to my grandparents’ house when we go for Christmas dinner.

Oh, but Santa, could you please not bring anymore of that shampoo stuff. Mom insists on using it to bath me and I really don’t like that at all. She just doesn’t seem to understand that I’m a boy dog and I really don’t care if I smell good or not. She took me back in that shower again yesterday and I was not impressed.

Now for some of the bigger stuff. Please Santa could you bring good weather next summer so Mom and Dad and I can go riding. I love to ride in my carrier on the back of Dad’s bike and explore new places and visit familiar ones. We didn’t get to do a lot of that this year — the weather was wet and then Dad fell off that ladder and we couldn’t ride in September and October when it was so nice outside. I would really like to ride more next year and so would my humans. It makes us all so happy.

And speaking of happy, Santa I know this might be a tall order but could you please help other dogs who may not be as lucky as me. I have a pretty good life. I know there are dogs in shelters who don’t have their own humans and dogs who are left tied to trees in backyards who may feel sad and neglected. All dogs should have good lives, so please, Santa, do what you can.

Oh and one last thing Santa, well two really. Could you please bring Mom some inspiration for her blog. She says she’s running out of ideas. And maybe you could bring her another one of those elf things she’s so fond of lately and put it under the tree from me — you know, just in case I find a way to play with the one she has now. I’m trying to be good, I know you’re watching, but sometimes a dog just wants to have fun.

I’ll leave you some cookies and milk Santa. I love cookies and I hear you do too.

Love, Jake
xo
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Every now and again you happen upon a place where everything just feels right, a place, I always think, where your soul has time to breathe.

It doesn’t matter how you travel — car, plane, bicycle, motorcycle, boat, whatever — or where you travel — 10 kilometres, 100 kilometres or 1,000 kilometres — sometimes if you find the right place at the right time and pause for a few minutes, life is just … good.

For me, that place is often on a mountain or by the sea. I think that’s why I love to ride through the Cape Breton Highlands and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I live close enough to the ocean to often take it for granted, but the mountains call to me. In fact, I think it’s one of the reasons why I love to ride, because we take the time to really go places, to stop and experience places, just to breathe.

And so I found myself atop the highest mountain on the Atlantic Coast of the United States this summer, looking down at the ocean and one of my favourite towns.

Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park is 1,530 feet high. It overlooks the Atlantic and Bar Harbor, Maine, which I’ve written before is a wonderful town filled with lovely shops and great restaurants, many of which are dog-friendly, making it one of my favourite places to visit. I read somewhere that Cadillac Mountain is the first place in America to see daylight each day. What a peaceful and happy thought, even though, as a non-morning person, I’ll likely never see that for myself.

But as I sat on a rock and peered at Bar Harbor and the sea, life was good. I had Jake by my side, Steve was nearby, our good friends Heather and Dennis were a few steps away, our bikes were waiting for us in the parking lot.

As Heather pointed out, if there had been ice cream it would have been perfect.

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This past weekend’s devastating fire at White Point Beach Lodge got me thinking about places like that, resorts where the history is almost palpable, where you can feel that generations have been relaxing and enjoying themselves.

Steve and I love places like that and, in turn, our happiness and relaxation gets passed on to our RoadDog who seems to amble about with an extra spring in his step and bounce in his bum.

One of those places where we visited this summer was in St. Andrews by-the-Sea on our way to New England. It’s one of those road signs that we’ve often driven by and said “we should go there sometime,” but this summer we decided to make good on the idea. We weren’t sorry at all. In fact, we loved both the town and the inn where we stayed.

St. Andrews is a wonderful place. It has an abundance of quaint shops and restaurants and is rather famous for the beautiful murals around the town. We also discovered quickly that it’s rather dog-friendly as well.

After checking into our inn (more about that later), the three of us headed downtown to explore our new surroundings in high spirits at the start of our vacation. (This was the day before my bike battery went dead for those of you who might remember that tale.) The views were fantastic and we ambled about to find some of those famous murals as well. Eventually we decided we should locate some food so Steve went into a pub to inquire about takeout while Jake and I waited in the neighbouring park.

Much to our surprise and delight, we were invited to eat on the outside deck of the Red Herring Pub and Eatery. All three of us enjoyed a lovely meal of fish and chips. (Well, Jake only had about half of my haddock, but no fries. I watch his diet more carefully than my own.) Our waitress even brought him a dish of water and the people at the neighbouring tables were friendly about having a four-legged diner in their midst. In fact, before we finished our meal, Jake was no longer the only doggie on deck. It was wonderful.

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Then there was the Tara Manor Inn. We never really know what to expect when we make a reservation at a dog-friendly accommodation. Sometimes it’s a bit of a crap shoot, but Tara Manor was a wonderful surprise. Built on 20 acres of land boasting ocean views, paths and lovely gardens, the historic inn was beautiful. We stayed in a quiet corner cottage that was perfect for our little trio. Jake and I loved meandering about the gardens and exploring the paths and he made friends with everyone he met.

Tara Manor was originally built in 1869 as a summer residence and was first owned by Sir Charles Tupper, one of Canada’s Fathers of Confederation. It had a number of owners over the years until it was converted to an inn in 1971 and you can feel the history in the place.

Both St. Andrews and Tara Manor Inn have made our we’ll return someday soon list.

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Anyone who has ever seen my desk at the office or my Facebook page knows I’m all about quotes.

Perhaps it’s because my career is about words, I’m not certain, but I love the way other people phrase things. I’ve had quotes — from the silly to the serious — posted around my desk for years. And since I truly doubt if anyone in the world really cares if I’m shopping or what I’m making for dinner or whatever, I post quotes on my Facebook status every few days. Sometimes they reflect my mood, sometimes they’re about encouraging a friend of family member, whatever, but other people have said all kinds of profound things far better than anything I can offer up on my own.

One of my favourites is by author unknown and I believe it is the only quote I repeatedly post:

Four wheels move the body;
Two wheels move the soul.

Anyone who has ever experienced the true joy of riding a motorcycle understands how deep these simple words are. I have to say I was absolutely thrilled to be able to post them again on Sunday.

That’s right — thank you all for your kind thoughts and good wishes — we are now back on the bikes. Our little motorcycle trio went out for a ride Sunday afternoon for the first time in two months … and it was fantastic.

Steve received the all-clear from his ortho specialist last week. Many people may have already tucked their bikes in for winter, but not us. Honestly, it wasn’t even all that cold, or maybe we just didn’t notice.

We had one seriously excited and happy RoadDog when we asked him if he wanted to go for a ride. Jake is so smart — between the words and the tone, he knew exactly what we were asking. He raced around and whined and barked. I swear he was telling me to go faster as I fastened liners into jackets that hadn’t been worn since warmer weather. And when he heard Steve start the first bike and bring it out of the garage our little road warrior almost squirmed right out of his hairy body. He was so funny.

We did the Bridgewater to Lunenburg to Mahone Bay loop with the Indian Point to Martins River jaunt, then stopped in the bay for a Timmys. It was the best Tims we’d had in a long time. It was the best afternoon we’d had for a long time.

It once again moved our souls — all three of them.

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