Ramblings....: 2025

I hate the Fourth of July. My dog hates it more. It's gotten much worse over the years around here with people shooting illegal fireworks off all year around, but this time of year it's extra bad. Plus our dumbass city now legalized "Safe and Sane" fireworks, which is the biggest crock of shit I have ever seen. As soon as that vote passed, Pat & I booked the weekend up in Idyllwild for the Fourth holiday. Poe now deals with seizures, my anxiety has skyrocketed - so no - we just can't friggin be in town for this city to turn into a war zone for the weekend. So Thursday morning, I dropped Luna off at my moms so my poor girl wasn't alone for the weekend listening to the mess, and Pat, Poe and I headed out. It was probably the best Fourth of July weekend I've had in my entire damn life. We had a perfectly beautiful weekend up in one of our favorite places and the best part of all - QUIET.

We booked a dome bnb - super random - but actually our choices were pretty limited due to the fact that I think everyone who has pups heads to the mountains it seems. We're going to be booking for next year in the next couple of weeks to make sure we get a spot. That's how insane it is, and the folks up there say it gets more booked every year. FUCK FIREWORKS.

We had a wine pick up, so we headed to Temecula 1st. We'll probably always go this way since it's a much chiller drive than up the other side of Idyllwild. Although there was unfortunately a fire the detoured us a different, more harry route up the back side, but it was still better than the main way.

Wine pick up!

Poe the Wine Dog

For hating the sun so much he sure likes to sunbathe

We arrived at our place and got settled in.

Now we're talking

So happy to be on vacay!


I could listen to the wind through the trees my whole damn life.

Dinner that night was at the Brewery which was packed with dogs! I asked the hostess is it always like this, and she said just the fourth weekend - it's always crazy. Wow. Then just back to the bnb to chill.

The next morning (which was the Fourth of July) we opted for a walk through the Nature Center area. The Center was closed, but we could still walk around the park.

Poe & I Reflecting

A favorite viewpoint

So these were made by people a long time ago to grind their food!

After this we headed into town. There was a Fourth of July Parade, and we did want to have lunch over there, so having no idea how crowded or crazy it would get we thought we should get in there before the rush. We did, but had to stay until it peetered out, but it was really cute! We had a great breakfast at Leanne's place - one of our faves - then hung out for the parade. We tried to stay in the shady spots since it was a bit warm, but I'd wander up to take photos of some of the parade. The only bad thing was it started out with 3 large booms! WTF?! Don't you know most the people are up here to escape that! Luckily that was the only loud noise we heard. The parade was super cute, very small down. Hell the Propane Company drove through and people were quite excited about it. LOL. After that we hit up Middle Ridge Winery and chilled watching a band play over a couple glasses of wine. So lovely.

Holiday Sangrias!

Someone it tuckered

Yay!

The Mayor is a dog. Like for real. I love this town.

Trying to catch a pic of the garden one for mom!

We kept running into these people all weekend. They were super rad and loved Poe

I need that hat

Chilling listening to some bluegrass

Then back to the bnb where Pat made a tri tip dinner for us. Yum!

Poe the Wine Dog

I would do something like this if I lived up here

Chillin in our dome

Saturday we were out the door early to hit up the Ernie Maxwell Trail. We're pretty out of hiking shape, so we decided to stick to this one which is a bit easier than most. I also finally remembered to use the offline version of geocaching so I could actually finally geocache on this trail!

Poe visiting the spot where dad proposed to mom!

Geocache 1!

Geocache 2!

Geocache 3!

Poe and his stick

Geocache 4!

Back to chill over breakfast tacos and mimosas. Then back into town to wander around and have an early dinner. We ended up buying Poe some booties since it's all asphalt up there and it gets hot on their feet. It's a good investment for sure since we bring him everywhere. Now we have them in case it's hot. He took right to them and looked so cute!