We were in New Hampshire for the company-wide outing this past weekend. About 2700 people (both employees and their families and significant others) drove up to the White Mountains to enjoy the all-expense-paid weekend, and luckily, we scored one of the limited number of pet-friendly rooms. Yay!

We were assigned to Eagle Mountain House. We were worried about making the fearful pup stay in such a big place, but he surprised us. In the room, he stopped trembling quite fast. He walked through the creaky old hallways and staircases (the hotel was built in 1879) cautiously, but without getting frantic. We actually ended up walking him through the main lobby to go in and out of the hotel all the time, as opposed to the quieter side doors.

We drove up to the top of Mount Washington on Saturday. It was foggy, windy, and cold on top. Not much of a view. On the way up and down, however, we had some amazing views, which of course, Kaiju didn’t really care about. He was more focused on sniffing the plants on the ground.

After the descent, we decided to go for a 3-hour hike. We started at Pinkham Notch visitor center and hiked on a trail caled Old Jackson Road. Kaiju impressed us by climbing up and down the rocks with ease. He also enjoyed drinking cold stream mountain water, every chance he got. On the peak, called Lowe’s Bald Spot, while we enjoyed the great view and had our sandwiches, his tail stayed droopy and he stayed focused on ripping needles off of the little pine trees. We (out-of-shape humans) were exhausted after the hike, but he seemed to have a plenty of energy left. We will have to take him to longer hikes soon…

Before heading home on Sunday, we made a brief stop (well, for about 2 hours) at Diana’s Bath. It was quite crowded with families with kids. We worried that the crowd may be a bit too much for Kaiju, but he did great. When he is in the nature, he seems much less nervous about everything that would frighten him in the city. Kaiju cautiously (but with active curiosity) looked around and enjoyed the taste of cold water. .

We are so happy Kaiju accompanied us to the New Hampshire outing this year. We had to skip it last year because the weekend coincided with his 2nd knee surgery. Thankfully, a year later, his knees seem functioning well, despite the way the left one looks and the slight limp. All in all, we are thrilled!