The past couple weeks, I have been trying to get to know Greenville as much as I can. Last week, I spent a lot of time at the house unpacking. Work is pretty slow right now which is good but I was starting to have a bit of cabin fever. Sierra had been so good at not tearing up her new home or terrorizing the new neighbors. But about the middle of last week, she gave me this look that said, "Ok Mom...you've uprooted me from the only home I've ever known and made me pace the same 4 rooms for the past week...take me somewhere! I'm bored!" So I decided to try to find the dog park that I've heard about in Cleveland Park downtown. I was able to find the entrance to the park so I turned in and figured there would be signs pointing to the dog park...much to Sierra's dismay, there were no signs. So we drove around for a little while...saw plenty of playgrounds and picnic areas, but no doggies. All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I see a lady walking a dog. Then I see a couple more people walking dogs. I knew we were getting close. I swear that Sierra is psychic because before the dog park was even in sight, she sprang up in the back seat and starts wailing and crying and jumping around she's so excited. And then we found it! The dog park! I could barely contain Sierra as I parked the car. People must have thought that this was the first time I've ever let the dog outside anywhere! She was that excited! Try picturing me leashing a 70 pound ball of energy flailing around in my back seat and then "walking" her to the gate. She nearly jerked my arm out socket! Watching Sierra enter a dog park is one of my favorite things to watch because she takes all of the energy that she's saved up (hard to believe that she's ever saved any) and just lets it all go as she runs from one group of dogs to the next, rolling around, sniffing butts, jumping, fetching, saying hello to people, whatever. It's hysterical! There was a 5 month old male doberman pinscher that took a liking to Sierra. Needless to say, he would not leave her alone and kept trying to "dominate" her much to his owner's embarressment. This happens all the time...every time I took her to the dog park in Charleston, all the male dogs would follow her around and try to hump her. She never fought back, never snapped at them...little hussy. Well, I discovered the other day at the dog park that I'm not the only one who has been affected by the move to Greenville. Lil' Miss Sierra has decided it's time to start standing up to those mean ol' boy dogs who try to have their way with her. Every time he tried to hump her, she would bark and snap at him and then run away. I was proud of my girl! :)
The dog park itself is really big and has swings for people to sit on. It's entirely covered in mulch which is really nice.
"I've had enough...can we go home?" Sierra says as she hides under the swing!
This statue is outside the dog park. It's called 'High Four!' Get it?
Sierra was not being cooperative during picture time. I tried to get her to sit down by the statue but this is all I could get. She was exhausted!!!
I've also taken advantage of Paris Mountain State Park. I had heard that there were lakes there where Sierra could swim. So, last Friday, I packed a lunch and my book and a ball for Sierra and headed out on just a 15 minute drive to the park. It was a really pretty day and I found a nice shaded area where I sat and ate and threw the ball for Sierra. She found the lake on her own so she got to swim. It was so nice to still be able to find a place outside where I could relax, read and play with my dog, even if it wasn't the beach! 
Later on that day, I had planned on meeting Tres (cousin) for happy hour to meet some of his work friends who were around my age. He thought they'd be a good group for me to meet because they were outgoing and very friendly. Turns out the Tres had a makeup tee ball game (he is the daddy of 3 after all) that night but said his friends had invited me along despite his absence. I thought, "What else am I going to do on a Friday night besides watch the Opening Ceremonies by myself?" So, I got ready and went to On the Border to meet Tres' friends and discovered he was right...they were very outgoing and very friendly. One girl, Meredith, even invited me to dinner with her husband and other friends after happy hour. It was great meeting new people and seeing new places downtown. I even got them excited about the Olympics. Meredith's husband Matt told me that he didn't get into the Olympics but I talked it up so much that by the time we made it to a bar after dinner, all the guys were glued to the TV watching the Opening Ceremonies as if it were opening game of college football!
Last night, I met Meredith and Matt along with Jason and Caryn for dinner again at another restaurant downtown, Pomegranate. It was so good!
Next weekend, Meredith and Matt have invited me and Sierra (oh boy!) on their boat out on Lake Keowee! I'm very excited!!!
I might start calling her Lassie! This weekend new friends, Matt and Meredith Dowless, invited me and Sierra out on their boat on Lake Keowee. I didn't quite know how Sierra was going to do on a boat but figured it was worth a shot. I knew she wouldn't try to jump out of the boat or anything because that would require being more than 10 inches away from me so I was pretty sure we could at least keep her safe while moving...I just didn't know how the boat would fare after having a 70 lb. ball of fun running around it all day long! She adjusted pretty well to being on water rather than land and eventually as Matt put it, "Got her sea legs!" Matt took us to a really nice cove where we hung out most of the day. Everyone jumped in...well, we had to push Sierra in. Once she was in the water, she was a little nervous at first because I don't really think she knew what was going on. She's used to 
jumping in after a stick or a ball, not being pushed off a boat. So, she kept swimming from the shore to me and back. All of a sudden, she swims straight to me and grabs the life jacket I'm floating on with her teeth. I thought she was trying to play with it because it looked like on of her toys so I told her 'no' so that she wouldn't eat the life jacket. Then (and this is where she shows off how brilliant she is) she grabs on to the strap of the life jacket and begins pulling me to the shore! She literally swam with all of her might and dragged me all the way to land! And all I could do was let her drag me because I was laughing so hard! 
Everytime I swam back out to the middle of the cove, she came after me and dragged me back! So we all took turns having 'shore duty' which consisted of throwing the stick or a ball for Sierra. Look at the picture below of the 3 girls floating in the water...there's a tiny speck in the background way behind us...that's Sierra swimming to catch the ball that one of the guys threw! 
Needless to say, she was exhausted last night! I don't know why some of these pictures are so small. If I can figure out how to make them bigger, I'll try to post them again! Sorry!
