Pet Parade & Wine Tasting

Hi all, Dianne here.  The annual Bentsen Palm Village pet parade was today, and it did not disappoint!  Most of this blog will just be photos taken at the parade, with captions.  Roger and I participated in the pet parade two years ago with our whippets, when we were staying at the rv park.  This year Bentsen Palm Village opened the parade up to Retama dogs as well, and from the looks of the turnout, it seems to have been a huge success!  Don't know the total yet, but last year they raised $2,000 for Cinderella.  Here's a link to our blog entry from two years ago, if you just can't get enough of cute dog photos:


2010 Bentsen Palm Village Pet Parade 
Some of the same dogs were in this year's parade. 


A lot of Bandido and Tequila's dog park buddies participated in the parade, including....

Callie, Jagger, and Roxie

Kelso

Dharma & Greg

Fosterdog

And let's not forget Bandido the pirate:

Bandido

And Tequila dressed as Bandido's wench:

Tequila

The volunteers served hot dogs and beer (for a donation).  There were also baked treats for sale for both people and doggies.  

Folks paid a dollar to register each dog, and everyone was encouraged to "stuff" the ballot box with a dollar per vote to determine the parade winner.  All proceeds went to Cinderella Pet Rescue, where we adopted both Bandido and Tequila.

Here are some more clever costumes:

After a few cool, rainy days, the sun came out and it was absolutely beautiful at the time of the parade.  We participants took two loops around the circle, and then they counted the votes.  


Sasha won first prize.  Two years ago, she was in a very cute cheerleader costume, complete with pom poms (see blog link above).  Here's the winning gal this year:

Just a couple more....

Enough of the pet parade.  Since a pet photo of the day would be a bit redundant, we'll show some human photos of the day, with commentary by Roger, of the fun wine and cheese party this evening at Retama.






Roger here... Tonight was the annual Retama wine and cheese get-together.  All the participants brought a bottle of wine to share, as well as some delicious cheese.  Pretty simple concept.  Lots of fun.

Lookie, lookie at all the bottles of wine!   Looks like a few new ones, including an amazing syrah that was made by one of the Retama residents!  We poured a small glass of a Texas claret from the Becker Vineyards and went inside to look at the resident art display.  Unfortunately, we forgot to take pictures of the paintings, quilts, photos, stained glass, intriguing carved walking sticks, agates, wood carving, etc., etc., etc.  Sipping wine, talking with friends, looking at the art work....  too much activity to remember to take pictures.  However, the talent of our friends and neighbors proved to be impressive.  

Back outside....  Plenty of wine left, as well as tables full of cheese, crackers, breads, and fruit.

Dianne brought  wedges of Ilchester cheddar with port wine and a Harlech English cheddar with horseradish and parsley.  Luckily, we were able to bring a small bit of it home.

As the evening progressed, the cool night temperatures seemed to be less of an issue for some reason.  The empty wine bottles made an impressive display.  Lots of glass for the recycling bin!  Doing our part :-)


The people picture of the day (already too many pet pictures) is a shot of the many people responsible for all those empty bottles.