The best way to travel with pets: HomeExchange through the eyes of a golden retriever
HomeExchange ambassador Bobbi shared her home swapping adventures through the eyes of her golden retriever, Sunshine.
Hi, my name is Sunshine Coconut. I am a Golden Retriever and I just turned four. I love to explore with my family! My mom and human brother used to go on vacations and leave me home with a pet sitter but once my mom joined HomeExchange she started to bring me!
I love to travel and be with my humans on adventures! I want to tell you about a few of my favorite adventures.
On my first trip, I got to go with my family one winter over New Years to stay at a stone castle house on the top of Donner Summit near Lake Tahoe in California. I saw snow for the first time and loved it! First I barked at the snow coming down but then I realized I could roll in it and play in it and it was so fun. I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail with my mom and sledded and spent a whole week in a beautiful home with my family in the snow.
The next trip my mom went on was with a friend to Italy which is too far for me to travel to but our home exchange friend we had traded with in the past came and stayed at our house with her dog Zeus and her sister and we all had a great time in my home. My mom loved her trip for ten days to Rome and Tuscany and I was safe in our home with our exchange friend.
Last summer with travel restrictions we ended up getting a permit to go to Yosemite! It was so fun! Hardly anyone was there and I got to explore a national park and go in rivers and lakes.
My mom exchanged with another couple with two dogs so they got to stay in my dog beds and explore my favorite beaches and hiking trails while I finally learned to swim and went out on a boat for the first time in Bass Lake.
A couple months ago my mom took me on another trip (some other friends went too) and I got to go to Santa Cruz, California. We stayed in a home with a pool with views of the redwoods all the way to the ocean and I got to swim, go to the beach and go hiking in the Redwoods and Sequoias. It was amazing.
Two weeks later we went to Santa Barbara where I got to kayak and do the longest beach walks and stayed in a beautiful house with a deck overlooking the ocean. We watched our new home exchange friends rabbit while we stayed at her house and that was fun too. We had some fun hiking trails and stand up paddled around a bunch of yachts in the harbor too.
Our last trip was a couple weeks ago to Lake Tahoe, California on the West Shore and for the first time I river rafted! Some Mallard ducks were following us floating the Truckee River but I was so good and loved it!
I also went stand up paddling on Lake Tahoe and I didn’t want to get off of the paddleboard when we got back to the beach. I hiked a bunch, ran along with my mom biking, sat nicely below the table at dinner and even saw a lot of bears! I also celebrated my fourth birthday. I was so good because I want my mom to take me on all of her trips!
Next month we are going to Mammoth Mountain for a week and I can’t wait to hike to hot springs and stand up paddle in lakes and hike more! I am so happy my mom has done 25 home exchanges and she brings me whenever she can! We love adventures!