Where: Lake Havasu City, AZ
When: October 13 - 15, 2009
Rating for humans:
Rating for pugs:
I somehow managed to pick the slowest week of the year in a town that is only alive on the weekends and then visited it in the middle of the week. Especially for the pug’s sake, I loved it! It was fantastic that we could go wherever we wanted, whenever we wanted and Leo, Oreo and Willo could come along. When no one is around, who is going to complain? Don't be mistaken though, Lake Havasu is extremely dog friendly! We found the nicest dog park I have ever been too and it's right at London Bridge Beach.
There is this little village called ‘London’ at the base of London Bridge. We went in the evening when all the shops were closed but enjoyed the architecture and quaintness just the same. It was also very cool coming around a bend and seeing the London Bridge for the first time, rising up out of the water bathed in light.
Mark, Leo, Oreo, and Willo in front of the fountain in 'London'
Over the next few days we spent a lot of time with that bridge but somehow none of my pictures of the bridge ever came out the way I wanted them to. We soon recognized the bridge from several movies - but couldn’t name them. As hard as we tried, when we strolled over it at midnight we didn’t see any ghosts. The bridge connects the Island to the ‘main land.’ We walked under the bridge on both sides, drove over it at least a dozen times and read about its history. I couldn’t pin point my obsession with the bridge, beyond ‘how cool was it that this very old bridge came from so far away, brick by brick to be in a desert?’ (England and particularly London is not a place that hold’s much interest for me.) It was finally when Mark turned to me the second evening in our hotel room and stated a gruesome fact that I must’ve known in the back of my mind, “Your ancestor’s head was hung off that bridge.” And he was right, William Wallace, a direct ancestor of mine, had his head and just his head, hung off the London Bridge as an example. Of course it didn’t quite have the effect that the English Royalty was going for and maybe it should be a point of sadness, but for me it was a point of pride.
Daytime London Bridge
London Bridge Beach is on the Island and runs along the ‘canal’ between the island and mainland; it has a small strip beach with a huge really nice park behind it. Just on the other side of the canal on the mainland is another park but since puggies weren’t allowed there we only drove through it one night. London Bridge Beach is much nicer. As I mentioned before there is a really great dog park there. The acre park gently slopes downward towards the beach, it has a sidewalk that loops the perimeter and a huge grassy area in the center, in the middle of the grass is more cement with a fire hydrant sprinkler (see picture below.) We spent a lot of time in this park and even more time walking up and down the beach where the dogs could wade into the water.
Lion's dog park, a lot of these picture's consisted of pug butts, soooo....
Willo once again stood up to her reputation of being 10 pounds of absolute terror. The dog actually gets along well with most other dogs, big and small alike but since she’s so tiny big dogs often make the mistake of thinking they can bully her. There was a rottie, she wasn’t that big weighing in at 60 pounds probably, that went after Willo nipping at her and barking at her. Willo turned around and went right back after that rottweiler. She snarled, growled, bit and barked, she wouldn’t lay off the dog pushing it back and snapping at it’s face and ears. Unfortunately, the rottie wasn’t laying off her either but my quick little girl backed her off enough until I could scoop her up into the safety of my arms, the rottie then made the mistake of trying to jump up on me to get to Willo and got a solar-plex full of my knee.
Don't mess with the pug!
Mark and I went to dinner at the restaurant Shugrue's, a place that is right on the water. We had the entire place to ourselves most of the night. It is a classy place with good, expensive food. I’ve had better food but rarely better service, our waiter was fantastic and he told us a ton of interesting facts and trivia. We had by far the best seat in the house, ‘table 6’, which is suppose to be famous, the back of the restaurant is all windows from floor curving up into the ceiling, it’s right on the water facing the London Bridge. Our table was in the corner so we were surrounded by glass on practically four sides (above us, behind Mark, behind myself, and to the side of us.) It has to be one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen in my life, with the lights glinting off the water. ‘London’ is right across from the restaurant, so you have the architecture as well as the bridge. Also, a Mark Twain style riverboat (see below) along with some other styled boats dock right there. It was after that we went for our midnight stroll across the bridge.
View from Shugrue's.
We took this picture earlier in the day, standing just below the restaurant that we knew nothing about yet. You can see 'London' and the river boat at dock, the bridge is just to the right.
Now for the pièce de résistance and what prompted me to choose Lake Havasu, of all places, to go to. Lighthouses, replica lighthouses to be exact. That’s right, Lake Havasu is full of them. When I stumbled upon this I had to go see them. We only got up close and personal to a few on this trip and I’m making Mark take me back just so I can get to all of them. I will need a boat for some of them, or at least it will make it considerably easier. I’m going to let the pictures speak for themselves….mostly.
Main Buffalo Replica located at London Bridge Beach.
The Riverboat and Vermilion Light Replica.
This little fella was on a dock in 'London', I'm pretty sure it's not a real replica but cute just the same.
If you would like to have your own Lake Havasu Adventure:
www.golakehavasu.com
If you would like to learn more about the Lighthouses, click on 'Build Progress' or 'Night Navigation-Map' which is interactive:
www.lh-lighthouseclub.org
If you would like to see Shugrue's:
www.shugrues.com/lakehavasuindex.html
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