This weekend we went on an adventure for Mother’s day to Victoria, a chance to spend time with family and explore. ADVENTURES WITH MAMA is a movie in and of itself, so for this week’s post we’ll focus on our non-human family member ARTDOG. As mentioned before during the process of Project851, like in February, I became a dog mama of Koda, now Koko, and now her alter ego ARTDOG. ARTDOG has the best adventures sniffing out good art as well as the elements of good art, such as color, shape, line, form…

When PROJECT 851 is completed Artdog plans to do a tour from her perspective, “never mind those architectural critics”, she says, “I’ll give you the inside scoop.” Here are a few of Artdog’s, head shots, compliments of Marina’s great camera and “portrait” option! …now is Artdog ready for a solo blog or what?

Victoria not only provided headshots for Artdog but also adventures to Buchart Gardens, sniffing heaven; family for special European bbq (under the Komin), more sniffing heaven; shopping downtown with the most dog friendly stores and galleries, a different kind of sniffing heaven. This was Artdog’s first trip to Victoria, with me, and omg what a good time we had, which was something that started out as a possible ? mark. I’ll let you in on a secret Artdog is not a BIG fan of the automobile and it can be a begrudging experience at times. Fortunately, Artdog was top form enjoying the chauffeured drive in the blue cadillac, window open and head to the wind. Of course, this is the style to which she has become accustomed — no shame there, after all it is ARTDOG. The upper deck of the Ferry met Artdog’s standards and what we thought would be “dog prison” turned out to be delightfully pleasant on the way there. Two other dogs kept Artdog company, both with personalities of respecting one another with nice human alpha’s all well groomed and calm in nature. We won’t talk about the overcrowded 5 puppy’s of the earth mama’s and 4 other dogs with various anti-social humans on the way back: Artdog went for a walk.

Let’s focus on the delights of Buchart Gardens, which was another first for Artdog and received a big 4 paws up! The Information centre provided treats and highlights of the 55 acre site, there was a dog friendly water fountain near the cove along with boom boom bags; these were just the dog friendly bonuses. The colors, shapes, scents, sculptures, landscapes and ice cream, ooppps meant variety of themes, made for a feast of visual and olfactory delights. We’ll attempt to take you there through a few visuals…

ARTDOG gave another 4 paws up salute to the next part of the adventure which was a small village feast at a super secret location with family. Straight to visuals…(we won’t talk about the chunk of cake Artdog felt free to partake in while no one was looking).

Finally, shopping Downtown turned into an unanticipated purchasing frenzy of skirts, shoes, spa items… The human alpha was busy while Artdog enjoyed the local gallery scene.

Wether you’re in Victoria or Vancouver or anywhere, "You never know, when you least expect it, ARTDOG may come up to you and say “Hey you, tow the line ‘cause I’m watching you”.