I have been taking an annual road trip with the doodle for one long weekend a year at this rental house in Cape May, New Jersey for the past 5 years (except for last year).

I found it on Bringfido.com when I was looking for a pet friendly place and road trip destination for me and the doodle back in 2010.

I love it here! And especially this time of year. It’s empty. The dogs are allowed almost everywhere and there are lots of scenic options for running too. I also love the colder weather. It’s been colder than normal for this time of year. It even got below freezing last night (31F).

I arrived on Thursday afternoon and settled in while preparing a lovely dinner. The boyfriend and his doodle dog Chester came down in the evening to join Duncan and I.

And then there was a lot of relaxing.

Friday morning we took the dogs to the beach. Chester and his person played football with an indestructible destructible Nerf ball and Duncan just enjoyed the fresh, and might I add COLD air.

After a little bit of shopping and a couple more meals, the boyfriend and Chester headed home.

Yesterday was another gorgeous crisp Autumn day. Rather than return to the beach, I took Duncan to the Cold Spring Bike Path for a 3.5 mile walk and we enjoyed the last of the Fall Foliage.

It’s a 3 mile stretch and is just a quarter mile walk from my rental house. After our walk, I dropped him home and set out on the same route for a run. Since I knew it was flat and mainly away from traffic and traffic lights I went out faster than norm.

I’m still trying to work out some kinks with the knee and a few other tight spots but 3-4 miles seems to be my sweet spot for distance right now. No pain occurs during these shorter runs. So I figure I might as well try and run faster knowing my mileage each week is a lot lighter. Come January I’ll start building back up my base for marathon training.

Later on in the afternoon I took Duncan to a unique spot known as Cox Hall Creek.

It is a 253-acre state wildlife management area that used to be a golf course. So all the paved paths that the golf carts used to ride on are still there but there’s just the most majestic jungle of greenery and wildlife all around you. A friend that used to live in the area told me about it and I’m glad I had a chance to spend some time there. Duncan loved it too. Lots of scents to track.

Today we went for a short walk and now I’m packing up the car to head home. It’s been really relaxing and just what I needed. Before you know it Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here and life will be quite hectic.

Do you have a place you go to every year at the same time of year? What season do you go there?