Our first meetup in the snow!

We had the December meetup at Schweitzer Woods on Saturday December 11, 2010. Trooper, Riddick, Kuno, Stella, and Milo (a visiting guest) made it out for the cold meetup in the snow. The dogs has so much fun running in the snow and tracking on the trails. We are going to try an inside meetup for January. See you then.

December 2010 - West Dundee, Illinois

The November meetup was back at Schweitzer Woods

Based on the results of the survey for the date and location we had the November meetup back at Schweitzer Woods Forest Preserve in West Dundee. Although that specific date along with the day of the week, time of day, and location was chosen by the most people on the survey, we didn't have our biggest turn out ever. There were six Great Danes there. Riddick is getting BIG! The weather held out again. It was about 45 degrees, but the rain held off so it wasn't too bad. See you next month. Will there be snow???

November 2010 - West Dundee, Illinois

The October 2010 Meetup at West Side Community Park

We had the October 2010 meetup at West Side Community Park in Campton Hills, Kane County, Illinois. This is a large free, fenced site with a separate fenced canine agility area. We had six danes in attendance with Siren a harlequin attending for her first time. Reich and Rumples don’t look much like puppies any more. It is fun watching them grow. Of course all of our dogs look like puppies next to Mason though!

October 2010 - Campton Hills, IL

The September 2010 Meetup at Jaycee Park

We had the September meetup yesterday at Jaycee Park in Deerfield. About 13 Great Danes showed up for what threatened to be a stormy day. The rain ended up holding off and everyone had a great time! We welcomed a few first-timers to the group yesterday (one from Lockport and another from Lombard) and even Riddick a 10 week old puppy came out to play with the big guys. See you all in November.

September 2010 - Deerfield, IL

The August Meetup at Montrose Dog Beach

We had the August Great Dane meetup at Montrose Dog Beach in Chicago today. The meetup was a blast & the weather was PERFECT! We couldn't have found a nicer day. We had about 15 Great Danes present. It was hard to keep track because of all of the people and all of the other dogs too, but 15 is a pretty good estimate. We met a few other Great Danes & Great Dane owners who just happened to be there. They said they were interested in coming to future meets too. Rumpels who is about five and a half months old was body surfing with his blue swim shirt on...he looked like he was in heaven out there. There are so many Chicagoans in our group now, I think we'll have to head back to Montrose again in the future. Hope to see you there...

August 2010 - Chicago, IL

We Hiked Starved Rock State Park

We went to Starved Rock State Park on August 12th. It was 92 degrees Fahrenheit and quite humid. It wasn't the best place to take a dog who is used to laying around 24/7, but we did it against our better judgement and we all survived. We explored the following trails within the park: Starved Rock, Lover's Leap Overlook, Eagle Cliff Overlook, French Canyon, and Pontiac Canyon. Our favorite was French Canyon. Then we went to the campground and camped out in a tent (also not recommended on such a hot & humid day).

While hiking we saw Leopold Island, and Plum Island, and the Illinois River. We did not see any waterfalls because of the time of year we chose to go so we definitely intend to go back. I'd like to experience the park in each season. The Spring for the waterfalls, the Fall for the fall colors and cooler temperatures, and the Winter for the snow-covered trees and ice falls. Another reason to go back is because we hardly scratched the surface of hiking trails and there are other state parks in the immediate area I'd like to explore too such as Mattheissen State Park. The trip took us about 1.5 hours to the park (it is approximately 94 miles from Chicago and approximately 54 miles from Aurora/Naperville.

Hiking At Starved Rock State Park August 12, 2010

Went to Montrose Dog Beach Today

We went to Montrose Dog Beach in Chicago today. We had a lot of fun and coincidentally saw four other danes there. It was our danes first time in the water. He was a little afraid, but it is wading water for quite a ways out. He got used to it and seemed to have a fun time. We arrived at about 5:00 p.m. on a Sunday and parking was scarce to put it mildly. We found (or created) a spot and thankfully did not get ticketed and had a great time. I wanted to preview this as a site for a future meetup and it seems like it would work. To learn more about the beach click on Montrose Harbor Dog Beach.

We Had Our 3rd Meetup!

We have had three meetups now. Our 1st was in May 2010 in Woodstock, Illinois, our 2nd in June 2010 in Dundee, Illinois, and our 3rd in July 2010 also in Dundee, Illinois. We have had as many as 11 Great Danes at one meet and as few as 5. We have had Great Danes come from all over northeastern Illinois from Mundelein to Oswego, from Chicago to Woodstock. Each time has been a really fun outing for us. Where will our next Great Dane meetup be?

I'd like to move it to somewhere in Lake County or Cook County just to keep us traveling. So far we have met in McHenry County and Kane County. Please let us know if you have suggestions for a meetup location or a special event. Someone suggested marching with our Great Danes in parades or processions to honor fallen soldiers or soldiers returning home from overseas. Someone else suggested attending "Dog Day" at U.S. Cellular Field next year with the White Sox. Both great ideas! Keep 'em coming and check back regularly for photo updates from the different meets.

July 2010 - Dundee, IL

June 2010 - Dundee, IL

May 2010 - Woodstock, IL - Our 1st Meetup!