A Day at the Beach

This weekend Sadie, her Grandfather, and I took a day trip to the beach. I packed the car with all kinds of chairs and toys and towels and snacks and we headed out for the hour and a half drive to the beach. The whole way there Sadie was pretty nervous, since she had no idea where we were going. I kept telling her to calm down because we were going somewhere fun, but she didn’t believe me.

We encountered our first bit of mischief just as I was going to get off the highway. There was a big sign by the exit proclaiming that the beach we were headed to was closed for the day – it was at full capacity. I was really worried that we had made the drive for no reason, as the only other dog friendly beach was a half hour closer to home. But Sadie’s Grandfather wanted to check out some open houses before getting all sandy, so we decided to figure out the beach problem once he was done.

Since I was fairly certain that open houses wouldn’t welcome a canine visitor, I decided to take Sadie for a walk around the beach town. I thought it would be nice to be out stretching our legs after the long car ride. After walking a block, I noticed that there was a street fair on the road bordering the boardwalk. I knew Sadie wasn’t allowed up on the boardwalk, but I thought it would be nice to walk along the street and check out what the fair had to offer. Just as I crossed the street and put one foot into the street fair, I’m immediately stopped by a police officer. Apparently dogs were not allowed into the street fair, even though it was on a public street. He apologized, saying that dogs were allowed through in previous years, but last year there was some trouble, so they changed the rules. I hate it when mischief caused by irresponsible dog owners ruins things for everyone else. So Sadie and I just headed back to the car and her Grandfather joined us soon after.

I took the chance and drove to the supposedly closed beach next, just in case it had reopened. And luck was on our side this time. A children’s fishing tournament had just ended, so there was now plenty of room for more beach-goers. I drove down to the furthest end of the beach, hoping it would be least crowded, and I was right. There were only three or four other families as far as the eye could see, with only two other dogs. It looked perfect! But as we gathered our gear to head toward the ocean, a couple with a dog stopped by our car to warn us that it was really windy by the water. I thanked them, but decided I wanted to check it out for myself.

So Sadie, her Grandfather, and I started lugging all of our stuff towards the water. At first I wondered what in the world those people were talking about. The air was extremely hot, still, and dry, making us feel like we were trudging through the desert. But then we passed through a break in the sand dunes and it all made sense. As I started setting up our chairs, the wind was strong enough to keep knocking them over, while constantly pelting us with sand. I immediately began to worry about Sadie and the sand flying into her eyes. I kept trying to get her to stand with her back to the wind, but Sadie was not interested in cooperating. She was mostly interested in convincing her Grandfather and I to leave. She seemed very confused as to why we would want to be at a place so windy and full of sand.

I tried playing in the sand with Sadie, but she wasn’t interested. I tried playing catch, fetch, and just giving her a new squeaky toy, but Sadie didn’t want any of it. She wouldn’t take any snacks either. Sadie was willing to get her feet wet with me, but we didn’t go any further into the ocean since the water was freezing. I have a feeling she only followed me to the water because she wanted to stay as close to me as possible. I did manage to get some pictures taken, as you can see, so I felt like I accomplished something at least.

But I think Sadie’s favorite part of the day was when she stood up by one of the chairs and I realized she wanted to sit in it. The minute I put her in that chair, Sadie relaxed by like 75%. Then I turned the chair away from the wind and she relaxed completely. I guess my dog just doesn’t like to play in the sand. Sadie was perfectly happy from then on to sleep up on the chair while the humans got all dirty in the sand.

This post is part of the Monday Mischief Pet Blog hop.