just beachy

 

We have a house guest! Diesel, the Holidays' dog, is staying with us while they are on vacation. Luckily, Diesel and Charlie are BFFs -- last time Charlie stayed with the Holidays, when it was time to say goodbye, Diesel pressed his nose to the window of the van, and Charlie did likewise, then Diesel followed us halfway down the road. I think they have been pining away for each other for weeks now.

To celebrate their happy reunion, I decided we should go check out the dog beach at Potato Creek State Park. And since I was already taking two dogs and three kids, I decided to go all in and fill the rest of the seats, so our cousins Jimmy, Gracie, and Taylor came along too. It was super hot today, and about halfway there, we ran into rain so strong that we had to pull off the road and wait it out -- which was FUN with the kids all asking why we were stopped, how long we would be stopped, what would happen if another car hit us, etc., all while the dogs whined from the way back. But eventually the rain let up and we got back on the road (thankfully without having been rear-ended).

In a stroke of good timing, we got to the beach just as they were letting people back in the water ... but then a park ranger came and told me that the dog beach was closed because of algae in the water, and that it had been closed basically for a couple years now, and that it would probably continue to be closed for the foreseeable future, but we could wade along the shore as long as we washed the dogs off afterward. (Confidential to Potato Creek SP: Putting that information on your website and/or Facebook page might be helpful! Just saying.) All righty then. So in we waded with the dogs, who seemed to be maybe sort of halfway into it but then flopped their wet selves down in the sand and watched over the kids, who were playing at the people beach (basically the other side of a roped-off area).

I stayed with the dogs for a decent chunk of time, watching the kids play in the water, and occasionally one of the kids would come and walk the dogs along the beach for a while, then disappear off to find water spiders (?) and bury them in a frenzy of excited squeals. And when everyone had their fill of the beach, we went up to the locker room building, where there was a hose we could use to wash the dogs -- and of course get all the kids and towels and everything else wet in the process! Once we had everyone loaded back in the van, we stopped and got ice cream cones for the ride home -- the cherry on top of a classic summer afternoon.