Beach blanket poochy.

What a perfect pooch vacation this weekend turned out to be. While certainly not the ideal situation, the dogs did way better than we ever expected at the apartment. They barked less, whined less, and overall acted less like maniacs than they typically do. I count that a success.

Less of a success was our Grand Mere State Park attempt. I didn't realize it at first, but this park has bested me twice. Once on a girl's trip for my 25th birthday (remember that nonsense?) and now again. There's no mention of it on the website. They don't warn you when you enter. But to reach the beach, you first hike through the woods for about 3/4 of a mile. It's paved, so typically easy enough. But this year, the mosquitoes are at some sort of hyper crazy level, and it was seriously unbearable. So you reach the end of the path, think, "thank goodness," and realize you are now on a sand dune. You are at near death by the time you reach the top of the dune... the first dune. Turns out, there is about another 1/2-mile hike through the heat and sand, and hills, before you reach the water. Lugging all your crap. Being dragged by two giant dogs. As we did those years ago, we promptly turned back and went back to the car. A little worse for wear.

A small squito sampling.



Heidi is already pooped.

We decided to brave the crowds and headed to Warren Dunes, which is our favorite beach anyway. It was way more crowded than we've ever seen it, but we walked to the far end of the dog beach (which is to the far end of the main beach), and we had quite a bit of space to ourselves. And again, the pooches did GREAT. At one point, a dog walked by and barked at them and they just stared at it like "Don't you know we're in public? Hush!"

And... of course... Heidi took her FIRST swim! Even though the waves were huge, our brave lab hopped in and did a few laps in and out. It was so cute to see her little webbed feet in action, her arms splashing in the waves. I don't think I've ever been so proud. George, on the other hand, couldn't have been less interested in the water. BUT he didn't freak out, didn't pull, didn't bark. He's clearly just more of the sunbathing type. We anticipated a quick in and out trip to the beach, but we ended up staying over two hours!

Scopin' it out.

Weeeee!



Just two ladies at the beach.



Georgie is a grandpa's boy.



Pooches <3 the beach.

Needless to say, once we got home, they were out for the night.