Just Beachy

I really wanted to take Marge for a hike today, because it's now been a couple of weeks since our last woodland adventure.  However, I slept in pretty late following a night-owl kind of night yesterday, staying up and browsing the internet for who knows what.  So, the beach would have to be the best substitute.  Marge, my sister and I headed for the shore.

Dogs aren't allowed on open New York City beaches during the beach season, spanning from May to October, I believe. This excludes the strip of beach near my house where there are no lifeguards, park personnel, etc (I suppose you can call this a "closed" beach), but does include other nearby beaches.  So, this marks the first time in a long time that we've been on this particular stretch of sand.  Since it is so vast, I knew that despite the warm weather, we'd be able to avoid the throngs of people out enjoying the end of the really rainy week we had.

The colors were so vivid.  The sun was striking at an odd angle, since it sets so early now.  As long as we could avoid the shadows, we got some pretty nice pictures.  All the while, Marge explored and trotted gingerly from rock to rock, shell to shell.

She looks so focused and determined in this shot, like she's following some sort of strong and promising scent.

Here, she wonders why we've told her to pause and pose next to the crashing ocean.  I have a similar picture of her from the summer of 2008 on one of our very frequent beach outings.  It's funny to see how gangly the yearling Marge looks back then compared to how she's filled out and grown almost a year and a half later.

And, of course, no beach day would be complete without a big wide Marge grin, her eyes glimmering and specks of sand dotting her otherwise pitch black nose.

She explored the rocks next to the jetty, but the waves soon came pouring over them, causing Marge to want to get to higher ground as quick as she could. She leapt from the rocks onto the big cement pier. After all our excursions at the beach, she still wants absolutely nothing to do with the water, since it isn't still and peaceful like the lakes and ponds in the woods.

We kept going, Marge leading the way in a flowing, full-out trot.  She did very well passing a large mastiff and a puppy mastiff in pretty close proximity.  We encountered a couple of other dogs, but most either didn't notice Marge or she didn't notice them, so it wasn't a problem.  She hasn't seen many dogs outside of training class or agility events in quite some time, so it was encouraging that she didn't get too scared or reactive.  I need to get her back out to the parks for walks, where we often do have to pass dogs out for a stroll. 

Similarly, she had no reaction to the people dotting the shoreline, walking or fishing.  She did get a little nervous as we meandered closer to the park headquarters, where they'd begun forming few-foot high barriers out of the sand, in what looks like an attempt to prevent erosion over the winter.  Park personnel vans drove along the asphalt path, and the crowd seemed to have thickened.  Even though they were at least a couple of hundred feet away from us, the noise carried; we had walked far enough, so this seemed like the perfect point to turn around.

Marge seemed tired on the way back, as we navigated through the minefield of bird prints, dog prints, and human footprints. Our walk was about an hour long total, and it was unseasonably warm, so it wasn't surprising that Marge was a little slow as we made our way to the car.

Another day gone, another five o'clock sunset.  But what fun we had.  I hope we're going to have a spectacular offseason all by ourselves along the shore.