Spikey Goes to the Beach

There are only two beaches that allow dogs on the Marin/ Sonoma coast and since it has been years since we've gotten to the beach we decided to go to our regular favorite...Dillon Beach. When Ozzie was no longer able/willing to get into the car we stopped taking him. We got Spike during the pandemic and once things opened up a bit we were unsure how he would do with all the distraction of other people, other dogs, water, waves, etc. I thought he would be ok there, and that it would be a good way to socialize him, but then John broke his ankle....

Today seemed the perfect day to take take the plunge, so to speak. Harold and Anne are dog people and willing to risk driving to the beach and coming straight back if there were problems. The paper predicted 62F and it is always windy there...quite a change from the 86F here.  The plan was to go as soon as the Zoom Pilates class was over, stopping for coffee along the way. We only succeeded in getting in about 20 minutes of class because the audio on my computer and my phone had mysteriously vanished. I finally managed to restore the audio on the phone but the computer is still silent....the Wildwood tech poltergeist seems to have returned, as Anne isn't getting any emails and neither the guy at the Apple store nor Jim could figure out why....

We needn't have worried about Spike at the beach. Like practically every dog we have ever seen there, he loved it. Unlike other dogs, namely Ozzie, he wasn't tempted by dead crabs or beachgoers' picnics. He greeted all the other dogs in a civilized manner, but was quite cautious about the water as it lapped about his feet. We'll save that introduction for another day, for we hope there will be many more...He circled back frequently in order to keep track of us and responded instantly if we called him back. It is such fun to watch the unalloyed joy of every dog there whether young or old, large or small...

We stopped on the way back in the tiny hamlet of Tomales where there is an excellent bakery and a deli with a bewildering variety of salads, sandwiches and even pizzas which we watched being carried across the street to the hotel.

We started talking to a young firefighter who had driven his Marin Fire truck into 'town' just to 'meet some people' after a 96 hour week fighting wildfires. I told him about how we had survived the Glass Fire but our neighbors hadn't, and told him that I got quite emotional every time I saw a firefighter.  He said, 'I worked the Glass Fire . If your house survived it was because you put in all the work to protect it. You made it possible for us to do our job...'  

We're all nearly comatose after all the fresh air....John keeps saying to Spike, 'I'm so proud of you....' 

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