Beach



One of the best things about living where we do is its proximity to a variety of destinations--woods, historic sites, big cities, squirrel hunting grounds, beaches, mountains. Surprisingly, for as much as they love beaches, and for how close it is to us, my humans have not been to Assateague Island. Well, father has, but it was with a Scout troop decades ago. I can say decades because he has entered his third; that is why we drove out to Assateague the other day.

I am not a beach dog. Repeat, not a beach dog. There are no trees (the above photo is misleading). There are no squirrels. There are no cozy beds in air-conditioned rooms (yes, I'm aware that I have become citified. I have decided to embrace it).

Luckily, the car provided a shady spot.

 So I have to find shady spaces to rest and drink extra water. On the bright side, there were a couple points of interest:

1. Beach chairs are lower to the ground than regular chairs. The effectiveness of food-requesting (it's not called "begging," humans, just FYI) increases by approximately 18 percentage points for each centimeter of proximity to the human. They've done studies.



Look for an upcoming post about food-requesting technique.

2. Assateague is home to many wild horses. I am a fan of horses; I used to live with several, and last year on our family beach trip we saw wild horses every day. I am also a fan of animal carcasses. They smell excellent when rolled upon. We took a walk down the beach and came across a wild horse carcass, perfect for rolling! Mother pulled me away so I didn't get a full coating of scent, just a little "dab behind the ears," as they say. So that was exciting.

An equine. Still living, obviously.

After a day of hanging out on the beach, we drove a half-hour north to Ocean City. Aside from the seafood, there is not much to recommend that town unless you are newly graduated from high school or college. But father made a few trips there in his youth and wanted a walk down memory lane. Well, what he could remember of it.

  

Long day.

We managed to find a dog-friendly restaurant and the humans enjoyed some seafood. I snoozed between bouts of strenuous food-requesting. I did get a bit of crab, although not as much as I would have liked...