The last few days the weather around here has been perfect. Cool at night, moderately warm in the daytime but not hot. Basically I think we have been experiencing the kind of weather they have in California all the time. For us, this kind of Fall like weather is very rare. We decided we had to celebrate, and what better way to celebrate than with a trip to the beach?
The puppies were so excited! They were surprised when we got up and started getting ready to go for a ride. They were even more surprised when we got to the beach.
The beach was perfect. The weather couldn't have been better. It was pleasant enough that it wasn't hot, but not cold either. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and there was just enough of a breeze to keep the mosquitoes away. When we first started walking, the sun was behind us and wasn't very high int he sky yet. On the way back, it was higher in the sky, but with the cool breeze, it was still pleasant. 
Everything is more exciting for the puppies at the beach of course. There were shells and birds and sticks. And more importantly, there was sand. Lots of sand.

Apparently mid morning is a dangerous time to walk the beach. We could smell people cooking breakfast at their campsites. Miss S and Mr. C were convinced that they needed to go help cook breakfast and kept pulling us in the direction of breakfast. 

After such an exciting morning, the puppies were totally exhausted. They played a little in the backyard when we got home, but after that, they all fell asleep on the floor while Mom made bread. Miss M volunteered her blog editing services for this post- she slept while Mom typed.

The last couple of days have been almost Fall-like here. We had lows that were actually in the 60's! If the ground hadn't been wet, it would have been perfect hammock weather. The first day with the nice temperatures, the ground was so wet, that we couldn't let the puppies play too much in the backyard without having to sweep and mop the floor every time they came in. Yesterday though, we were finally able to let them play a little in the yard. We were met by a visitor.

The girls played outside for a while. Miss M decided that it was time to go in, and let us know.

After the girls had their turn, we let the boys out for a little bro time. Once they took care of business, they stalked each other and took turns playing chase around the yard.

All in all it was a good day to play in the yard. 

Saturday the weather was finally mild enough to go to the beach again. For the past two months or so, it has just been too hot in the evenings to take the puppies to the beach, and the mornings have been so muggy, that we just didn't even bother. Yesterday, we noticed that the afternoon was kind of pleasant. It was warm but not blazing hot, and the humidity wasn't too bad. So as it got closer to evening, we got the puppies all ready and loaded them into the car. They were excited to be able to go somewhere. We suspect that they thought they were going to puppy school because when we passed the turn for school, they all started looking around. They seemed a little concerned and all crowded around the front near us. When we pulled into the office parking lot at the State Park, they knew exactly where they were. When Mom got out to go check us in, the whole car was shaking from all the tail wagging inside.
The weather was perfect. It wasn't too hot, and the humidity was low there too. When we walked from the parking lot over to the beach itself, the puppies were all on their best behavior. There were people everywhere, but they didn't bark at them at all. They didn't even pay any attention to the kids we passed. They were just happy to be at the beach. The water was out a little further than it had been the last time we were there, and there was plenty of sand to walk on. The seaweed is long gone, so it was just nice, clean beach sand. We stepped into the water just to see what it was like, and it too was perfect. I started to wish I had worn a bathing suit. The puppies all walked in the edge of the water with us. They were so happy to be at the beach!
When we were checking in, one of the rangers told us that the mosquitoes were really bad and to make sure we had bug spray. We noticed that whenever we got close to any tall grass, there would be a small welcoming committee of mosquitoes just waiting for us to come a little closer. The only thing keeping them from swarming the beach itself was that the sun was still out, but that wasn't going to last much longer. We cut our walk a little shorter than normal so that we could get back to the car before the sun went down. When we turned around to go back, the sun was starting to get a little lower on the horizon and the odd mosquito or two was just starting to buzz around. When we got to the car, they were coming out in full force. Mr. C had two of them on his face that Mom quickly swatted away. We didn't have to ask him twice to jump up into the car.
The beach was still full of people blissfully unaware of their impending mosquito-laden doom when we left. They were lounging peacefully under awnings and playing in the water. I am pretty sure they are really itchy today.
All in all it was a really good trip to the beach- even if it was a little shorter than normal. The puppies had a great time and behaved really well. Today is a little warmer and the humidity is back up again, but it won't be long until we can start going to the beach more often again. Hooray!!
I didn't take any pictures- not even of the huge orange full moon rising over the water- because I didn't want to stop long enough to get the camera out of my bag. Any time we stopped, the welcoming committee would come towards us. So I felt like taking pictures was probably a bad idea.