What Happens on the Bay...

What is one to do on a Saturday evening when there's nothing good on TV? Go to the beach of course. Today though, the beach conditions were crummy again. The tide was in really far, making the beach just a narrow strip of sand, the surf was up, and it was windy. That of course meant that the beach would be super loud with not much sand. On top of that, the parking lot was fairly full, and there was a school bus. From the check in point, Mom could see big groups of people squished in together on the narrow strip of sand. The puppies do really well around people, but when there are tons of people and nowhere to go, it gets a little stressful for them, and they get distracted more easily. So we decided to head over to the bay instead. The puppies had never walked over by the bay, and we figured it's good for them to do new things anyway. The more they are exposed to, the more relaxed they seem to be on their walks. 
We were glad we did. The beach was packed, but the bay was pretty much empty. It was still breezy enough to keep the mosquitoes away but quieter because of the lack of waves. We took the puppies up to the top of an observation tower. They loved it. They wanted to stop every few feet on the ramp up and down to look out through the rails at the scenery below. 

We tried taking a nice group shot at the top of the tower, but there was much too much to see. So we didn't get to many organized pictures. Plus, the puppies were anxious to get on with the walk.

There was a little trail leading off into the bush at the base of the tower. So we decided to check it out.

We followed the little path and came to a neat little foot bridge. There was a heron sitting on it when we first got there, but it flew off when it saw our pack. The puppies just watched calmly as it flew away. It was the first time they had ever walked on a bridge like that. In the beginning, Mr. M had the idea that he could just step off the side into the marshes. Mom caught him before he had more than one paw off of the bridge. We walked across the little bridge and then decided to turn around, not knowing how far the path continued and whether or not we would be able to find our way back to the car before dark. On the way back across, we stopped to watch the fish jumping in the water around us. Miss M found all of that very interesting. Mom had been taking pictures and had just put the lens cap back on, when she noticed Miss M leaning a little too far out over the edge trying to smell the water. She called to Dad to watch her, and just as she was finishing the sentence, Splash! In went Miss M. The water was deeper than she expected. Dad, who was still holding on to her leash, pulled her quickly back out of the water. The puppies didn't know what had happened, and Miss M looked like she was in shock as to how she ended up all wet. It was her first experience with deep water. On the bright side, the water cooled her off and she didn't pant at all for the rest of the walk. 

Miss S watching Mom, everyone else noticing the fish jumping out of the water

Notice how Miss M (far left) has her tongue out panting in this picture. This was just before she fell in the water.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable walk. The puppies got to do something new, and we didn't have to fight the crowds on the beach side. We finished walking just as it started getting dark. Miss M of course got a bath as soon as we got home to rinse off the salt water. She then cuddled up on the bed with us to oversee the blog writing efforts. It was much better than sitting on the couch watching something lame on TV.