boxing day at the beach

This year, we spent Christmas in my hometown on the Monterey Peninsula. Because the weather was insanely warm (if you need an explanation into the WHY, talk to Mr. M, the environmental guy), we decided to head over to the beach and take Lincoln for his first walk along the Pacific Ocean.

If you’re curious as to where Memphis was, well, she was back at my parent’s house sleeping the day away. You see, Memphis was raised as a city dog in Los Angeles, and pretty much hates all things nature. Like dirt. Or grass, because she was taught at an early age that any small green patches of it are for potty time. And especially sand! So we took her for a nice walk on a clean sidewalk later in the day and she enjoyed that much more!

Miss L actually enjoys the frozen beaches of the central California coast. It’s mainly because every time she’s gone to one, it’s been unseasonably warm and lacking its defining layer of fog. We’ll keep the illusion up as long as mother nature continues to trick us.

It turns out that everyone with a dog in Carmel had the same idea that day. So Lincoln (and Sprockett, my parent’s dog) got to meet a lot of furry friends as they strolled from one end of the beach to the other.

Miss L walked and ran along the shore, but also stopped for a rest to build a hole in the sand. Because that’s just what one does at the beach, no matter what clothes you’re wearing.

Lincoln loved every bit of his trip, except for the heat. And we loved taking him, minus the slobber that he covered us with in the backseat.

Sprockett, who is normally an extremely shy and introverted rescue dog, went crazy on the beach. Bounding this way and that, he became a totally different dog on the sand. Maybe it’s the wide open spaces or all the other dogs, but it was fun to see him having such a blast.

At the end of our adventure, we walked back UP the sand hill to the car and we all started craving ice cream. And cold sodas.

And if we hadn’t arrived back to see a Christmas tree in the living room, there’s no way we would have realized this was December 26th.