Santa Cruz, California

Our son, Chris, went off to UCSC as a freshman this year and has pointed out that we never visited him once. He's right - but then, it's not like we didn't see him here at home. I tried to be there his last week of school to help him move home, but my schedule just didn't permit it. Now, we did get there the week after he moved back home - he doesn't quite think that counts.

My parents advised me that they were going to have their house in Santa Cruz thoroughly cleaned (including carpets) before a vacation renter moved in July 1. What better time than to take our FOUR dogs to the beach? Dennis loaded up the girls in one car and I met him down there after a half day of work.

The beach near the house is perfect for dogs - water on one side - cliffs on all three other sides except for one outlet to the street. There is a great expanse of sand between the road and the water, so it's particularly safe. Dogs are required to be on leash when the beach is open - but we have always bent those rules just a tad by heading for the sand either very early or close to sunset - so far so good. These photos were taken at about 6:15 - 6:45 am this past week.


This was Izzy's first trip to the beach since she had to miss the Coronado trip. In order, we have Izzy, Sable, Piniella, and Halor. We don't know how many times Sable has been to the beach, so we were prepared with the extend-0-leash, just in case. Obviously, she didn't need it - she loved the beach, sand, water, and chasing the other girls.

Izzy, Piniella, Halor, and Sable...

Clockwise from Izzy - Sable, Piniella (hidden), and Halor. This might have been Hal's last real romp for a while - she's really looking HUGE!!

There's Sable on the right - definitely at home in the surf.

This gal does pretty well for 12 1/2 years old.

I will tell you that walking four dogs on "hurry" breaks is a bit challenging. We managed OK, but it was pretty challenging. Otherwise - four dogs seems about like having three. Sable seems to have brought with her some finely tuned skills that the other three were lacking. This morning, I'm sure she taught her team how to open the dog food bin and help themselves to breakfast, before breakfast... last week, it was a 10 lb bag of low residue puppy food that got devoured. BTW, when it's consumed in one day ~ there's no "low residue" about it.