My Day at the Dog Beach

Today my son and I took Rusty to the dog beach. Officially it's known as Central Beach, part of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. My son and I enjoy going to the beach and we love being able to include our dog in the fun. In our area it's hard to find beaches that allow dogs so this place is a real find and worth the drive.

As you can see in this photo, we had a perfect summer day for our beach outing: blue skies, a slight breeze, and temperatures in the 70s. We were joined at the beach by lots of young people and families with dogs. It was such a popular locale that we had to park on the side of the road quite a ways from the designated parking lot.


My son enjoys playing in the sand as well as playing tricks on his unsuspecting mom. When I was occupied with a magazine, he pulled a fast one on me by digging such a big hole near me that the sand underneath me caved in pulling me in too. Splash - my legs hit the water at the bottom of his hole. Boy did he laugh at that.

Rusty had fun at the beach too. Although he loves going into the pond in our backyard, he's shy of Lake Michigan. I think the waves crashing in bother him. He likes to stay at the water's edge and won't come in no matter how much we coax him. Meanwhile other dogs on the beach will swim and fetch frisbees tossed into the waves. Safely stationed in the sand, Rusty enjoys greeting everyone that walks by him. He got sniffs from other dogs, air kisses from two men, and gentle pets from numerous children. The highpoint of his day was when two bikini clad girls made a huge fuss over him. They gave him so much attention their boyfriends got jealous!

Late in the afternoon when we trudged our way back to the car, I got my second surprise of the day. A parking ticket for $50. Drat, my first parking ticket ever. But still worth it all in my opinion.