The Newest Bark Ranger of Indiana Dunes National Park: Day 2

 

On our first full day at Indiana Dunes National Park (here's Day 1), our main plan was to spend the day at the beach with Luna.

We took the long way round:

This Dune Succession Trail happily led us to the part of the beach adjacent to West Beach that dogs are allowed at! In the middle of all the other well-behaved dogs playing gently in the water, Luna had an absolutely ridiculous time barking her fool head off at the waves, running Will back and forth while barking and snapping at the water, stopping dead to bark her food head off some more, etc. I was both delighted at how happy she was, and secondhand-embarrassed at how much of a scene she was making.

Luna is wearing her new Ruffwear Float Coat, because I am apparently a doggy smother mother.

It's not the first time it's occurred to me that dogs and toddlers are quite similar.

Here's another way that they're similar: when Luna had finally worn herself out enough that she was willing to come away from the waves to our nice beach umbrella and towels all laid out comfily on the sand, she immediately proceeded to gleefully dig herself the largest hole of her entire life:

And then she promptly laid down in it and fell asleep in the shade:

Notice that nose facing the water, just in case it makes any sudden moves and she needs to go bark at it some more:

With Luna nice and tuckered out, I babysat for a while so Will could get wet past her knees:

Even though this dog kicked sand ALL OVER my beach towel, I love her so much I can't even stand it:

We spent most of the day here at the dog-end of West Beach. Luna chilled out enough to enjoy the water without barking hysterically at it--

--and we got plenty of time, as well, to just lounge in the shade of our umbrella and read and eat snacks. Not gonna lie--Matt filled my thermos with margaritas before I left home, and I quite enjoyed them here, along with the little snoozle to follow.

Obviously, we had to take some puppy portraits to commemorate Luna's first full day at a real beach!

Then we trekked the LONG trek back to our car with our tired dog who kept wanting to lie down, and happily spent the evening sitting on the couch of our AirBnb, eating delightful snacks and binging Schitt's Creek:

I'd say that was a pretty good last first day of high school for Will!