Beach Time for Puppies!

This weekend's trip to Port Aransas was one which Joe and I had the same amount of excitement as two parents taking their kids to Disney World. Why? We were taking Sam and June to the beach for the first time! In theory this was a great idea. Anyone who has met Sam knows how much she loves water. And June, well, June would be fine right? Right? Anyone?

Joe opted to work remotely on Friday, which meant we headed to Port Aransas on Thursday night.  While Joe and June stayed back at the hotel on Friday, I joined the rest of the W family at the beach with Sam.  As expected, Sam had loads of fun in the water. She swam and jumped and played with no trouble at all.  I borrowed a 20 foot leash so she could play "monkey in the middle" with Joe's brother-in-law and nephew.  She was quite a happy dog, as evidenced below.

When we returned, she had barely enough energy to guard her chewy for the rest of the afternoon.

I asked June if she was excited to join Sam at the beach the following day. Does this not just scream excitement?!

Saturday was the big day - we would take both puppies swimming in the ocean. (BTW, three to four years old still constitutes puppy-ness, right?) They both went right in! We were so excited!

And then came June's panic. With each incoming tide, June tried to flee. We finally got her into deeper water and she swam and swam. I swear if we hadn't been holding on to her leash, she would have swam straight out to sea and never looked back. We honestly weren't sure if she was enjoying swimming or not, but not wanting to inflict more trauma, we took her back to the beach to stay with Joe's family.  Sam played "monkey in the middle" again and swam some more. It was obviously she wasn't used to swimming non-stop without resting on the pool ledge, and Joe and I are full of claw marks that demonstrate that we made good ledge-substitutes. Luckily June was fine huddled in a mound below Joe's mom's chair. 

Despite June's trauma, I would say the day was a success and both puppies were completely exhausted.

Joe and I spent the rest of the afternoon at the Gaff, known for its famous belt sander races. Yeah, I didn't know what that meant either.  Gotta love America! While we didn't get to see the races, we still enjoyed hanging out with the family and being pirates. Arrrrr!

For dinner we met Joe's parents at the Beach & Station St. Grill. The food was incredible and reminded me how much I love seafood.  Note to self: learn to make stuffed flounder. Mmmm!!!

Overall it was a fun beach weekend. I doubt we will bring June back to the ocean any time soon, but she seems back to her normal skiddish self now.  For me, it was great to hang out with Joe's family, relax in the sun, finish up a book, and enjoy my remaining time of funemployment.