Beach Photo Extravaganza!

Okay, this is going to be a little tricky. Louise and I went to the beach again on our walk this evening and I took a LOT of pictures this time. I also got quite wet as I was in the water with her. She really liked that part and got excited. Maybe it was just the choppy waves, who knows. Either way, she had a great time in the water, which was quite warm for the ocean, yet still refreshing on the toes.

I say it is a little tricky because I am trying to accomplish two things in this blog post: First, I plan to post nine or ten photos,and second, each of them have been formatted to fit perfectly on the screen of a macbook, or 13" macbook pro. That's the computer that my wife uses so I figure there are at least a few of you out there who might appreciate me cropping to that size. I chose to resize the images for a couple reasons - the current size I had tended to use was just too big for most screens and even if not, blogger tended to resize the images down from the original size anyway, so they never really quite fit as background images without a little work. By choosing a smaller size they now fit at least one common screen size and as a side benefit for those with really big monitors, clicking on a photo gives a reasonable zoom in without forcing a user to scroll just to see the entire image.

Please feel free to make use of these photos for your computer backgrounds if you like, or for whatever other noncommercial uses you might have. All I ask is that you give me a comment on the blog so I know if they are being used at all. I don't even care if the comment is anonymous.

Now that the preamble is done, let me tell you about today's adventures. I wore my shorts and sandals so I could dip my feet into the water, it's nice so long as there is sand underfoot but really, that only goes a few feet out before it turns into rocks. It didn't matter though, as Louise and I jumped around in the waves, climbing over rocks and logs. At one point this little dog had gathered a crowd of people who were entertained by her antics.

The wind wasn't very strong, but for some reason the waves were pretty choppy. Or maybe the wind was strong but I didn't notice because it was warm. I don't really remember, other than to say that the waves were wild and Louise was thinking they were something to bark at - as if she could calm the sea. As usual she would run in and along the water's edge, trying not to get into water deeper than she was. (She really doesn't like being splashed in the face.)

There were quite a few logs along the beaches today, which presented a small challenge for Louise as she sometimes had to run over or around these moving things. They were slippery too, which meant that sometimes she vaulted over the log and into water that was deeper than she planned on, forcing her to scramble back to shore. It looked chaotic but every pass she made as she ran by I saw nothing but pure happy dog. I let her have her fun.

Eventually it was time to move on, at least to another spot though - the tide was coming in and there was less and less space to play in. We started along the seawall and before we rounded the first bend I heard someone calling 'Wheezie!' - I turned around and noticed our newest neighbors calling to Louise - they were out walking one night about a week ago as Louise and I were coming back from a walk so they knew which dog it was. Still wet from the beach, Louise was happy to entertain, sitting pretty for photos and saying hi to everybody. This lasted until Louise heard another dog barking and then she was off again at full gallop, leaving our neighbors to laugh at her endless energy.

It's not endless though. I can tell by looking at this dog napping on her bed next to the computer, still wet on her back from today's adventure, snoring much quieter than I do. She's going to sleep well tonight, that's for sure.