Ethan and I had agreed to walk the beach today around noon. I always enjoy time spent along the lakeshore, but the rain didn't look like stopping. If our plans became a washout, at least I got to spend some of today with Ethan.
The rain came down hard at times. I'm glad I heeded Erin's advice to walk the dogs early, during one brief stop in the downpour, and to get the dogs out of the car for a walk. They had slept soundly overnight. Rain was forecasted to end in the afternoon.
We had a pleasant lunch at a local Italian restaurant, Pesto's. We both had chicken alfredo.
Ethan wanted to take his dog Macks along to the beach. I reminded him that we would have to let Macks interact with both Sheba and Sahne before we drove off with them. Macks tolerates the dogs but is cautious around them.
Today my dogs were back to being barky again, to which Nick commented that my dogs were always aggressive and not nice dogs. Nick caught Sheba and Sahne growling at each other over food I had given them. Yes, both dogs can be food aggressive when they are hungry and can get angry. Ethan seemed to have no trouble with my dogs. To me their behavior was simply them showing discomfort in an unfamiliar area.
The dogs did settle down, though. Macks sat up front with Ethan and my dogs sat in the rear as I drove the 23 miles to the beach. I had cleaned out the back of the Honda earlier and hopefully got most of the remaining vomit removed. This wet weather isn't helping my car dry out.
We finally got to the trailhead parking area off East State Park Boundary Road at 4:08pm. The lot was half full and most of the people were at Kemil Beach. We were heading west of there, on Indiana Dunes State Park property.
The beach was barren, barren of people, seagulls and biting flies. This is so unusual for mid July. It was 70F and breezy. I'm glad I brought my thin sweater along. The sky was a medium shade of grey and darker clouds lingered to our east. The clouds prevented us from seeing the Chicago skyline. Pebbles of varied sizes lined the water line. This is not the typical beach day in July, when this beach is crowded with beach walkers, sun bathers, swimmers, waders, and happy wet dogs.
The beach was wider today than it was last summer, but the sand had defined lines of dark streaks in it from industrial waste. There were white caps on the waves and it was these crashing waves that kept my dogs from jumping in the water. Macks was more adventuresome. My dogs were more interested in wrestling with each other. Sometimes they chased after Macks. There was no fighting. All three dogs stayed close by. They behaved as I had hoped they would.
Ethan seemed to enjoy the walk. Now that he's in 7th grade and in football, he is taking our hikes more seriously. "My coach wants us to walk ten miles a week" he commented. I replied that we could do that in three days.
At times we kept our distance and didn't talk much. He was deep in thought and I was enjoying the sounds of the crashing waves. He stayed focused on his dog and with engaging with him. Even my dogs took to him. When Ethan wanted to climb up a sand ridge, the dogs would follow. They followed him up and down two sand dunes. When Ethan went into a small pool of water, they went in with him. He has a way with dogs.
It was like this for 2.4 miles before we turned around. We were only a quarter mile from the western edge of the state park and the public beach where no dogs are allowed anyway. Our walk took us two hours for the 4.76 miles.
The dogs looked tired afterward but perked up when they each got a pup cup at Dairy Queen.
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