Day trip to Carmel

We decided to take a day trip to Carmel. It takes about 3 hours to get to there from where we live, and Shelby hasn't been on a car ride this long since she came home from Redding. We put her in her crate in the back seat, and hoped she wouldn't whine the entire time. As you can see, she gave what I consider to be an Oscar worthy plea for her release. (Oh brother.)

And sure enough, Carmel did not disappoint. We didn't walk more than 2 blocks before we found a charming pet boutique, called Diggity Dog on Mission street. Buckets of treats were located at Shelby's eye level, and we had to make sure she didn't eat us out of house and home. We bought a new collar for Shelby, as well as some treats.

Pretty much any restaurant that has outdoor seating will allow dogs there. Some actually have doggie menus. Shelby was not so lucky as to get her own order, but she did load up on treats while we ate.

For a modest 20-30 dollars some of the inns allow pets, which makes up for the oppressivly high room rate for humans. We wanted to stay overnight, but AT&T was hosting a golf tournament that day which elevated the prices of accommodations.

We walked down Ocean avenue and found this bronzed sculpture of an elderly couple.
We let them borrow Shelby for a bit.

Shelby pulled on her harness downhill all the way to the beach. The beach is very dog friendly. There are doggie pick up bags available. The beach has such a gentle grade to it, Shelby could run around with carefree abandon without us fearing that she'll get swallowed by an wave. Shelby met lots of other dogs, all of them friendly. And she chased a lot of birds. I've never seen her run so fast, but luckily the birds were faster.

On the way back uphill, several shop owners set out dog water bowls, and Shelby took advantage of all of them. Steven and I did some light window shopping, and some of the stores even let Shelby come in with us. When it was time to go home, Shelby didn't whine about being put in the crate. In fact, she passed out and slept for the entire trip home.