Every city has a typical day that’s almost cliche. In New York it was going out hard on Saturday night, waking up in a haze, heading to brunch the next morning, shopping your hangover away and then ordering takeout while watching bad TV on Sunday night. Does that or does that not sound like an episode of Sex and the City? Well, it does happen.
I felt like I finally had my cliche San Diego day on Saturday, and you know what? It was my favorite day here since we moved in January. We ventured over to Coronado Island, a pristine, Pleasantville-like neighborhood with well-manicured lawns, gorgeous homes, a famous hotel and popular beaches. Our destination was Coronado’s dog beach, a place where dogs can romp leash-free and go wild in the water. I haven’t yet been to Ocean Beach’s dog beach, but I hear Coronado’s is much nicer. And I can see why.
Dogs are well-behaved, owners are responsible (a.k.a. they pick up poop), the area is clean and parking is plentiful. (I hear fleas are a bigger problem at OB, too.) Everyone at Coronado’s beach — humans and canines alike — is just so nice and easy-going. In my experience, the water is also warmer off Coronado than off the popular La Jolla’s shorelines.
How did Teddy like it? Well, golden retrievers are major hydrophiles — and Teddy is no exception. He wouldn’t voluntarily frolic in the ocean at first but had no qualms about us putting him in there and swimming himself out. (I particularly enjoyed seeing his hair get frizzy post-swim — picture after the jump). Teddy also played with a 10-week-old border collie and got chased (in play) by an adult dog who freaked him out. (He hasn’t yet grasped the concept of rough play.)
Going to the beach, playing with our dog and then grabbing tacos afterwards at our favorite spot, El Indio? As cliche as you can get and for me, as perfect as it could get. Days like Saturday are the reason we moved here. Pictures and video ahead…
FYI: We kept him on a leash in the water in the beginning because it was his first time and also because there was a strong undercurrent. Once he was comfortable, we let him swim off-leash.
He completely zonked out once we got home (post-Mexican food, post-his bath) and curled up on top of us, which melted our hearts into little puddles of love. Mind you, because he’s teething, cuddling is somewhere between rare and non-existent because he always needs to bite on something (i.e. us). But as they say, a tired dog is a happy dog, and we took full advantage of the snuggles.
