It’s a dogs world-we just get to live in it
It is clear we are near the longest day of the year. The sun starts to fill the boat shortly before 4am. Erin found out the hard way too in her Tesla with a full glass ceiling. I was up early on board to write my blog and we all were on shore and headed to breakfast just after 8am. Now that the weekend was here, we could visit our favorite breakfast spot in Egg Harbor; The Big Easy. Captain and I got beignet’s while Erin got a yummy looking breakfast sandwich. After breakfast we decided to check out the local dog park as her dog really needs the run time. It was a cute little park, full of sticks to keep Kona happy. Kona and Kiwi get along very well, It is fun to see Kona let Kiwi still be puppy and play. It is also fun to watch Kona’s exceptional keep away skills with a stick.
I was a little behind posting my blog so I suggested we take just a little time after the dog park to pirate some land power, finish up my blog while Erin got her car back into order. We had decided that after our chores were done, we would take the Tesla to the state park to get some beach time in. Just as we were getting ready to go it dawned on me that the state park only had a small area where dogs are okay to be on the beach and remembered that all three of us, at one point in time, had done the Door County Triathlon and that Murphy Park where the race started had a great beach that the dogs could enjoy. Closer drive even! Erin just finished a large road trip so she has a month plan for the self-driving feature and we let the car drive us to the park. That was super surreal and both Captain and I found ourselves a little mad how much we liked the car.
As we approached the park we saw there was a century bike event going on. For a moment we thought we maybe out of luck. Thankfully the event parking was all we saw across the street and the park was still very much open and pretty empty besides a few families enjoying the beach…with their dogs. We found a rather empty area that was down near the boat ramp. The boat ramp has a dock. Kona was thrilled. Dock Jumping!! Kona had a blast while Kiwi attempted to learn the art of dock jumping. Poor Kiwi was having a hard time of it. We think he may have some vision issues based on what we and Erin have been observing. That nose of his lets him get away with a lot of vision issues, but he sure had trouble tracking less then bright balls and freaking out at the edge of the pier. We spent over an hour and half letting the dogs play frisbee on the beach and fetch off the pier. Kona did something new and we may try and further her development of it. She dived!!! There were a few times the frisbee made it to the water and not the beach and it doesn’t float well. We watched Kona dive down and retrieve it more than once. Both dogs gave the beach goers quite the show. Erin had amazing towels that somehow magically even dried off Kona. We all walked the big break water while the dogs finished sun drying and agreed that visiting that park without the stress of a 70.3 race was much nicer.
We were having such a lovely time with the dogs that I suggested the Tesla drive us to Cave Point Park on the other side of the peninsula to go take a short hike there. I joked that Erin came to visit on a boat and we are using her as a car service. Lol. Erin had never been to the park and it was really nice for us all to do something a little different, especially since Kiwi wasn’t really going to chill back on Ciara. Back in the car Erin offered us snack and also had a belated birthday present for me! I wasn’t expecting anything but she got me this really awesome “summer dress” that is basically a cute purple fuzzy day dress. I will forever call it my Muppet skin and I LOVE it! We spent the car ride talking about all things Tesla. Captain was actually leading the conversation and I couldn’t help wonder if he was just a impressed and annoyed that he was impressed like I was as well. I sat in the back feeling that I was on a Disney ride (the self-drive is incredibly smooth) while the dogs napped in the rear.
The hike at Cave point was nice. The trail by my memory was wooded with lots of roots. You would have to be very careful as there are blow holes and random drop offs straight down into Lake Michigan. It was nice to see they have since added a nice, much safer path and it was a joy to walk the dogs along the cliffside. There are numerous overlooks that made my nerves go wild especially with a dog on leash. I did not want to see my dear friend go over the edge. We joked about not wanting to do the paperwork. Haha. We walked all the way to Whitefish Dunes. We had never been there. They did have a portion of the beach marked for dogs but we would have had to walk a bit further on and by some miracle we had managed to tire out the Vizsla and decided to call it a day and return to Ciara. I got to ride in the front on the way back. Yep, I like that car a little too much. Maybe not quite the car for me in this moment of my life but I could see this being such a peace of mind and safety for many different clientele.
Back in Egg Harbor it was decided that Kiwi would get to stay in the Tesla (it has a dog mode!) while we went on board for a light dinner of charcuterie I put on my new dress and felt this dress was meant to be. Instant love and I suspect I might order more! A sailboat came in while I was preparing our board and they were going to anchor! We finally have a neighbor. The boat was pretty full, three adults, two kids, I think. Anchoring is an interesting thing and the rules and right aways are maybe not what you would think. The rule is whomever is there first has right of way. If we have a lot of scope (how much line from our anchor to our bow) out then so be it. Everyone else just has to work around who is already there. We had been anchored here for five nights…and in very heavy winds if you remember. One reason we held was because we had out 110 feet of rode. As the new boat attempted to lay down the hook for the night a little close Captain nicely told them how much rode we had out. All we got in response was “that is a lot of rode.” They didn’t seem too happy. Oh well, they laid out barely any scope because of it and quickly all headed to shore without as much of a wave or hello. Thankfully there is to be no wind tonight so they should be fine, but there is a chance they may bump into us. As Captain says…” My haul is steel, and I was here first.” We set the dinghy between us just in case to act like a passive aggressive fender and went on with our evening. Kinda sad to not have friendly neighbors, but you can’t win them all.
Captain wanted to pirate some more shore power to help make up some of the loss we weren’t able to get from the sun the last few days. We all headed back to shore about 7 to get Kiwi and enjoy the evening in the park overlooking the Harbor. Captain stayed by the batteries while Erin and I went to get Ice Cream with the pups. Kona gets a lot of attention for being a very well-behaved lab, but that high energy rare breed, the vizsla, stole the show. Anyone who knows the breed would stop and “oooh” and “aaah” over him. Don’t worry, both pups got plenty of love and I got some sherbert ice cream!
Back at the park many people had gathered to watch the sunset. “Flute guy,” as I called him, was there. He plays some sort of native flute instrument that he pipes onto a portable speaker and plays soothing (pop covers at that!) music at sunset. We have seen him here for years. Normally we are just walking by but as we enjoyed his music for over an hour, we realized he only had maybe seven songs. Ha. It was grand. Everyone clapped on shore when the sunset. I wish more people would take time and applaud nature.
After sunset I hurried back to Ciara by myself and played Taps. I have been having a lot of issues playing lately. I can attribute most of them to real things out of my control like a rolling boat or being too cold to breathe well, but I know some of the time I may be just a little too tipsy to play well. I played well tonight, even if I still had to take breathes where I didn’t want to. It’s the act of doing it that is more important than being perfect every time….keep telling myself this. Back on shore Captain said that while most people were leaving the park they all stopped immediately and took off the hat and honored the moment. That is the reason.
We hung out with Erin as she readied the Tesla for sleeping in for the night. A sheriff car had pulled in next to her and had been there all day. We worried a little he may harass her when he came back. We armed Erin with the spiel “I’m with that sailboat, the harbormaster (enter name) knows I’m here and okay to stay. My dog couldn’t handle the boat, so we are making due in the car.” Etc etc. We said our goodnights as all of us, two and four legged, we tired out from all the fresh air and play time.
Captain and I weren’t far behind for bed when back onboard. Captain made me keep my phone ringer on rather then my nightly airplane mode to conserve power just incase the sheriff did cause problems in the middle of the night. (Spoiler, there were no problems).
