THE GOVERNMENT CAN'T SHUT DOWN OUR FUN

Last weekend my dad came for a visit which meant 2 trips to the San Francisco airport. He flew in on a morning flight so I loaded all the dogs in the car, excited about going to the beach after picking up my dad. Once I got past the hurdle of Mr. I have been on a 14 hour overnight flight from Asia and I need a shower and I cannot go barefoot in the sand, we were on our way and I dare say my dad was pretty excited too once I told him he had no choice. So I pulled up to the entrance and to my dismay, the parking lot was gated off and there was a sign saying the beach was closed due to the federal government shutdown.

I was so disappointed but a second later it dawned on me that only the parking lot and the bathrooms were shut but we could still park around the corner and walk over to the beach. So after we sauntered our way into the yacht club to use the bathroom, we headed to the beach to enjoy lots of fetch, swimming and sun. There were plenty of other people there also so it turns out, I wasn't the only genius who figured out that we could still use the beach

Even Zoey got to come since my dad was around to help navigate her away from other dogs. She had so much fun! The funny thing is, the best way to control her is to throw the ball for Kaya because then she becomes hyper-focused on herding Kaya and doesn't notice any other dogs. At one point she navigated an obstacle course of about 20 dogs in a dog-walking group, zig-zagging around them as if they were traffic cones. Silly dog!

A few days later, I had to drop my dad off at the airport in the morning and I brought Kaya and Norman with me so we could return to the beach. It ended up being an amazingly hot day in SF, so much that I decided to check out an ocean-side beach that I usually avoid because it is almost always cold and windy on the coast.

The last time we visited Fort Funston, we could not even make it down to the beach it was so windy!

Once again the gate was locked with a polite sign on it, warning visitors that the park is closed. Naturally, about a hundred cars were lined up on the narrow street and people were navigating between zooming traffic and spiky bushes to get to the entry road.

The dogs made the most of the empty parking lot and turned it into a bit of an impromptu dog park. I wish I had a better picture of this cute pittie they were playing with!

As for the beach...wow, it felt like paradise. I will definitely try to come here more often! I got so many amazing photos, I'll have to save most of them for another post.

Sadly, as we were leaving, I realized that all the cars parked just in front of the gate got tickets for parking in a red zone. Go figure.

Has the government shutdown affected any of your dog-related activities?

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