Late-night Strand Adventure and some rude dogs

Usually on the nights that Mum does not come home until near-dark we don't have very long Adventures. (We usually walk around our neighborhood on these days, but it isn't very exciting and I don't usually have Adventures then.) But tonight was different, we went for a car ride (YAY!) to the Strand, which is a long path that runs by the ocean. It has lots of fun things to do, like doggy drinking fountains for me and playgrounds for little humans and also delicious-smelling outdoor ovens called 'Barbeques' that humans use to cook meat on. I really don't understand why any human would want to cook food inside when there are perfectly excellent barbeques to cook on outside.

Everything is better outside!

At the Strand, I lay down on the lovely green grass to wait for Mum to put on her special shoes with wheels, which are called rollerblades. We often rollerblade at the Strand because the path is nice and smooth and if Mum tries to rollerblade on the road or on pebbly paths, she wobbles a lot. Of course I don't rollerblade myself, but I do trot beside Mum. It's a lot of work, because I have to listen and watch Mum carefully so she can tell me when to go faster, slower, or to the sides of the path around the other people. Mum always says what a good dog I am when we rollerblade because I know how to stay beside her and not pull ahead - even people we go past comment that I'm a good dog for that. Sometimes when there are no people mum crouches down to go faster on her rollerblades and tells me to run, and we almost fly along the Strand! We never stay at running speed for very long, since it is harder to go around the other people (who are far, far slower than me and Mum) and also if we keep going for too long I get too hot. I'm glad we always rollerblade at nighttime when it's cooler.
There is a nice spa bath on the Strand that I like to cool down in too, but today it had no water in it so I couldn't have my spa. When we went past the waterpark, which is a playground with lots of water-jets and a big bucket of water at the top that throws water EVERYWHERE, it had no water either. Since there were no humans on the waterpark I tried to go in and explore, but Mum still told me no. "Even when it's turned off, dogs aren't allowed in the waterpark, Maya."
All the way down the end of the Strand we stopped at our favourite ice-cream shop. (Mum says it is actually gelato, but it tastes just like ice-cream to me. Really tasty ice-cream. Mum has a cup of ice-cream, and although I am not allowed to have one of my own ("Dairy isn't good for dogs" - who said anything about dairy? I just want an ice-cream!) but I am allowed to lick Mum's cup once she is finished. Today, to my surprise, there was another dog sitting in front of our ice-cream shop, a spaniel, and she was very rude. As soon as she saw me, she started barking, and well, I won't repeat what she was saying in dog-language but it wasn't polite! Mum told me it was okay, then I had to sit and drop, even though I really, really wanted to bark back at the rude dog. Since Mum said everything was okay, I ignored the dog while Mum tied my lead to a post to so inside and get our ice-cream. When the rude dog kept barking at me I stood up to show her I was three times as big as her and if I wanted to come over there and sort her out, I would. Mum noticed me though and from inside the shop, she called and signaled for me to sit. I sighed, but I sat back down. I did notice that the human with the dog had picked her up and put her in her lap. Mum would never put me in her lap when I was barking at another dog!
After ice-cream we headed back to the car. "Don't get used to having desert before dinner, Maya." I don't see why not though.
Halfway there, two very very small miniature fox terriers saw me and immediately started yapping loudly. Then they ran towards me, leaving their humans sitting at a bench. I was so surprised I just stood there as they ran right up to me - dogs are not allowed off the leash at the Strand. Once more, Mum told me that it was okay while the humans at the bench called their tiny dogs. I wanted to growl at them but because Mum said everything was okay I settled for putting my ears back and glaring at them warningly. If they had been barking at Mum, I would have had to growl and jump on them, but they were barking at me and they were only the size of my paw so they couldn't have done anything. Once they were back at the bench with their humans we kept going, and can you believe it - the two tiny yapping dogs actually ran after us! Their humans called them again and finally got them back, then we kept going. I could sense how annoyed Mum was at the humans who owned the tiny terriers and left their leads off, and I decided if I ever saw those yapping dogs again I'd teach them a few polite words to say about respecting big dogs.
Because it is very tiring trotting and running so much Mum and I stopped for a rest break and lay in the grass to watch the waves washing over the sand.
 

A nice pair of humans came over to pat and admire me and ask Mum lots of questions about me. After they talked for a while and I got plenty of pats we kept going. By the time we got back to the car I hardly had enough energy left to get excited about the ride home. I lay down on the backseat and Mum clipped my seat-belt onto my harness, and I thought before I went to sleep what a good night's Adventure it had been. Even with the rude dogs!