Dog Day Afternoon

Today we took a family day trip, but what made it special was that Ender joined us. In fact, the trip was mostly planned around him. Our destination was Half Moon Bay - we were heading to the beach!

We first stopped at the San Benito Deli to pick up some delicious sandwiches, then it was off to Poplar Beach. We chose Poplar Beach because it's a dog-friendly beach where dogs can go off-leash.

Half Moon Bay is pretty small so the beach was a quick drive from the deli, and we got there early enough so that parking was easy.

Here's a picture of some crazies who opted to get to the beach via a 45-degree walkway.

Amazingly, they made it to the beach intact and our story doesn't end here with a trip to the emergency room!

Once we got on the beach, the fun started! Even though it was cold and overcast (your typical Northern California beach weather in August), the water was a good place to be. 

Surprisingly, the beach was dotted with blue jellyfish everywhere. This was something I'd never seen before.

Close-up of the jellyfish:

Upon some extensive research (a one-second Google), it turns out that millions of them washed up on Pacific beaches across multiple states and that they are not jellyfish. They are hydrozoans called Velella velella, whose common name is "by-the-wind sailor." How cool is that?!? Their name, that is. I'd love to be referred to as a "by-the-wind sailor!" Anyway, here's an article explaining what it means that so many washed up on the coast.

In addition to the Velella velella, Ava and Ender enjoyed checking out the rocks (or are they minerals?).

... and the cliffs.

After all this excitement, we were ready to leave the beach. But before we do, I have to include this pic of Ender that we all loved. It looks as though his tail is photoshopped! Hilarious!

Ava was in a mood for pie so we stopped by Aunt Audrey's Pie Shoppe, but alas - it was a fake store front. It's cute, nevertheless. 

Next, we headed to the Moss Beach Distillery where wonderful things awaited Ender.

Ender had a good meal here, and so did we. Minus the stray dog hairs in our food. Still, this was a good place to end our visit to Half Moon Bay.