Playgrounds & Pups

Our weekends have come to involve playgrounds. Regularly. And I can't help but feel slightly guilty, seeing Captain sitting on the sidelines like this...staring at us, sadly. I also feel bad that there are more outings that don't involve him - music class for Nugget, shopping, playdates.... we leave the house, closing the door to him looking at us, and just say, "We'll be back soon Captain." It makes me sad... but I suppose there is some inevitability in having human babies that the fur ones will get second priority. Still, we do a lot to make sure he's not a sad older sibling. And luckily, we have some great parks nearby that serve both nuggets well- read on for a little more on some of those!

Beautiful Briones

On sunny Saturday, we headed for the hills of the East bay to do some hiking. I can't believe we haven't made it to Briones Regional Park before this- it's a short drive from where we are, close to San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland, and it's a beautiful spot. I was happy to discover what a great hiking area Briones is, with both wide open rolling hills and fields and beautiful views, and also plenty of shaded trails (important when it can get so hot in the East Bay!). Tons of gorgeous space for off-leash running. We did a 7 mile hike around and up the hills, and were all- even Captain-relaxed and content afterwords!

Finding New Spots

While wildlife finds have been easy, finding our new local dog park and favorite running spots after moving to Oakland has been a little bit more of a challenge. Right off the bat, looking at the map, I identified some nearby spots and tried them out. Read on if you're interested in our initial take on running and dog parks in the Oakland area.

Captain at Lake Merritt

Close Encounters of the Squirrel Kind

We were back at Cesar Chavez park this weekend, and the squirrels/gophers were out in full force! Captain, of course, took notice.

Tilden

This weekend we explored Tilden Regional Park, a wonderful local park in the East Bay with plenty of miles of hills for running and exploring. Captain was a pretty happy hiker! We went with some friends and their dog Lucy, who kept running off into the trees... at one point she came back with what looked like a broken stick from far away... she was REALLY proud of herself, and as she got closer we realized it wasn't a stick at all- she had found a deer leg! Ick... I was glad Captain stayed away. I did NOT take a picture of that find! But here are a few pics of the area.


Tilden is a beautiful park that's great for a day hike. We had quite a bit of fog this Saturday, but the sun peaked through a little bit!

Looking forward to coming back to this near-by park when it's sunnier so we can take in the view even more!

Point Pinole buddy day

One of my favorite parks in the area is Point Pinole. This East Bay regional shoreline is absolutely beautiful and has a little bit of everything- water views, city views, a number of different trails with shaded woody areas, wide open fields, and beach areas that are great for some doggie swimming. There are even picnic tables and grill spots in some parts of the park. We love Pinole because Captain can get great exercise here and play with other dogs, but it's not just a dog park- it's also a great spot for people too. And it's pretty close to San Francisco which makes it easy for us to get to.

This Saturday we went to Pinole with my friend and her dog Trax, and it was another great day. We had truly perfect weather.

Posing for a picture with a view:
Beach buddies:
I caught the tail end of Captain swimming:




Trax finds a great stick:
And there was some crazy running in the fields of course:






The boys were soooooo tired on the way home! Success :-)

Wildcat Canyon

We had a good group of dogs for hiking this Saturday, and decided to try out Wildcat Canyon Regional Park in the East Bay not too far from Berkeley. Wildcat is a great place for hiking with dogs, with its wide open spaces for running and plenty of trails through the hilly terrain. The dogs were happy to run off leash, explore the woody areas and fields around the trails, and play with each other. The trails weren't crowded at all but we did run into a number of other happily hiking hounds.


The SOMA dogs crew: Trax, Ranger, Ziggy and Captain sit for some turkey!

More treat time:
Vizsla silliness: Ziggy tries to get as dirty as possible.Coming through!Trax and his fabulous tongue:
All dogs ahead! The boys charged up the hill......while the humans took a little bit longer...
We had a nice view once we made it to the top!
Trax and Captain pose:
I like this B&W my friend took:We had such a good time we're planning another hike next Saturday!

Vizsla walk

This past Sunday Captain and I headed to Point Pinole for our first ever Vizsla Walk! This is a Bay-area group that meets almost every week to enjoy some exercise with our Vizslas. And what a beautiful group of V's it was! I have never seen so many together in my life. It was one big red blur.
Check out this little 14 week old:

I love Point Pinole because it's got a little of everything in a big wide open space: varied terrain for lots of running, trail walking, coastal views, and some beach areas as well. After some running around in muddy trails the dogs were ready for a dip:


Captain decides to hop in the water! ...and run right back :-)

I don't know why Mommy doesn't want me drinking this. It tastes fine.

I want a treat! Me too!!

This guy named Nate was just beautiful:Good thing we got out of bed for this one. It was a beautiful morning! And it ensured Captain was good and tired while we were watching the Super Bowl (he preferred watching the puppy bowl).

Muddy fun

Captain had a great day at Point Isabelle on Saturday with a bunch of his neighborhood pals. We got a little wet from a brief drizzle, and a lot muddy!Ziggy tears it up on the field:


A cute puppy named Walter:A very dirty little Keoni:

We ran into 3 other Vizslas so of course had to snap some pics of them too- that is, when they weren't moving too fast for us!Ziggy & Captain sit for a treat while our new friend Bruno thinks the camera is one!

Ziggy and his 'brother' Ranger waiting outside Muddy Puppy's.A bath afterwords at Mud Puppy's made everyone clean and fresh (and ready to get dirty again the next day).Captain was a good sport about the bath and was happy to be treated with a new toy.