Four Days, Four Walks, Four Parks

On Monday morning, we were finally greeted by the most glorious fall weather: cool temperatures, low humidity, and crystal clear blue skies. The weather humans promised four days of this heaven, so my human mommy and I decided to celebrate each day with a different walk in a different park. We started  the week off by staying close to home and visiting BREC Goodwood Park, which is my neighborhood park. It’s a relatively short walk from my house (in fact, the walking path that goes in front of my house leads directly to the park), but lately it’s just been too hot to visit. Not Monday morning.

As we walked through the park, we noticed our first honest to goodness fall tree. I have to admit that from a distance we thought that our grueling summer heat had killed the poor little tree and that it was covered with dead leaves; but when we got closer we realized that we were actually seeing beautiful fall foliage. Magical.

And, because no trip to the neighborhood park is complete without a little fun time on the playground equipment, I took a moment to climb up and down the steps (carefully staying far away from the slide because I am not a fan of slides) before heading home.

The next morning, Mommy had to do some silly human things, so Tuesday’s park walk was delayed until the afternoon. This time we got into my chariot and headed to BREC Independence Community Park, which is just a few miles from my house.

The centerpiece of this park is the Botanic Garden. I have to tell you that I think Mommy might have spent more time sniffing than I did.

It was a little warm by the afternoon, so we cut our walk short . . .

. . . but only after I spent a little time climbing on the playground equipment.

On Wednesday morning, we ventured a little farther to BREC City-Brooks Community Park. We spent some time walking around the park’s central facilities–including an art gallery, tennis center, and labyrinth–before heading out on the walking path that surrounds the golf course.

Along the way, we spotted these ducks who were enjoying the shade of a big Cyprus tree. After our walk, we watched some ladies playing tennis (Why don’t they catch the tennis balls in their mouths and run around like I do? Silly humans!), and then we headed home for nap time.

Leave it to Mommy to save the best for last: the BREC Burbank Soccer Complex . . . AND DOG PARK! Thursday morning greeted us with dense fog, but a little fog wasn’t going to stop us because the temperatures were still cool . . . AND WE WERE GOING TO THE DOG PARK! This was my first visit to a dog park, and Mommy and I were pretty excited. Can you tell? We met so many nice dogs and so many nice people (of course the people were nice; they were dog people). The picture above was taken as we left the dog park. Do I look like I had a good time? I did!

Please pardon the butt shot, but I just had to show you my first water experience. I know, I know. I’m a four-and-a-half-year-old Golden Retriever and I had never ever been in water. Pitiful. I was a little hesitant at first, but Bo showed me the ropes . . .

. . . and just like that I became a water dog. Once I got the hang of it, it was hard to keep me out of the little pond.

We ended our dog park visit with perimeter walk in hopes that I would dry off a bit, but I just decided to play chase with the other dogs and roll around in sand.

That’s why I leave you with this picture of me in all my post-dog-park-bath glory. I hope you’ve had at least half the week I had, and that a wonderful weekend awaits you.