Another productive and wonderful day. Highs in the low 80s from the bank clocks that I saw. The dogs spent a ton of time outside the confines of the van today. First thing in the morning, they got to run on the beach. The water is still too cold for Nik to do much ball-chase-surfing. Then we scoped out the Red Wing Park dog park also in VA Beach. It wasn’t huge but enough for us. Luckily, it wasn’t too packed with other dogs for a weekend.

Later, we went to the Bea Arthur Dog Park in Norfolk. A little bit cramped with fencing in the middle. One side has a huge drop with no fencing into a huge river. So Nik pretty much immediately lost his ball over the side and I had to help him by chucking him in the water and having him follow me to the far-away ramp. I’m sure dogs lose their balls all the time this way & I’d be worried about small children falling over. Then, Grem discovered that the fencing was quite wide enough for her to slip through. She disappeared for a bit til I found her over in the “Wildlife Area” (naturally). What she found over there & killed or ate, Lord knows. This dog park got on the 10 best dog parks list and although it is pleasant and the view is great, there are some design flaws.

As if that wasn’t enough, I spent a big chunk of time visiting an old agility pal that lives on a HUGE spread — completely fenced — something like 20 acres? And she has Chihuahuas so there’s chicken wire all along the bottom. It was great to not have to worry about my guys disappearing after rabbits or whatnot as we hiked around and chatted. Later, Nik and Grem were found to be noshing on bagels on the kitchen counter as fast as they could swallow. Not the best house guests. I never have food out at home because when there’s a will there’s a way.

Enough talk! A couple photos of these monsters & we’ll move on. First, the sedate (bored: “mom’s taking pictures again look) and then the barking-on-command for cookies contrast. I could not get all four barking at once in one photo but you get the idea:

The Bea Arthur Dog Park is adjacent to PETA. Now, I probably shouldn’t drag personal politics into my blog and I know that PETA is quite controversial.  But regardless of some of their views and methods, you gotta agree that many of their projects are noble.  For instance, glue traps should be outlawed and elephants should not be in circuses.
http://www.peta.org/index.asp

Here are a few neat buildings from today’s shooting.  I posted the incredible Sauer’s Vanilla rooftop sign at Flickr.  This is the building next to it which was used as the factory.  Located in Richmond, VA:

I have no idea what this cute little building was used for.  It is located on Route 301 north of Weldon, NC:

This sad station is located just south of Carson, VA on Route 301.   I have not heard of Firego before.  Perhaps it was a local company.

And let’s wrap up with a couple non-neon signs from Petersburg, VA.  The one is from Jet Furniture:

And this one is at Fashion Care Cleaners: