The August Meetup at Montrose Dog Beach

We had the August Great Dane meetup at Montrose Dog Beach in Chicago today. The meetup was a blast & the weather was PERFECT! We couldn't have found a nicer day. We had about 15 Great Danes present. It was hard to keep track because of all of the people and all of the other dogs too, but 15 is a pretty good estimate. We met a few other Great Danes & Great Dane owners who just happened to be there. They said they were interested in coming to future meets too. Rumpels who is about five and a half months old was body surfing with his blue swim shirt on...he looked like he was in heaven out there. There are so many Chicagoans in our group now, I think we'll have to head back to Montrose again in the future. Hope to see you there...

August 2010 - Chicago, IL

We Hiked Starved Rock State Park

We went to Starved Rock State Park on August 12th. It was 92 degrees Fahrenheit and quite humid. It wasn't the best place to take a dog who is used to laying around 24/7, but we did it against our better judgement and we all survived. We explored the following trails within the park: Starved Rock, Lover's Leap Overlook, Eagle Cliff Overlook, French Canyon, and Pontiac Canyon. Our favorite was French Canyon. Then we went to the campground and camped out in a tent (also not recommended on such a hot & humid day).

While hiking we saw Leopold Island, and Plum Island, and the Illinois River. We did not see any waterfalls because of the time of year we chose to go so we definitely intend to go back. I'd like to experience the park in each season. The Spring for the waterfalls, the Fall for the fall colors and cooler temperatures, and the Winter for the snow-covered trees and ice falls. Another reason to go back is because we hardly scratched the surface of hiking trails and there are other state parks in the immediate area I'd like to explore too such as Mattheissen State Park. The trip took us about 1.5 hours to the park (it is approximately 94 miles from Chicago and approximately 54 miles from Aurora/Naperville.

Hiking At Starved Rock State Park August 12, 2010

Went to Montrose Dog Beach Today

We went to Montrose Dog Beach in Chicago today. We had a lot of fun and coincidentally saw four other danes there. It was our danes first time in the water. He was a little afraid, but it is wading water for quite a ways out. He got used to it and seemed to have a fun time. We arrived at about 5:00 p.m. on a Sunday and parking was scarce to put it mildly. We found (or created) a spot and thankfully did not get ticketed and had a great time. I wanted to preview this as a site for a future meetup and it seems like it would work. To learn more about the beach click on Montrose Harbor Dog Beach.