A Dog Days Night

On the first Saturday of every month, the town of Frederick MD hosts a First Saturday Gallery Walk. Because Sirius, the dog star, is prominent in the summer, The August Gallery Walk is held in honor of the Dog Days. Popularly believed to be an evil time "when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies" (from Brady’s Clavis Calendarium, 1813)." Frederick decided to play down the boiling seas angle and instead made it a day where dogs were welcome in downtown shops and restaurants.

We loaded Charlie into the Subaru, headed into town, met with Grammy and Grandad, and enjoyed the sights and tastes of the town. Dinner at La Paz was muy bien, dessert at Ben & Jerry's muy biener, and I got two free stickers from Two Paws Up (since I had no cash and they did not want to bother with my credit card - I told them I would return another day to buy something, and give them a bonus mention on my blog, like that is worth something.)

The best part of the night, however, was the dogs. We saw them in all shapes and sizes. The kids felt obliged to pet every dog they met (add dogs to the list of things the kids cannot just walk past), but I only took pictures of a few. These were some of my favorites:

For whatever reason, my most favorite dog only made it into one shot, along with my most favorite daughter:

All in all, it was a great outing for both man and beast. And, as far as I know, there were no burning fevers, hysterics, or phrensies.