Photo by Mike Baird

It’s all about Southern California this week — it’s been raining steadily in Seattle, so maybe my subconscious is nudging me towards the sunny south!

The first link is from San Diego’s Convention and Visitor’s Bureau site, which includes an entire section on dog-friendly locations and activities in San Diego. How useful — and rare — is that?! Check out its list of dog-friendly hotels, by neighborhood, and the short but useful lists of dog-friendly restaurants and beaches/parks.

Speaking of beaches, South Bay Pets blogger Donna Littlejohn posted a description of a day with her dogs Cowboy and Tess at Huntington Dog Beach, with lots of great pictures. Huntington Dog Beach is located on the west side of Pacific Coast Highway between Seapoint Street on the north and 21st Street on the south. It’s a mile-long beach where dogs play off leash (according to the dog beach website, a city ordinance requires that dogs be leashed, but “for the past ten years only unleashed potentially dangerous dogs have been cited or removed”).

A couple of days later, Everything Long Beach posted an article with quick descriptions of the city’s four dog parks and the Long Beach Dog Zone, “nearly three acres of sand and shore available for off-leash exercise in Belmont Shore.”

And if we’re talking about beaches, ice cream can’t be too far behind. Check out this New York Times article about a Queens boy’s efforts to develop ice cream made with dog-appropriate ingredients, to be sold at ice cream parlors alongside flavors for two-legged consumers.