We were invited to spend the afternoon with about 15 other mini schnauzers for a Memorial Day cookout, and we couldn’t turn down the opportunity to let Riesling off leash in a fenced backyard.

Did I mention the 15 other schnauzers?

To tire her out a bit we took a long walk around the North Carolina Museum of Art campus to take in some outdoor sculpture, like Gyre by Thomas Sayre.

Riesling was pretty tired afterwards, so we took a quick break in the shady Lowe’s Pavilion.

Thanks to our trackstick and Google Earth, I know we walked 1.7 miles.

With a panting schnauzer in the backseat, we continued up to North Raleigh for the party. North Carolina Schnauzer Rescue volunteers Eve and Bob hosted the cookout with generous amounts of food and libations.

Of course, there was a lot of excitement with each new arrival…

Riesling behaved herself quite well and managed to be far away from most of the scuffles while looking angelic.

It’s always interesting to see all of the different schnauzer personalities, including Kayla, an absolute sweetie who is available for adoption, check out her profile here.

Most of our time spent at the dog park involves Riesling barking at dogs on the other side of the fence so she can chase them or barking at other dogs in the same area just because. Today she was in a particularly playful mood and spent significant time running around with a maltese-yorkie mix named Gizmo.

(quick apologies for the cameraphone quality)

She was so tired after an hour or so of this that she lay down next to me when I asked her to. First time ever at the dog park.

She is currently happily cashed out on the futon. :)