Dog parks as a third place

As someone who can’t really drink or stay up past 10PM these days, I had been envious of people who can hang out at bars and meet people at a “third place” in an informal, unscheduled way, where you can just show up and maybe run into a few familiar faces, or worst case, have a good time on your own. Since we adopted our dog, we started frequenting our neighborhood dog park, and we’ve met so many people and dogs! The dogs act as the social lubricant in place of alcohol, it’s free, and over time you find your group of regulars who also have similar dog park schedules as yourself.