Boy's Trip - San Diego, California

One more state down from 50. Last week I flew to California, where I met Joe and Cory for a boy's fishing trip that we organized with Linda's family. Linda and Joe met in San Diego and Linda's parents and siblings still live there. My first impression of San Diego was how the weather reminded me of Adelaide, when Adelaide isn't trying to kill you from heat waves. It was warm, sunny and dry.

We arranged to go on a 1/2 day charter leaving from the San Diego bay and all the boys from the family but one were able to make it. The attendance list was Joe, Cory, Bill (Grandpa), Stephen and David (Linda's Brothers), Donny and Elijah (Linda's Nephews) and of course me. The boat was very nice, the crew were helpful and best of all, the weather was fantastic as I mentioned above.

The captain took us to the famous kelp beds for our fishing after making a stop at the floating bait shop. The most amusing thing about the bait shop is that all of the bait is kept in underwater holds, and guarding this were a number (read hundreds) of seals, pelicans and cormorants (affectionately referred to as ducks), all waiting to help themselves to any spilled fish, or as one pelican demonstrated, just walk up to an open hold and help yourself.

The fishing was perhaps a little quieter than we had all hoped, but it was a lot of fun to all be out there together. Cory managed to catch 5 "ducks", Unlce David caught 4, and somewhere in there we each caught a couple of fish.

The entertainment was really about if you had caught a fish or a duck? Later in the day, the entertainment became can you get your baitfish to the bottom before the seal ate it. You read that correctly. At about 5pm, a fat seal joined us to be fed. I couldn't help but think how much I wished I had a spear gun or a stick of dynamite as I watched the seal playfully zig zag under the boat and bite the body off our fish, leaving the head at our lesure to exchange for a fresh fish. Stupid seal...

The rest of our trip was spend looking around San Diego, we saw a wild animal park where the animals must have been on vacation, plenty of spectacular countryside, downtown, the Aerospace Museum where I finally saw a real SR-71A. That was definitely a highlight for me, I have seen F-14's, 15's, 16's and 18's up close, but I had no idea how big the Blackbird really is, its engine looks as though is as long as an F-18! Stupid me didn't take any photo's of it either.

So the trip was fun, and while I was there, Jenee was in Texas living the life with her Mom and girlfriends so don't feel too sorry for her because she didn't come with me :-)