Abbey's Road

It was a marathon drive from the San Juans to San Diego -1250 miles in 2 days - but I finally made it on the evening of the 12th. Mary Beth’s brother, Bob, and his kids – Kelsey, Robbie, Juliana, and Gabriella – were staying at Bob’s cousin Andy’s house overlooking Mission Bay. Andy’s wife, Jenni, and daughter, Melanie, were also there. And Abbey had four-legged company, Calvin and Hobbes, Andy’s two dogs. (This is Hobbes, I think, but Calvin looks nearly identical.) They were about the same size as Abbey and they were real good dogs, but Abbey didn’t pay much attention to them. The heat wave that has been following me around most of the summer followed me to San Diego, too. San Diego actually doesn’t get all that hot in summer, at least not when you’re near the coast, but it was in the mid to upper 80s while I was there. Since there is some humidity and Andy doesn’t have AC, it felt pretty hot. I took Abbey down to Mission Bay every morning, but that was about her excitement for the day. Unfortunately, there were signs warning of pollution from storm water runoff but luckily there weren’t any storms while we were there and Abbey can’t read. Andy and Jenni have an in ground pool and hot tub in their backyard and every night the ritual was to go for a swim, then sit in the hot tub and watch the fireworks at Sea World. Not a bad way to end the day. The first night we were there, though, Abbey was out in the back when the fireworks started and that was all it took. She barely went in the back yard the rest of the week.

On my first full day there Bob and the kids and I decided to go out on a boat to do some sport fishing. All of the kids, except Kelsey, that is. Being vegetarian she wasn’t too excited about spending half the day on a boat with 50 other people catching fish. I was getting pretty discouraged when everyone had caught at least one, if not several, fish except me. They were mostly calico bass and some mackerel which we had to toss back. I was thinking I was going to have to swallow my pride and ask one of the guys for help when they decided to move to a new location. People started reeling in barracuda like crazy, so I gave it another shot and sure enough, after a few minutes, I reeled one in myself. The bass weren’t bad eating, but the barracuda surprised us in that they were pretty good too. Too bad we didn’t get a yellowtail like some people on the boat. We didn’t get a lot of fish so it was probably the most expensive fish I’ve ever eaten. We had a good time though, so it was worth it. On Friday night the Atlanta Braves were in town taking on the hometown Padres. Robbie wanted to go see a game so the guys all went. We bit the bullet and spent the extra money on some decent seats and much to Robbie’s excitement we were treated to extra innings. We didn’t catch a foul ball but we did see an 11 inning, 15-12 marathon won by the Braves. Besides, where else can you get a hot dog and a beer for $14.

On Saturday we finally hit the beach. Good thing it was hot because the water was freezing. I went in a few times but came out after I was starting to feel numb. I think most people were at the beach just to party. We found out that Pacific Beach is the party beach. We saw shot luges, beer bongs and thousands of people including a group promoting the Rock/Paper/Scissors SuperChallenge. Every Monday at the Wave House in Pacific Beach you can go and watch the sunset and test your skills at Rock/Paper/Scissors. And you thought it was just for kids! Isn’t it amazing what people will come up with to accompany their drinking habits? Speaking of drinking games, while riding around Fiesta Island on Sunday we saw another unusual game. It was called OTL, or Over The Line, a very loose relation to baseball. The object is to hit the ball over a line, hence the name, and between two other lines without the other team catching it. The funniest thing about it was the “creative” names that most of the teams had. Let’s just say I can’t print them here. It reminded me of the Bookstore Basketball tournament we had at college. As my brother said, Americans must really be bored.

Sunday night Andy and Jenni took us all out on a dinner cruise around the San Diego harbor. It was their 25th anniversary the next week and Andy was going out of town so they decided to celebrate while we were there. All in all, it was great to spend time with both Andy’s and Bob’s families. The weather was a bit hot but we still had a good time. The drive back north was another killer but we made it all in one piece and just in time to return the rental car without incurring extra charges. My RV was still intact, too. Abbey sure seemed happy to see it after spending all that time in the car. It was good to be back in my RV though I will miss getting 32mpg.

Friends Imitation
Bringing Up the Bait
The 3 Sisters
Filleting the Fish
You call that art?
Now that's art!