I have had a couple of relaxing days around San Diego, and enjoyed catching up again with John and Ivy on Saturday, including a look around the historic US Grant Hotel where John works. On Sunday I met again with Kurtiss for breakfast at Hash-House-a-Go-Go, which was obviously a very popular place judging by the huge line of customers waiting for a seat. It was well worth the wait, and the scrambled egg breakfast I had with bacon and avocado was delicious.
Then yesterday Dennis and I went to the world-renowned San Diego Zoo, and spent a few hours wandering the impressive displays. My favourite was the Elephant Oddysey, where the spectacular creatures had a huge area to roam in, and were encouraged to forage for their food, having to roam around the unusual artificial trees to find their next meal, much as they would have to do in the wild.
Late yesterday afternoon I went to Willy’s house, where we geared up his boat and headed for the boat launch ramp, planning to spend the evening catching lobsters offshore.
After we made our way out of the bay around Loma Point, Willy set the nets, and we waited for the sun to set. When it was dark we pulled the nets in, and things looked good, a couple of the nets having six or seven of the California Spiny Lobsters in them.
Unfortunately they were all undersize, and all had to go back. For the rest of the night we reset the nets again, and then went round and pulled them back in again. Well, to be more accurate, Willy did most of this, as I sat holding a flashlight for him, and feeling slightly seasick.
During the course of the evening, as well as a couple of crabs and one ugly looking fish (poisonous apparently!), we must have caught at least 40 lobsters, but not one was big enough to keep, and eventually at around 11pm we gave up and headed for home. The lobsters I promised to bring home for Dennis and Mary had to be kindly provided by Willy from the freezer from a previous evening’s haul.
Today it is time to head back up to LA, and hopefully finally achieve my “movie extra” goal, and get some practice in for the next goal on the list – more info to follow soon.
Many thanks to all in San Diego who have made my time here hugely enjoyable. It was great to catch up again with friends that I first met in Pamplona. Thanks to John, Ivy and Kurtiss for their local restaurant-guiding services, and to Willy for a great fishing adventure. And huge thanks too to Dennis and Mary for their wonderful warm hospitality kindly offered to a random internet stranger friend of their son! Very much appreciated.
