Whale Watching

- 22 September 2012 -

I wanted to take the wife out on a date but didn’t know where to go.  I saw a whale watching tour on Living Social and thought a boat ride would be pretty sweet.  We ordered the 90 minute sunset cruise and decided to use it right away.  Whale watching season is between December and March, so we weren’t excepting to see any whales.  When we arrived we realized we booked the daytime three hour tour.  Fine with us.  We had nowhere to go.  The cruise started out nice and we saw some sea lions playing close to shore.  About an hour in we saw a school of dolphins.  They played in the wake off the side of the boat.  It was pretty amazing.  The captain then decided to go to where the continental shelf drops off to see if there were any whales.  After awhile of searching and Charlene feeling a bit seasick we spotted a blue whale.  The commentator was blown away and said it was the first blue whale she saw this year.  The blue whale is the largest animal on the planet.  This one was a tiny one but still about 45-50 feet.  It swam back and forth under the boat for about 45 minutes or so and then it was back to shore.  On the way back we saw another school of dolphins.  All and all it was a radical trip.  Highly recommended.

Carlene & Niel - USA trip - Part 4

-15 - 16 September 2012 -

LOS ANGELES
After Las Vegas and Tijuana what’s next?  Well Los Angeles I suppose.  We decided to check out Venice Beach and Santa Monica Beach the first day which was pretty radical.  Then we headed for Hollywood in the morning to see tinsel-town in all its filthy glory.  We snuck in a quick side trip to Beverly Hills before heading back to San Diego.  It was a blast having Niel and Carlene in the states.  Cheers to both of you.

Carlene & Niel - USA trip - Part 3

- 5 September 2012 -

Just when we thought the madness was behind us, BAM!!!  Smacked in the face with insanity once more.  In route to San Diego we made a quick pit stop for a bathroom break.  12.4 miles outside of Barstow is an even smaller town called Yermo.  Yermo is home to the spectacle known as Peggy Sue’s.  What the hell had we just walked into?   We were greeted with a life size sculpture of a waiter holding a golden tray, a 5 foot milkshake, and a 6 foot Betty Boop.  Next to the life size dolls was a gift shop filled with old 50’s and 60’s memorabilia.  Now this was all starting to make sense.  It’s a 1950’s style diner and tribute museum.  Better grab a beer while the others drink an old school milkshake (Seriously one of the best I’ve ever tried).  Wow the more I walked around the weirder it got.  Elvis, Blues Brothers, and random Mannequins.  The whole scene began to make me tense so I decided to walk out back to get some fresh air.  WHAT THE FUCK?  Why is King Kong here?  Dinosaurs?  Zombies?  What the shit is all of this about?  Why is there a turtle pond?  Why can’t I feed the metal dinosaurs?  What does any of this have to do with the 1950’s?  Well if you can’t beat them I guess you must join them.  I hopped on the “Diner-Saur Park” stage, did a little dance and got the hell out of there.  What a strange turn of events that trip was.

Carlene & Niel - USA trip - Part 2

- 2- 5 September 2012 - 

LAS VEGAS
We were somewhere around the edge of Barstow when the booze began to take hold.  Viva Las Vegas!!!  We checked into our hotel and had a few more drinks and waited for the sun to go down.  My blood is too thick for Nevada.  I’ve never been able to properly explain myself in this environment. Once the sun set we hit the strip and gambled some cash.  Learn to enjoy losing.  With the excitement of Vegas surrounding us still we continued to explore most of the hotels.  The plan was to create a plan for the next night by deciding what we wanted to come back to.  However, this didn’t work.  The mixture of booze was too strong to try to rationalize a proper game plan so; aimlessly we were turned loose in the streets.  I’m not exactly sure where the first night ended, but we managed to make our way back to the hotel unscathed.  We awoke to 107 degree weather and dehydrated bodies.  Any rational man would seek water and rehydrate.  I’ve never been a rational man.  “Let’s drink more and swim in the pool.”  This was how I rationalized not drinking water.  A few hours in the pool and it was time for some food.  On the way to hail a cab to the grocery store our trip was halted as I fell through the earth.  Some evil bastard had covered a hole with fake grass.  Booby trapped at my own hotel.  No time for complaining we had more to see.  We hit the strip again and gambled some more.  This night was fairly low energy the madness of Las Vegas had set in.  It was time to regroup.  Awaken by the blinding sun again.  What was happening?  Oh, it was my wife’s birthday.  Does this mean the madness was about to start again?  Was this strange trip not yet over?  Doomed!!!  We decided to skip the pool this day and head straight to the strip.  No more fucking around.  Vegas has a different feel in broad daylight.  The desert ridden buildings appear less glamorous.  Inside the buildings are the joyless losers still milking the American dream in hopes of a post dawn victory to allow them to escape the shitty lives and trailer parks they all inevitably must return to.  Feeling overwhelmed I began drinking once more.  The ladies had a plan to go shopping so off we went.  The birthday girl wanted cheesecake and we happened to stumble into a cheesecake factory at the exact time of the Caesars Palace show.  We ate cake and watched the show while a drunkin latino man made fun of the Chinese people.  On the way out the birthday girl spotted something shiny through the window of the swatch store.  It was a silver watch.  Happy Birthday sweetheart.  Once the sun began to set we caught a bus to Fremont St.  Massive displays of lights and colors fill the streets here.  Something about old Vegas that just makes me happy.  After a quick stroll around and a few more beers we caught the bus to the Stratosphere.  This was my first time going up to the top.  The $18 ticket might scare you off, but don’t let it.  It’s happy hour until midnight at the top and the cheap drinks outweigh the ticket cost.  Plus it’s just badass up on top.  Lights as far as you can see.  It really is amazing.  I got to kiss the birthday girl 900 feet above the Las Vegas Strip.  The energy from the Stratosphere carried us all the way to the Luxor before calling it a night.  I destroyed black jack but the rational decision to quit while I was ahead got the best of me.  I began to get the fear and it was way past due for our Vegas departure, so we took a quick nap and left that horrible town as fast as we could.

Carlene & Niel - USA trip - Part 1

- 30 September - 1 September 2012 -

SAN DIEGO.

Our friends Niel and Carlene came in to visit us in San Diego.  Here are a few photos of their first weekend in the States.  We took them around San Diego to La Jolla, Ocean Beach, and Pacific Beach.