Fun & Sun in Dana Point

Southern California just keeps getting better! While I've travelled here for work umteen times, exploring it as a tourist is waaaay different than as a working business person. Everyone thinks that when you travel all over for work, that you get to see exciting places, wrong. Typically you are going to a place for work for a reason, and that reason is to do work and not play or sightsee! So you while you may have dinner at nice places in town, you typically don't have time to play or explore.

We headed from Marina Del Rey to Long Beach to pick up our new dinghy. We couldn't have asked for a better deal from the nice gentleman who was getting rid of it because he bought a new boat and didn't need it anymore. Tim kept telling me that we needed a new dinghy because having a hard bottom is much easier to get around in and we won't get wet and that our dingy is like our car. I didn't believe him, but now, I do! Our old dinghy was great - blow it up, use it, deflate it and pack it away in a bag (a Nordic) with a 3.5 Tohatsu outboard. Our new one is a Caribe, a RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) made with hypalon and has a hard bottom. We also scored a Mercury 9.9 outboard, so now we fly around the marinas and we plan to use it to explore. The hypalon is key, because it is a non-degradable material that doesn't wear away in the sun. Most inexpensive dinghy's are made of PVC, which deteriorates in the sun - weird right? especially because most dinghy's sit in the sun all day long on the deck or hanging off the back of a boat! Looks like as of 2010 Dupont stop making hypalon. I'm told that it is not environmentally friendly because it doesn't deteriorate or breakdown and it lasts for a very very very long time and so it needs to be reengineered. Interesting.

Bird's eye view of Dana Point Marina

From Long Beach, we motored to Alamitos Bay just 3.5 miles south.  Alamitos had a funky vibe, people were friendly and we were told that people who don't like LA live there. From Alamitos, we went to Dana Point, which is just a few short minutes from Laguna Beach. We loved it there - the people were friendly, the weather was sunny and warm and we were there to celebrate our friend's success in battling cancer. Woo Hoo!!

H, P, K & T

We met our friends, H and P (will call them by their first initial),  up in La Conner, WA, while we were trying to move our boat from Anacortes to Seattle. We got stuck in a storm and had to pull into La Conner. Another yacht was on the dock, and two gentlemen, H (And his friend A), came out to help us tie up. H invited us to dinner that night, and we accepted, heading to a local restaurant with H, his wife P and their two friends (A & B).  H got right to the heart of the matter by asking Tim what his intentions with me were - lol! I knew I liked him right away. Since then, we've kept in touch every 6 months or so, and about 6 months ago he had mentioned P's battle with breast cancer. Thankfully, P now has a clean bill of health, woo hoo! H threw a celebration party and we were able to attend while in Dana Point. H and P are generous and caring, we felt so loved during this weekend while spending time at their house with their family. They let us borrow their car, gave us their bikes and invited us to dinner each night, which was filled with good conversation and fun laughs. We are blessed to have such special people in our lives and enjoyed the weekend immensely. H is known as the TDOJF, "The Director of Joy and Frolicking", and he is excellent in this role!!

P made us delicious potatoes one night for dinner, so delicious that I asked her for the recipe and here it is! That night at dinner we laughed about MK, H's sister's, who was having a "relationship" with the amazing potatoes at the end of the dinner table - they were that good!  lol!  I'm not a huge potato fan, but these were yummy:

Hashbrown Potato Casserole (cooks.com)
2 lb frozen hash potatoes, partially thawed (or make your own)
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
1/2 c. melted butter
16oz container of sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 c. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 1/2 c. crushed corn flakes

Preheat the oven 350 degrees. Combine potato and onion in a 12x9x2 inch baking dish. Sprinkle salt and pepper over them. Combine sour cream, 1/4 c butter, soup and cheese, stir well. Pour over potatoes, stir lightly. Combine corn flakes with rest of butter. Sprinkle over potatoes. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

Also while in Dana Point, we hooked up with Osprey, who has a bocce ball set, and hit the beach for a bocce game. We learned that throwing the pallino on a sloped beach can be tricky - it just keeps rolling and rolling -lol. Team Rhythm won by a point! It was a fun time!






And while there, I got my hair chopped - 5-6 inches in the back! First time! I'm sporting a cute bob in the back, with my hair about 3-4 inches longer in the front. I don't think this qualifies as a mullet, but for sure a sassy new sleak do. lol.

We are now in San Diego! Lots of stuff to do here, including tons of projects before our departure to Ensenada, Mexico! We plan to be here for the next 2 weeks or so to gear up! No puede esperar!

--K