Endeavour Space Shuttle

In 1984 I got to see the first landing of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Dad took me with the morning news team to watch while they did the news from Edward Air Force Base. It was very cool to see it live and not just watching Columbia and Challenger on TV. Some where I have a news clipping of Enterprise, the first space shuttle that never went into space, showing the world what the space shuttle was going to look like. So today I decided to deal with a ton of people and go and see Endeavour make its last flight ever on the back of its airplane carrier. It was pretty cool to see and I was pretty smart. Found a great parking spot done at the Marina, since it was going to fly over the Queen Mary. I figured since I had such a great spot, I might as well take advantage of it and stay in the car instead of walking and standing for who knew how long in the heat. I decided that when Endeavour flew over I would just stand up in the truck and take pictures out of the sun roof. Work out Perfect, except I didn't take in for count a tree. I can't wait to see it at the Science Center, but that won't be till at least next year when the crowds calm down!!!

Hook the Blue Whale

So I got an email this morning from the company that we went Blue Whale Watching and they had a picture of "Hook" the one with half a tail. So since I didn't get a picture of him, this is exactly what I saw holding on for dear life.

"Hook", a smaller blue whale with a handicap that hasn't slowed it down at all. "Hook" is missing it's left tail fluke and has become one of our favorites. We're still not certain what caused the deformity but this whale is so much fun to watch. "Hook" is not shy around our boat and displays the tail flukes on every dive.

Desmond's Birthday!!!

Happy 5 years to this little boy!! Desmond Bell. It was 5 years ago that I came home from a visit to Thalea's and found this little boy had been saved by Michael. His real Momma had abandon him in the back yard and left him to cry and scream on the hot cement. Michael took pity on him and made him a home in the man cave and he lived in a box out there. We didn't think he would survive because we never had had much luck with other kittens, but Desi survived with the HELP of Summer. He use to run up and down Summer's back and jump off her side after having being wrapped up a like a burrito for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When Summer got sick and went blind, Desi stepped up and became her seeing eye cat. For 3 years he though he was a DOG. It wasn't till after Summer died that we realized he had never meowed, only growled. He's sorta getting a voice, but I think he still wishes he was a dog so Rascal would stop trying to eat him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE MAN!!!!

Whale Watching

So I've posted before about the Blue Whales off the coast of Southern California and how cool it would be to see it up close and personal. Well yesterday that dream came true. We were booked on Safari Dave's whale watching cruise out of Dana Point, since Long Beach hasn't spotted any Blue Whales for over a week now. I thought we would be good to go if we left about an hour before check in which was 2 PM and the boat would leave at 2:30. Well the last 5 miles took as long as the first 30 miles to get there and we got there about 2:20 PM. Couldn't find parking, felt really rushed, forget my frozen water and in the rush forgot to take the "Dramamine." I wasn't too concerned, thought that it wouldn't be too bad out there 3 miles from the coast...boy o boy was I wrong. Soon as we left Dana Point Harbor the wind was strong and the waves were choppy. The Captain was very considerate and didn't take the boat straight into the waves like they did in Hawaii. Took me about an hour but I started feeling OK and we were heading to the Blue Whale infested water. Michael really wanted to go out to the front of the boat, but didn't want to leave me, my stomach did a flip and I really thought OK, I have only had a banana shake about 5 hours ago and a little water. I'm going to be OK. Well off to the side of the boat that we were sitting on there SHE was. 80 feet if not a foot bigger feeding and getting ready to dive, so I stood up with the camera to start taking pictures and get a really good eye view with the long lens. I got a couple of good shots before she dove under. I stood their waiting for the next Whale to show itself and well we hit a wave that lurched us and well lets just say I lurched myself. Manage to pretty much make it to the side of the boat, where I considered for a few minutes the strength I would need to dive overboard and swim back to shore or just die on the ship a slow and painful seasick death. I clutched the side of the boat but did end up getting the best view of the rest of the whales, but couldn't bring myself to lift up the camera and shot anymore pictures. About 30 mins later, Michael came over to sit by me, (he knew I needed to not talk or move for a bit)he said he was getting a headache and was wishing that the trip was already heading back, but we were on the search for "HOOK." Hook is about 65 feet long and has a back problem. Looks like he has been run over by a container ship. Half his tale is missing and he stays close to the top because he gets tired easily, with only having half a tail. Blue Whales according to Captain Dave...10% only show their tails and Hook likes to show his all the time. I got an eagle eye view of his tail, I wish I could have got a shot of it, I was in perfect position for it. Anyway...a few mins after that Michael ended up feeding the fish. I'm sure the blue whales are wondering what animal a Turkey is. The rest of the trip we ended up seeing only one dolphin, a bunch of sea lions, pelicans and a sun fish. I don't think a cruise to Alaska is ever going to happen for me, that would be a very painful trip. So here are the 6 pictures that I got from this trip. I guess I will have to enjoy Blue Whales from someone else's trip.

Oh..In Michael's defense, the only reason he got sick is that I ended up throwing up a bit on him in my effort to reach the side of the boat. He said the smell just kept getting to him and that's what made him sick. He can handle any rough sea, just can't handle me throwing up on him.