Birthday Boating!

Monday, July 28, 2008 - I finally added some more to this blog! I promise to be better. Katie and I went out for our first Sea-Doo adventure of the year (she had not been feeling well earlier in June). We launched at our favorite ramp, Alamitos Bay, Long Beach. Being a Monday, there was almost nobody there, the launch fee was still $10. Water temperature at the ramp was 79 with the air temperature the same, very warm for the ocean. We cruised out to the open sea and it was ROUGH! Lots of wind and chop, we were soaked very quickly. Katie cruising past the stern of the Carnival Paradise. This is the same ship that Karen and her girlfriends took for her "Bachelorette party" a couple of months ago. Also the same one we took Kaitlyn on last summer during her "summer vacation" from pre-school. It does 3 and 4 (alternating) trips to Mexico from the Long Beach cruise terminal (the old Spruce Goose dome). If you look ver carefully, you will see Katie just to the left of the right hand tie up platform. Maybe easier to see her white wake.

Pete with the cruise ship in the background. Self portrait! Note how smooth the water is here (this is in the no-wake zone around the Queen Mary).

Katie cruising past the Queen Mary on our way to the courtesy dock.

Katie cruising past the "seal buoy" while Pete watches. Another self portrait.

This was later in the day and the water was a lot calmer, still 75 degrees warm with the air now 73.

This big guy was guarding the launch ramp as we arrived to take out. There were lots of various birds that hang around the ramps hoping to score some bait that the fishermen don't want to take home.

As it was Pete's birthday, our favorite steak place, Lone Star in Long Beach, gave him this little desert. Katie was putting the Cherry on his nose with this picture.