Newport & Dana Point

Tuesday October 18, 2005 LOCATION: Dana Point Harbor GOOGLE EARTH COORDINATES: 33 27.515N,117 41.438W
We are finishing out our stay in Newport. It really is an amazing place here. It is set up like a very fancy, clean Venice. There is quite a mix of elements here when you add in the nature of the coast line and the money it takes to live here. It is a maze of water ways that flow past everyone's back door. Each person's back yard is a dock to which is tied their yacht. Next to that is tied their little waterized golf cart as I call them. Really, they are small hard bottom dinghy's that can hold 8 or so people comfortably. They are motorized, covered and fully enclosed in clear plastic, (to keep out the evening chill). Each one is decorated and adorned with comfy pillows and each day and night they cruise around and visit each other with drinks in hand. It is quite a site to see.
We spent the first couple of days getting some school work under our belts although we did have to call school off on Friday on account of too much sun. It called to us and we spent an entire day of P.E. surfing. Much fun. Saturday was spent with the usual chores, laundry, another trip to West Marine. The newly replaced water tank continues to have a small leak somewhere else that perplexes us. A few more broken items repaired such as a sheered off bolt in the macerator for the front head and we are good until the next hardware store appears.
Sunday brought Southern California's first rain storm of the season. A few locals told us that when they say it is going to rain they don't really mean it. A few rain drops started to fall and I mocked them a bit. They don't know rain I thought. We were all surprised when full on rain storm complete with a beautiful thunder and lightning display graced us all night long and the next day and the next. They boys enjoyed getting to pump out all the water that accumulated in the dinghy overnight.
I took the opportunity on that nice rainy Sunday to try to bake up some comfort food. I must preface this with I am not known for doing much baking short of cookies but I was ready to attempt an apple pie. Well, we called it an apple something. We had fresh apples from my in-laws yard and my own home made grahm cracker crust. When you factor in the pilot light kicking off somewhere in the middle of baking it did take nearly a full two hours to cook but somehow was scrumptious.
The only other true excitement of the stay was late one evening we heard a loud bang on the port side of the boat. The type of noise you would associate with having run into something real hard. Not good when you are supposed to be anchored tight. We ran up top thinking we had come loose and luckily it was just one of those fancy little dinghy's with some kids celebrating a 22nd birthday. Mid toast they didn't watch where they were going and ran into us. No harm no foul. They were terribly embarrassed but I am sure they'll never forget that one.
This morning we pulled anchor and are heading to Dana Point. Rain or not no sense in waitning. We are from Washington. It did feel rather funny to put on a rain coat though. We stopped to refuel and almost had a disaster as the head of the pump in Newport for gas is green like a diesel. We nearly put the wrong fuels in the wrong tanks. Yikes. A quick hop and we will be in Dana Point in no time.
love lisa and the boys

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