Anacapa Loop with Philip Bailey

Today Cherie's brother Philip joined me for a trip to the islands(see photo of phil at Arch Rock). The day could not have been any better. It was a little cloudy but warm and the water looked like a lake. We headed to Anacapa Arch rock and had a perfect ride but did not see any dolphins and just a few seals. The water was so smooth we did the loop around the backside of Anacapa. On the way back we got going at a speed of 30-40 MPH and ran into a hugh pod of dolphins (see video). We stayed with them for awhile then it was time to head home. The video has music from coldplay and you will notice I am getting better at splicing the video's together.

Anniversary and Jensen Private Reserve weekend

Some of our Zinfindel grapes

View of the main channel with snow in the backgroung.

This weekend Cherie and I celebrated our anniversary and also opened up the first bottle of our wine. We have been growing Zinfindel grapes on our property for about 5 years and we finally got to make some wine. It was a messy and learning experience. The process was fun and a little frustrating at times but I learned a lot and will make better wines in the future. I had opened a few half bottles for tasting but this was the first full bottle. We were joined by our great neighbors Steve and Judy(they are getting ready to start planting vines on there property up north). They had an interest in what I was doing so I was glad we got to share the first bottle with them. The good news on the wine was that we gave it a score of 94 the bad news was it was on a scale of 1-200. It was OK, not bad not great but it did get better as the night went on and we had a good time discussing what could have made it better. We also got to go to the new Smokey's BBQ on the water and have a great dinner. Sunday we had a great boat ride and wished we had gone out on the Seadoo's. It was great Anniversary weekend.

Dolphin Opera

I have been wanting to do a dolphin video to opera music and here it is. The music is from one of our favorite opera's by Puccini called Gianni Schicchi. The song is O Mio Babbino Caro. It is a great comedy opera with beautiful music and is a lot of fun. I took dolphin clips from the last year that I had not used. The clips are from 10 different trips out on the ocean. Hope you enjoy it.

Visiting Family in Colorado Springs

This week Cherie and I went with her parents to visit Kevin, Mary, Nathan, and Peter in Colorado Springs. We had a great trip and wished we could have stayed longer. The weather was a little cold but it was beautiful. We got to go to the Air Force Academy(thanks for the tour Mary), play cards, scrabble, Have some great food(thanks Mary and Kevin) and go to nathan's basketball game. We also got to talk to Christina from London and wish peter good luck as he prepares to leave for the air force training center.The slide show of the trip has music from Bruce Hornsby called the old playgroung ( it is a basketball song).

Tall Ships come to Channel Islands

Shot of Anacapa Island from the electric Boat

Today we took the electric boat out for a little ride to see the tall ships. The tall ships come to the harbor about 3 times a year. They let you go on a tour of the boats or you can pay and go for a ocean sail. We went last year and had a great time. The water was so calm tonight we took our electic boat out the farthest we have ever gone and felt we could have gone to the islands. It was getting dark so we decided not to try.