Friday 9/11

Laguna Beach and Dana Point

You would never believe what a fantastic day we had. It started off common enough with Barb coming to the campground and all three of us getting into the truck and driving to the coast. We went to Laguna Beach first, watch some men playing volley ball and then had lunch at the White House restaurant, and walked along the beach. Then we went further down the coast seeing these massive houses high on the hills. The roads took us through the ritzy parts of the coast. We stopped at a McDonald’s to use there facilities and they were palatial. Then we turned onto Dana Point and saw signs about tall ships coming in this weekend. It was the Toshiba Tall Ships Festival. There was a
Booth and we stopped to inquire about what was going on and they asked if we want to sail on a ship. Without skipping a beat we said yes. Oh my gosh. I did not have any Dramamine, any hat or jacket and they were boarding right then and there. So onto the ship we went. There were nine tall ships. Ours was the Irving Johnson and it had ten sails. Little did we know we were in a parade of ships and that they would have cannon battles (very small cannons)? People were lining the coast, on the hills and in the parks watching US. Gene had the opportunity to work on the ship pulling the ropes to raise the sails or helping to lower them. As we came in to port the Coast Guard had water hoses spewing water and sirens blazing. Did I say people on shore were waving at us…We felt like celebrities. Our boat was the first in the parade and we got in around 7:30pm.
We were going to go as far as San Juan Capistrano but we never made it. I think sailing the Pacific Ocean in a Tall Ship beat anything we could have seen or done further down the coast.
Every part of our amazing trip we think it has been the best, but I don’t know what could top this.