Friday, February 20, 2009

When the star of the show doesn't show up . . . .

I'm back from California. I got to hear some good speakers, and thanks to the loooong flights across the continent, I was able to read 2 books (Gracelings and Skin Deep) both great.

Jessica Simpson was on my flight from LA to Dallas. And NO! She's not fat. She looks fabulous. And while she was sitting in 1st class with a big pillow, a comforter and real food, I was in the clear back of the plane sitting with my styrofoam cup of bad coffee and the engine (very loud BTW) on one side of me and the lavatory on the other (I could hear every blessed flush). Lovely. There's nothing like an airline to help you remember your pee-on place in the world.

But there was one stretch of bliss on my trip. I got to go whale watching. I almost didn't. It was scheduled for Monday but was canceled because of bad weather. But then . . . on Wednesday, I was able to get on another tour.

OK, so there ended up being no whales on this whale watching tour. But I'm not Jessica Simpson for crying out loud. The whales probably would have showed up for her. Heck, she probably even has her own private whale. But . . . I'm OK with that. I have to take what I can get. I was in the middle of the ocean with other kinds of marvelous marine life which is way better than bad coffee, a loud engine and listening to the atomic flush of the lavatory. No whales, but I was happy with the alternatives:



There were sea lions




gorgeous scenery decorated with seagull grafitti (aka poop splatter)



and best of all. . . DOLPHINS! hundreds and hundreds of dolphins swam and played around our boat. They made up for the lack of whales.


23 comments:

Kelly Polark said...

Sorry you didn't see any whales, but it looks like you saw lots of other cool animals. Dolphins! Love them! And love the poop graffiti comment..hee.
And I tell you I feel bad for celebrity women who get harassed about their weight...it ticks me off! There is SUCH a double standard. The men get more huggable as their waistline grows, women get FAT! Argh! And so there are celebrity women who feel they have to be stick thin and our daughters see that...

C.R. Evers said...

I feel bad for her too. When I was walking to my next gate and passing all the newstands, I tought of how weird it must be for her to pass all those magazines w/ her picture on them and nasty things about her weight. Makes me mad. That's why so many women and girls have eatting disorders. I get so mad at Hollywood and especially the tabloids and magazines.

PJ Hoover said...

Every single flush :)
You crack me up!
Glad you had a great time!

Adrienne said...

Glad you had fun on the tour! I always love seeing the sea lions - they're like marine dogs.

Angela said...

Christy;
So glad u had fun watching even though there weren't any whales. Love your pictures.

C.R. Evers said...

PJ, well, maybe by the end I was able to tune a few flushes out, due to the familiarity of the sound but yep, I was smack dab next to it. Hard not to hear. grrrrr

Thanks Adrienne, yep, those sea lions were really cute. One kept barking at us. He was a sweetie.

thanks angela! :0)

Samantha said...

Welcome back! I love both sea lions and dolphins--more than whales. Where in Cali where you? (My parents live in the "Bu")

Unknown said...

Sounds like an awesome trip! And give me dolphins instead of whales anyday :)

C.R. Evers said...

Thnx SL. I was in Long Beach

Hi Beth! The dolphins were pretty cool! Especially since there was so many. They where everywhere! Made me happy. :0D

Marcia said...

Love the pictures, especially the dolphin one. Those waves look positively wet! :)

C.R. Evers said...

Thnx. Yes, LOL, the waves were definately wet. :0)

Unknown said...

beautiful pics.
where in CA did you visit?

Kate said...

Welcome back, Christy. It's a shame about the whales, but dolphins are lots more fun anyway. And just think, if you'd been JS, nobody would have been watching the whales, they would all have been watching you.

kathleen duey said...

Christy, we tried to arrange whales for you, but the dolphins insisted. And you know how *they* are.

Was it an SCBWI event in Long Beach?

Bish Denham said...

Beautiful! Glad you had a good trip, even if it was sans whales. At least some dolphins were kind enough to show up.

C.R. Evers said...

Hey Jill! Thnx. I was in Long Beach.

Thnx Kate. YOu're right. Dolphins are no doubt much more entertaining.

Hi Kathleen! Thnx for arranging the whales, I guess its just their unpredictable nature. So fickle :0) This was a business event for the restaurant that my hubby and I own. It wasn't writing related, but I did try to apply what the speakers had to say about success and motivation to writing. I think I'll blog about some of those applications soon.

Brenda said...

Great pics! Love the dolphins...!

C.R. Evers said...

thnx Brenda! :0) I took lots of great pictures. It was all I could do not to post more.

Unknown said...

Next time you are out I'll take you to my whale watching post, about 30 minutes up the coast.

Did you make it to Catalina? That's fun.

C.R. Evers said...

OMG! You actually have a whale watching post!!!!!! WOW! Cool!

I didn't make it to Catalina because I did the whale watching thing instead.

Sherrie Petersen said...

I remember going on a whale watching trip as a kid. It started raining half way through the trip and there were no whales to be seen. My husband swears that the whole industry is a scam :) But I'm glad you got to see the dolphins and sea lions. Aren't they awesome?

First class is a depressing reminder that some people are more equal than others...

Christina Farley said...

What a trip! Sounds amazing. I love seals. They are so fun and cute.

sruble said...

That sounds like so much fun! Dolphins would have made up for no whales for me too. Although I wish you would have been able to see some whales!