Action Jackson

This weekend was action jackson packed with a variety of activities.  It started on Saturday morning with a trip to the driving range with Rob, while Alma and Sandra escorted each other as far as the mall across the road.  This was the second time we'd ventured as far as the Escondido range to punish some balls with our menacing club swinging antics.  Rob was sooooo enthusiastic after the first time that he decided to buy a starter's set of clubs.  Such was the level of enthusiasm, we up'ed the 'regular' order of 100 balls to 170 and EVEN skipped right to the grass area scorning the comfort of the artificial grass mats.  Short lived was the enthusiasm I can tell you, as balls remained far too stationary while muck, in contrast, flew in all directions.  Recoiling from the shame and vibrations down our arms we retreated to the mat area.  Alack, our luck there wasn't to improve much, but soldiers that we are we battled on to the bitter, bitter end.  Needless to say there's two sets of golf clubs available for sale on the internet as a result if anyone's interested.

Later that evening Thijs, Marie-Jose and the kids came over for a bit to eat.  Much (probably too much now that I'm having flashbacks) fun was had - though to be fair I couldn't repeat a lot of it here for fear of the wrath of the censorship Gods.  Suffice it to say that no one lost an eye so no harm done !

Today we headed to do a bit of whale spotting.  The weather, unfortunately wasn't the best but on the plus side it didn't rain like had been forecasted earlier in the week.  There's always a certain element of uncertainty with these trips, so you have to keep your eyes peeled.  Within minutes of boarding the ship I'd spotted someone who was definitely on their way to trouble at the airport ...

... and someone else who was taking their Star Wars fan club membership a little too far.

The "Millennium Falcon" - not likely to reach light speed any time soon.

But we weren't here for all that.  No - this was about the fishies, dolphins, whales and the like.  Eventually after spotting a whale, the captain of the ship - who clearly was either a part-time captain or a part-time car sales man - started to stalk it.  He was good - the captain I mean.  All that car sales training had taught him how to give people the feeling that this was the best day ever ! ... and it was !  Below are a few photos.

The lads lounge around - "Here they come again - bloody tourists!"

One seal comes a little closer to express his disdain.

A grey whale comes up for a spot of air.

What we all came to see - a big tail up in the air !

Towards the end of the trip the captain enthusiastically came on the radio to announce that the originally outrageously overpriced hot-dogs and margheritas had been slashed to regular overpricing levels and that if we wished we could continue that maritime tradition (I sh*t you not people) of tipping the crew as an expression of our enjoyment and down right American gratitude.  Needless to say as foreigners we decided to pass.