Silver Lake

Last weekend we took a spur of the moment trip to join Sarah, Jeff & Marco at Silver Lake in the Gold Country. This was my first visit to the cabin and now I know why the family spends as much time as possible in the summer at this beautiful spot.  Sarah's mom and grandma (who built the cabin with her husband forty years ago!) also came up for the weekend. Marco was spoiled by three grandmas - Granny, Grammy and Boat Grandma. The visit was much too short, but still very relaxing.

"Rescuing" Marco's toys in a stream.  It was Jeff's turn next, jumping in to rescue my camera, his iphone, keys and wallet!

Sarah & Jeff prepared some really great meals for us.  Two of my favorites - Sarah's delicious Melon & Prosciutto Salad with Mint and Jeff's homemade English muffins.

Jeff, want to make croissants on our Catalina trip??

Newport Beach

We left Catalina and headed over to Newport Beach Harbor for a few days.  One of the things we love about Newport is watching the parade of boats from the anchorage.

In the early morning and early evening there are the rowers:

During the summer the kids practice sailing Sabots:

Later in the afternoon, bigger boats and bigger kids:

It gets very exciting when they use Poseidon as a race buoy.

Early evening brings out even bigger race boats:

Throw a cocktail cruise party boat into the mix and the race really gets exciting:

The party boat is John Wayne's old boat the Wild Goose. Every time John sees this boat he is sure The Duke would be flip-flopping in his grave if he saw what has become of his beautiful yacht.

This trip there was a very unusual boat anchored in the harbor:

It is a 160 foot catamaran that is the mother ship to a submarine they plan to dive to the deepest part of each of the Earth's five oceans.  You can read more about this wild venture at http://www.virginoceanic.com/.

There are times when the anchorage is packed with party boats:

But this trip, after all the races were over, the anchorage was very mellow:

And finally, a  cruise to Newport Beach would not be complete without a visit from the Beasley family:

I can't believe how much they have grown up since their first visits aboard Poseidon.
Here's Natalie in 1999:

And Sara's first visit in 2001:



We look forward to visiting Newport again later in the summer.

4th of July-Catalina Island Style

Our plans for the 4th were to take a couple of extra days off and go to Santa Cruz Island.  But when a meeting John was supposed to attend was cancelled we had a couple more free days and when John suggested we go to Catalina I didn't need much convincing.  The marine weather predictions were favorable and we left early Wednesday morning.  We knew we had made the right decision when we arrived at the anchorage at White's:

On the menu the first night - Grilled Mojo Chicken with Fennel & Orange Slaw and Fried Potatoes:

To make the chicken: Marinate chicken breasts (w/skin and bone) in orange juice, lime juice, soy sauce, olive oil, fresh minced garlic, ground cumin and salt & pepper for about 6 hours. Remove the breasts from the marinade and bbq on indirect heat.  While the chicken is cooking, reduce the marinade in a small saucepan until reduced by half.  Use the sauce to baste the chicken during the last 10 minutes of cooking.

To make the salad: Mix together thinly sliced fennel, oranges and green onions.  Toss with a olive oil & orange juice vinaigrette.

This was the first time we had been in Catalina for the 4th of July and let me tell you they know how to celebrate.  Quite a few of the boaters decorated their dinghies and paraded through the anchorage:

It was great fun and we will be sure to have our boat decked out next year.

We have been anchoring at White's for past twenty years and almost every time we have been there so has Tonina.  Tonina is very similar to a boat we almost bought before we found Poseidon and we have always enjoyed seeing them pull into the anchorage.  Well after all these years we finally met the owners Rick & Mary and toured their beautiful boat:

And happy to see Tabasco who is also anchored here most times we visit:

We took the dinghy for a ride down to Avalon to take a look around - it was a zoo! More than half of the moorings had two boats tied up side-by-side. This picture was taken several days before the 4th and the harbor was already packed:

We were happy to get back to our peaceful, well peaceful compared to Avalon, anchorage.  For dinner - Veal Chops stuffed with spinach, tomatoes and cheese:

To make the chops - saute chopped onion and chopped garlic in olive oil until soft.  Add a chopped fresh tomato and cook for another couple of minutes.  Toss in some baby spinach and saute for another couple of minutes.  Remove from the heat and stir in finely chopped prosciutto, grated fontina cheese and salt & pepper.  Make a large slit in the chops and stuff with the spinach mixture.  Season the outside of the chops with salt and pepper.  Close with toothpicks and grill over direct medium heat.  Don't forget to remove the toothpicks! 

We heard at the last minute that Avalon was going to have fireworks so we jumped in the dinghy and took another ride down to see the show:

Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July!