now and then

I'm spending the weekend in Ventura with family. Took all of Friday off and drove down in the morning. Tomorrow, bright and early, we're taking a boat to Santa Cruz Island for some kayaking, hiking and camping with a return Sunday evening. Considering that I was born in Ventura and looked out at the Channel Islands my entire childhood, it's surprising to me that I've never been out to any of the islands. You know the book Island of the Blue Dolphins? No? Well we had to read it growing up because supposedly it took place on San Nicholas Island. Even my middle school was named after one of the islands: Anacapa. Well I'm happy to finally go. I'll take lots of pictures.

In the meantime enjoy the following two images, first my sister learned to firedance:

Holy crap! My little sister is swinging fire around on chains. Did you see that move above her head? Nice.

Next, while we were out at dinner tonight my dad ran into a guy that was close friends with my uncle when they were much younger. This friend happens to live next door to the restaurant and we had finished eating so we waved him over for a chat. He looked at me and remarked how much I looked like my dad's brother. Then, to prove the resemblance, he went and grabbed 3 framed photographs from his house. They used to dive for lobster and this picture shows their day's haul (I snapped a phonecam pic of it):