San Diego, California...Settling In...Part II

Richard waiting for his dinghy ride to the lecture.

Last week the crews of Osprey, Rhythm and Charra went to a lecture on marine communication systems held at Downwind Marine.  The lecture costs $3 per person and was adequately informative to justify this expense.  After the lecture, the six of us headed to Mitch's Seafood; Yelp! said it had good take out seafood on the cheap.  Mitch's got mixed reviews from the group but no one could deny that the beer was cold.

We were sitting around the other day wondering where we might be able to watch the presidential election results and given our experience in Marina del Rey, we thought it would be a good idea to check around to make sure we weren't left out in the cold (or usurped by sports fans!).  I did a quick check in the marina and discovered that Pizza Nova would be not only putting the results up on their big screen television but would also provide some volume so we could hear the pundits hedging and hawing throughout the night.  As a bonus, Pizza Nova has a great happy hour that we were able to take advantage of while crossing our fingers that our candidate would win. You really can't beat $4 personal pizzas and other goodies in addition to $4 draft beers.

The crews of Osprey, Charra, and Rhythm enjoying
happy hour and watching the election results at
Pizza Nova (we were not usurped by sports fans that night!).

With that information in hand, I texted everyone and relayed my findings and plans were made to head up to Pizza Nova in time to get a good seat and take advantage of the happy hour.  We all met at the bar and were soon seated at a table with a good view of the big screens strategically placed throughout the bar. We had a great time talking about our cruising plans and catching glances of the ever increasing (albeit a slow one to get going) lead our candidate was making as the night progressed.  After spending some time at the bar, we all headed back to our boat for dessert and to watch the final tallies come in on our laptop connected to a tiny rabbit ear antenna.  Needless to say, most of us where kind of shocked (and happy) when Mitt's concession speech came so early in the night.  Oh well, why drag out the inevitable?  In addition, several key initiatives in Washington also passed, which provided additional reasons to celebrate. And celebrate we did!  I broke open a bottle of champagne and the six of us toasted (1) all making it safely to San Diego, (2) success when we all head south to Mexico, and (3) Obama's re-election.  It was great to be able to take part in the democratic process even though we were miles away from home.  Thanks to Joyce for hand delivering ballots to Osprey in time for Richard and I to vote!

The next night, Joyce and Bob invited us all to their boat for dinner.  Bob and Joyce are staying at Point Loma Marina which is literally a couple hundred feet between gates. Kathy made a salad, I made some chocolate covered strawberries, Richard made a loaf of bread and Joyce put together an amazing rice penne with shrimp dish in a sun-dried tomato, pesto and cream sauce.  We had some fantastic wine, a superb dinner and great conversation on s/v Charra.