Sunday, June 17, 2007

Highway to the Grunion Zone

Kat and I have been blessed with a nice, leisurely, sunny, and enjoyable weekend out here in America's Finest City... It feels a bit like the calm before the storm ~ Next week we will have both of our parents in town, plus one of Kat's dear college friends...

So the fridge is well-stocked, the house is a bit cleaner, and hopefully we are ready to roll! Now, not to say that nothing good happened this weekend! Here are three cool things worth embellishing:

1. Kenny Loggins at the Fair!

Kat went to a Kenny Loggins show at the SD County Fair with Sara, Sara's Mom, and Katie on Friday night. They did the required Fair gastrointestinal workout of eating deep-friend and then scooted in to see what they described as "a pretty good show" from 80's icon Loggins. Never realized until now that the immortal Top Gun ballad Danger Zone is from Kenny Loggins... "Highway to the..."

2. Grunions at...errr... not at Torrey Pines Beach

So the Grunion (fish, I am told) live off the coast of California and have the somewhat bizarre mating practice whereby, "At very high tides the females come up on sandy beaches and dig their tails into the sand to lay their eggs. A male then wraps himself around the female to deposit his sperm. For the next ten days the grunion eggs remain hidden in the sand, but at the next set of high tides the eggs hatch and the young grunion are washed out to sea."

This bizarre fish behavior engenders even stranger people behavior, often involving frying pans!

2007-06-15 Grunion (2)

The Grunions were supposed to be spawning on Fridy night from 10-midnight (conveniently just after Kenny wrapped up on his show)... We showed up, armed to the teeth with frying pans and buckets, and all set to scoop up these unsuspecting and twitterpated fish. The purpose for which we were to collect the fish was never quite clear to me... No matter, the grunion didn's show by 11, and so we (along with a good quarter of San Diego) dejectedly started heading home...

Sigh... No grunions... but a neat night out on the beach for sure!

3. Horshoes are in the HOA

Last cool thing! We went up to the new home of our friend's John and Heidi for dinner on Saturday. The food and conversation were both delish, but the highlight of the evening was the Applegate's come-from-behind victory in horseshoes, which the developer was forward-thinking enough to recognize as a GREAT thing to put in the little park in the middle of the development.

2007-06-16 SD Saturday (5)

The action was fast and furious, with John and Heidi getting out to an early points lead with a couple of solid ringers. Kat and I had to dig deep forevery ounce of our collective midwestern Americana to overcome these two southern dandies. In the end, VICTORY! Or at least that's what I recall, but Heidi may have a different viewpoint.

So that's a weekend in San Diego... Can't complain! See yaz

2 comments:

Micah said...

i must say that "grunion" is not the least bit an appetite-inducing name, and seeing pictures doesn't help. this coming from a boy raised in louisiana who's liked everything short of frog legs (they may taste like chicken, but the mental image ain't the same).

Brent said...

No... I don't think those grunions were really thinking about their brand appeal when they named themselves "grunion" Now, they should have gone with something appetizing... like carp for instance... Mmmmmm... Good carp!