Fish Bandit: Fish Tale II

In my last post I described that are three locations on Camp Pendleton to go fishing.  This story revolves around Casey Springs.

Casey Springs is located up in the high country of Camp Pendleton.  It is a set of natural springs set on top of hilly plateau.  Bryan and I had a friend we would occasionally fish with whose name is Mike.  On this day, Mike's Dad, drove the four of us up the dirt road to go fishing at Casey Springs.

Casey Springs was known for being a good spot for Largemouth Bass.  We were not disappointed.  We were doing pretty good.  Casey Springs was a perfect place to go fishing, except for one thing.  Casey Springs was home to a notorious fish bandit.  A large golden eagle called Casey Springs home.  He would perch in this old dead tree right next to the fishing hole and wait for an unsuspecting fisherman to make a mistake.

If you didn't put your stringer of fish deep enough in the water, he would swoop down and take your whole stringer of fish.  He would then sit in that old tree and eat your fish right in front of you almost daring you to try to get them back.  The eagle was smart he would wait until the stringer was full.  Well Mike's Dad made that mistake the eagle was waiting for.  He dropped down from his perch and grabbed our whole stringer of fish with his talons.  He then flew back into that tree with his prize and proceeded to eat our, I mean his, fish right in front of us without any guilt what so ever.  Several empty stringers decorated that old dead tree like trophies.  They were a testament to his ability as a fish bandit.

You might wonder how a bird could bully four men so easily, not all of us were grown men but you get the point.  Golden eagles are large.  Golden eagles have a sharp beak and large talons.  He was very intimidating.  There was no way I was going to mess with that bird, especially over a stringer of fish and besides he was obviously the better fisherman.

Fishing Under Fire: Fish Tale I

My younger brother, Bryan, and I would regularly go fishing when we lived on Camp Pendleton.  Bryan is two years younger than me and we did and do a lot of things together.  Camp Pendleton had basically three places you could go to fish:  Lake O'Neil by the military hospital, Casey Springs up in the high country, or Pulgas Lake.  This story is going to take place at Pulgas Lake.

When we went fishing at Pulgas Lake is was necessary to call first to verify that the Marines weren't playing War that day.  You could call the command center and they would tell if the area was closed due to training exercises.  On this day, however, nobody answered the phone.  They always said yes before, so we decided to go anyway.  We got on bikes with fishing gear in tow and headed out to Lake Pulgas which was located about five miles down the road.

It was a nice day.  When we arrived at the lake we were pleasantly surprised to find we had the whole lake to ourselves.  Nice, we could fish any spot we wanted to.  Well, we fished for about half an hour, before we started hearing....."boom".....""boom".....and finally..... "BOOM".  Then we were treated to a light show just a few feet above our heads.  Which, to find out later were live tracer rounds.

A few moments later a Military Police truck came rushing down to where we fishing.  They seemed shocked to see us there for some reason.  We quickly got loaded in the back of the truck with our bikes and brought home.  The MPs dropped us off and talked to our Mom for a few minutes about our fishing adventure.  Looking back I am always amazed how calm my Mom could be no matter what my brother and I did and we did a lot.  I am not saying she wasn't mad, just calm considered we were just fishing in a firing zone.

Next, another fishing story.

Camp Pendleton

I am going to move my story now to the times I lived on Camp Pendleton.  I lived on this Marine base on three separate occasions.  First time was when I was only three, second time I was like eleven to twelve years old and finally the third time I was seventeen to eighteen or so.

Camp Pendleton is located half way between Los Angeles and San Diego in southern California.  Southern California with it nice weather and beaches.  I miss the ocean.  It is a large base and represents what southern California looked like before all the development.  Long stretches of untouched beaches and a haven for protected wildlife.

Housing was very nice especially the last time I lived there.  The base is broken down into different areas like Mainside, Los Pulgas, and San Onofre for example.  When I was in my last year of high school we lived at San Onofre.  My bedroom window had an incredible view of the ocean and a not so incredible view of the San Onofre Nuclear Plant. 

It was a very nice place to live.  It was only a mile from the San Clemente which is beautiful beach community.  San Clemente is where I worked my first job.  It is also home to my high school.  Go Tritons!  To be honest, we couldn't win a basketball or football game.  We could, however, win a water polo game or a surfing contest.  Yes, surfing was a sport at my high school.  That is the reason I was outstanding at PE.  I took swimming the whole time I went to school here, which was just me hanging out at the pool.  It is a beach town after all, I was trying to fit in.

View of San Clemente from the pier

In future posts I will get into some stories about my time at Camp Pendleton.  Bye for now.

Adios, Espana

We lived in Spain for three years.  I would have to say my stay there is without question one of my more memorable adventures.  The people I met living there are some the nicest people I have met anywhere.  Many of them had no money or wealth compared to us, but were willing to give you their goat or share their meal with you even when they couldn't afford to.  I will always remember them fondly and wonder to this day if they are doing well.

I believed I mentioned in an earlier post that we had no television the whole time we lived in Spain.  We missed some important events back home in the United States while overseas:  Dr. Martin Luther King's and Robert Kennedy's assassinations, the Moon landing and the anti-war protests.  We were living in this little bubble that was outside the events happening in the States.

So, when we did come back home in 1971 it felt weird.  When you get back, your parents go through customs so they put the children in this big room with a television.  Oh my God....that's a TV, I almost forgot what they looked like.  I remember this like it was yesterday, my first reunion with TV was with a McDonalds commercial.  I remember thinking this United States is a very strange place.  It really is a hard thing to try to explain.  Let's put it this way, when people from other countries don't quite understand the United States I'm totally empathic to that feeling.  It's like visiting some place where you used to live or went to school.  It looks familiar but it doesn't feel like you belong there.  It was like we stayed still in time and the rest of world went ahead without us.  Feeling like an alien passed after a few weeks.  It was amazing how it is possible to feel like a stranger in your own land.

I have decided to move on, this will be my last post on living in Spain.  Next stop....California.

Sevilla

About 60 miles north of Rota was the wonderful city of Sevilla (or Seville in English).  We took the train from Rota to Sevilla when we visited.

One of all time favorite memories of my time in Spain was when we visited the city of Sevilla.  English says it as Seville, but I'm used to the Spanish version which is Sevilla and it sounds better that way to me.  Sevilla was full of towers, massive cathedrals and art.  It is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to.

Above is the Seville Cathedral third largest church in Europe.  The interior of the cathedral is massive.  There is a lot of artwork on display.  The Giralda Tower is in the background to the right.  It was constructed by the Moors, completed in 1196 and took twelve years to build.  I climbed the tower, no stairs just one ramp winding all the way to the top.  It took awhile to get to the top.

Above is inside the cathedral.  The Tomb of Christopher Columbus.

This is Torre Del Oro, or the Gold Tower, a twelve sided tower built by the Moors along side the river in the 13th century to prevent christian invaders from attacking the city.

As the photo above shows I wasn't kidding in an earlier post about fruit trees being very common.  This shows how it looked just walking around.  I hope you get some idea of what great place this is to visit.  I hope you enjoy the photos.

Adios, for now.

Going to the Rock

My family on one occasion while living in Spain had an opportunity to visit the Rock of Gibraltar.  The Rock is actually a United Kingdom territory, a little British world all on its own in the middle of Spain.  It was a very interesting place British citizens mixed in with the local population.

The coolest thing about visiting the Rock of Gibraltar is that this is the location of the Strait of Gibraltar.  At this location Morocco is only 8.9 miles across the sea, so from here while standing in Europe you can see Africa, very clearly.  I still remember that the view of Africa made the world not seem such a large imposing place to a young boy.  It made me feel connected in some way.  It was profound.

Our visit here is still one of my favorite memories of things I was fortunate enough to do.

Adios, for now.

Going To The Market

One of my favorite things to do when I lived in Spain was to go the community market in Rota.  A couple times a month my parents would take us all into Rota to shop at the market.  The market building was a large building with two stories.The market there was not to be confused with an American supermarket.  There were dozens of vendors selling all kinds of different food items and some of them were still alive.

Basically on the lower level is where all the meat and fish would be sold.  Upstairs was reserved for fruits and vegetables.  Each level has its own unique aroma.  The upper level was much more pleasant, as far as your nose was concerned, than the lower level.  I broke it down to downstairs was a treat for your eyes; upstairs a treat for your nose.

The lower level sold meat and seafood.  You would see large sharks and tuna just laying there.  Rota was a coastal community so fishing was an important industry there.  Those fish were some of largest I've ever seen.  To be truthful it was very impressive.  There was also chickens, pigs and goats for example.  If you wanted a chicken, you got a chicken.  It was up to you kill it if you wanted hot wings that evening.

Upstairs was loaded with all kinds of fruits and vegetables.  There were oranges, peaches, figs pomegranates, and dates.  Dates come from a variety of palm trees and those palm trees were very common in southern Spain.  The photo above is a date palm.  Sunflower seeds were also very common.  You could buy a large bag of sunflower seeds for about five cents.

The best thing about the market it made shopping an adventure.  Where else could you see a ten foot shark in all its glory a foot in front of you?  Much more exciting than a can of tuna at the supermarket you normally would see.

Adios for now.