Tourists

Woke up this morning to rain and thunder, which was somewhat disappointing after a beautiful week of typical Southern CA sun. After lazing around for a while, we decided to head for Ruby's on the Newport Pier for lunch. Since this is the end of spring break, there were more tourists there than usual. You can always pick them out, they're the ones wearing shorts and t shirts and playing in the water even though it's FREEZING! We were finishing up our lunch (beach burger and fish and chips, YUM!) when we noticed our favorite tourist of the day. He was wearing the requisite shorts and t shirt, and was fishing off the end of the pier. He'd gotten a bag of fries from Ruby's and set it on top of a trash can so that he could fish and munch at the same time. Now, there are two things that every true southern Californian knows: one, never turn your back on the ocean, and two, never turn your back on the sea gulls when you have anything they might possibly want. So, the fishing guy walked away to get his other pole, and this sea gull, seeing his moment, hopped up and scarfed a bunch of fries, then flew off. The fisherman came back, and, having missed the whole thing, started eating the fries! And everyone in the restaurant laughed. A minute later the guy left again, the sea gull came back to finish the job, and the guy caught it red-beaked. And then he laughed with the rest of us. I could sympathize with the guy. I almost lost my camera to a group of sea gulls a few weeks ago. I didn't think they'd be interested in eating it, but I guess I was mistaken!