David K - 2-7-2005 at 08:41 PM
Ah..Laguna Manuela...good times there for us too.
Pompano - 2-8-2005 at 02:01 PM
Your dad looks faintly familiar, David.
We also have had some memorable trips to Laguna Manuela. The first couple times we went there to hunt for whale bones, flotsom and jetsom (remember
those?), and ocean debris brought ashore from time to time by the Japan Sea Current. We used to find lots of glass fishing floats, once a box of gas
masks, and other weird stuff...all treasures to us, of course.
After some exploration of the old lighthouse and fishing co-ops (mostly lobster) we came upon great surf fishing on Playa Largo (Long Beach)..which
looks a lot like where your photo is taken.
We met some unique characters living there full-time. I have a photo of 3 Laguna residents with a strange fish.
David K - 2-8-2005 at 08:21 PM
No, not a BRAT (Q: can anyone tell me what the letters in BRAT stand for)... It was a Wagon GL 4WD (a 1980 model), my second of three 4WD Subarus.
This was on the long beach beyond the lighthouse point, where you can see all the way to Miller's Landing and beyond. We got there by driving over the
sand dunes on the Jeep trail. Best surf fishing I ever have seen! Whistler calls it 'Variety Beach'... on the sand: Corbina, Croaker, Halibut, &
Calico Bass (off the nearby rocks).
My dad was a dentist in Rancho Santa Fe, and loved Baja fishing... he flew into Loreto with Ed Tabor on a few trips... Capt. Munoz had him in the
co-pilot seat of his twin from L.A. Bay to Tijuana, in 1967, as well.
One of his patients was a travel friend of Howard Gulick (Lower Ca Guidebook) and that's when my dad bought a Jeep, and we began driving down the
peninsula when it was mostly dirt roads (the good old days)!
Bob and Susan - 2-9-2005 at 06:50 AM
it stands for....
Bi-Drive Recreational All-Terrain Transporter
Our group of friends ALLWAYS thought it was a GIRLS car....
sorry....
Laguna Manuela...
Pompano - 2-9-2005 at 07:18 AM
there was a single fellow living in a house he'd built on the lagoon side at Manuela in the 80's and early 90's..an avid surf fisherman who doggedly
pursued the striped bass there. Does anybody recall him?
Also the older couple in this photo, Chuck & Lois Riley, moved from Coyote Bay to Laguna Manuela and lived there for many years..until the woman's
death in 1999. Riley was well-liked and known among the locals as 'Perico Blanco'. He had quite a colorful past...was a partner for a while in the
famous 'Mustang Ranch' in Nevada with Joe Conforti, flew Air America missions in Cambodia and Laos in early 70's, and some other more
'borderline-legal' adventures. You immediately liked Riley..another Baja character sorely missed.