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Trip to California (Scuba Show, Diving)
Greg - 7/14/2008 12:12 PM
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Category: Travel
Comments: 4
Trip to California (Scuba Show, Diving)

On June 25th, the DiveBuddy family (Greg, Bec, Chris, Conner and Macy) packed up and head to California from Texas. We were on our way to the Scuba Show in Long Beach and lots of other stops for vacation and diving. Here’s a recap of our journey:


In Toyahvale, TX we stopped at Balmorhea State Park for some snorkeling and diving (off a diving board). The water was cold. The fish were everywhere. The catfish were black. The entrance fee was free since we had a Texas State Parks pass. Very out of the way if you live in Houston, but it was worth the stop since we were headed that way anyways.


In Chandler, AZ we stopped by to see Joe and the rest of the gang at NDepth Scuba. They have a very nice dive center and were very accomodating...my kids loved the "celebrity" treatment :) Joe even got us a room at a local hotel, which was a welcome shock considering we thought we were sleeping on his couch for the night. We saw the buses they use to take groups of divers down to Mexico. It sounded like a really great idea and I would recommend you take the trip with them if you’re in the area for an extended weekend.


In Long Beach we attended the Scuba Show and saw lots of other DiveBuddy.com members walking around in their shirts (I’ll post pics soon). I’d like to say thank you to all the members that helped spread the word at the show. Tons of exhibitors were asking me "why is everyone wearing those shirts"? It was cool!


I’d also like to thank SeeSharks.com, Pascal - the painter of blue, H2O Photo Pros and Pinnacle for passing out divebuddy stickers and post cards in their booth. Make sure to visit their profiles or website to say thank you for helping to grow our community of divers!


After the trade show, my family and I headed towards San Diego to visit some friends. I stopped at La Jolla Cove and dove for the first time there. Lots of orange fish (CA’s state fish) and strong surge back and forth underwater. Lots of snorkelers and swimmers and not to many divers at the time (it was a weekday). Great bathrooms and showers. Quite a workout getting up and down the stairs with gear on :)


After San Diego, we headed to Vegas to visit family and only lost $100! That’s like winning in Vegas right? We had a great time at the world buffet where I spent the most money I’ve ever spent for dinner on my kids...but it was worth the experience. I must have ate 4 lbs of food.


From Vegas we headed to the Grand Canyon for the first time. Talk about a wonderful place to visit. I couldn’t get enough of the view. I could live on the cliff edge and never get tired of it. Pictures and videos don’t do it justice...you have to see it to get the full experience.


From the Grand Canyon we headed back home to Texas...along the way I saw signs for the Blue Hole in Santa Rosa, NM. Of course I had to stop and check it out. Turned out to be an oasis in the desert! What an amazing dive that was. Over 85’ viz, 61 degree water. I met some cool divers from Divers Reef in Colorado Springs, CO.


Overall, we had a wonderull time. The best road trip for us in 2008! Lots of new friends. Lots of advertising for DiveBuddy.com. Lots of time in the water!


Thanks for reading.


Greg Davis
Owner and Member 1
DiveBuddy.com

Comments

Fyamon - 7/21/2008 2:14 PM
Greg - the ’orange fish’ you saw is the Garibaldi - Calfornia’s state (as in protected) salt water fish. The freshwater fish here is the Golden Trout. Garibaldi’s are great fun on dives - they are curoius of divers, will "attack" (mildly) an image of themselves in a small mirror held in a diver’s hand, and they are teritorial - so they have a small plot of ’land’ they protect and are constantly chasing other fish away from their homes.

DolphinLover - 7/16/2008 10:12 AM
Thanks again for the shirts, we also got a lot of comments and questions about it and hopefuly it gets a lot of more members here.!!
THANKS AGAIN!!!!!!!
Nesher - 7/14/2008 7:54 PM
Sounds like a great time and a productive trip.
jreitz1 - 7/14/2008 2:11 PM
Glad to hear you and your family had such a great trip Greg. It was nice meeting all of you at the show and I’m still passing the stickers out to divers, who I see are now signing up to join our online family. Jeff