Fresh from the sea! Two of these pictures were caught off the leeward side of the Catalina mountains.  The bottom picture is a group shot of a tasty pile of corbina that were caught off the northernmost reaches of the sea of Cortez.

Big Red Lightening Sunset 30x24, Guitars, Jinete y Caballo

After a week of high seas adventure neck-deep in the Sea of Cortez, this is what we came home to.  The boys and the band had just finished a little jam sesh on the front porch. See picture above. Missing were the "fat tele" telecaster guitar and the new blond MIJ 1980's Fender telecaster...also a couple of banjos and my favorite Washburn guitar.  I guess they weren't using those. Marissa got to ride a horse in her first home town of La Aduana, Sonora Mexico as well. That kind of rounded out a nice little Easter week in the old country.  We smuggled my in-laws back with us and almost crossed the border with no problema. Turns out that grandpa likes his oregano. It grows wild in southern Sonora and, well, since he enjoys making his famous seafood surprise when the family gets together it just makes sense to take along some special ingredients. No?  The wait was relatively short.  Sometimes the line at the border can be hours long.  We pulled up to the Mexico/American line of demarcation after getting the green light to give us our turn and the border agent promptly asks if we're all citizens.  With a "no" I hand her our passports and visa papers (for the smuggled in-laws) and notice the Rambo style survival knife strapped to her leg along with various gadgets meant for stopping, killing, maiming and ...cutting open boxes. She asked if I would open the back hatch on the mini van. I complied by pressing a button to release the lock. She moved around to the back of the vehicle. I watched her in the mirror. She opened the hatch. I saw, in slow motion,  a very large plastic jar filled with oregano come tumbling out onto the pavement in the cool shade of the late April international-smuggling-capital-of-the-world border crossing. The agent and her armored friends shared a quick smile, opened the lid, took a whiff and...returned the herbs to their place over the luggage. They wished us a good day and we drove on. Nothing like the time they caught me with a bunch of bullets, or the time they found the rifle I was smuggling into Mexico. Those stories are for another time.  Meanwhile, enjoy my new painting..."Big Red Lightening Sunset. It's available on auction this week on the 'bay.