Lovin' this picture of Dan and his friend Kenny Rickett. It was sent to us by Dan's childhood friend (and Kenny's sister) Teresa. She is going through some old photo albums and sent us some really great pictues. It was taken in 1967 or 1968 at Ensenada, Mexico. They were diving for abalone and lobsters. These were the days when you could get huge lobsters and abalone. Dan and I used to dive off Catalina and we would bring home 10-inch abalone and lots of them too. Dan would slice the abalone, dip it in a scrambled egg and saltine crumbs and fry it up. Wow - did that taste good! That and a salad and a glass of wine and you are set.

We were in Pismo Beach in January celebrating our wedding anniversary and went to dinner at a wonderful restaurant there- the Cracked Crab. I saw abalone on the appetizer menu and being very excited to see it, ordered it. What came was about a 3-4 inch shell with a tiny bit of abalone. It cost $14.00! Wow - was I disappointed - I guess that the huge abalones are long gone - we won't see those again.

There is an abalone farm further up the coast and the waitress said that their abalone comes from them. I guess it takes a very long time for the abalone to grow---maybe those we enjoyed in the 60's were decades old!

I love this picture of Dan and Kenny. They look so cute and YOUNG!