In 1954 the Balboa Island Sculling and Punting Society decided on their first great adventure, taking a boat to Las Vegas

The 40-foot  cabin cruiser "Lazy B" was loaded on a flatbed truck, and the club dressed in their spotless yachting regalia  lined the boat's rails for their departure.
On their 300 mile voyage they only touched port twice, at Victorville and Barstow, with a pause at Baker for ice cubes. Virgil Partch -one of the club's founders- worded it this way, "We hit some bad ground swells, and we also hit a couple of bars."

Allen A. Arthur of the Flamingo hotel went eight miles out in the strip "harbor" to meet the Lazy B. He carried refreshments, as the yacht was flying its cocktail pennant upside down, indicating the martini shaker had gone dry and a dangerous situation existed on board.

Of course with the club's fondness for gambling, a high stakes poker game was held aboard the boat on the way over with thousands of dollars on the table. At one point, one of the players got seasick and opened the hatch to go topside, resulting in an unexpected gust of wind. All the money on the table was blown out the hatch and all over the desert. Because there were no communications with the truck driver, the club could do little more then wave goodbye to their money. They did, however, get a spread in Life magazine for their trailblazing adventure

BISPS History
 From the club's highly
organized photo album.

The HFS (hardly floats sometimes) Michigan, flagship of the BISPS
in all of her glory.

The official club knot, used to secure
the Michigan in her berth.

Two of the club's founders,
Bill Veneman and Dick Shaw. 
Shaw  is telling Veneman  about
the one  that got away.

The train to Catalina, or as it was officially named, "The Long Beach & Avalon, Western & Ephemeral   Railroad."

Sign Of The Times

Words Of Wisdom

If you jog in a jogging suit, lounge in lounging pajamas, and smoke in a smoking jacket, WHY would anyone want to wear a windbreaker??

Goodbye
Old Friend
Charlie O'Donnell

Balboa Boat Rentals manager.
Died on January 21, 2003
of an apparent heart attack.

Whale Watching

  The California Gray Whale makes the most spectacular and longest mass migration of any marine mammal. Gray Whales Migrate Annually along the west coast of North America from the summer feeding grounds in the Bering Sea to the winter grounds of the Baja California lagoons and back again along the Orange County coast during the months of December, January, February, March, and early April. Balboa's Sport Fishing boats offer Whale Watching Cruses so that children and adults may thrill at the sight of these magnificent mammals as they pass along the coast. For further information contact:
Davey's Locker
Newport LandingSport Fishing
Newport Whale Watching

Time Capsule
From Dick Vogel's
personal photo album.
Circa 1950

This is one of my grandfather's postcards showing the end of Main St. Grandpa built the building at 100 Main, on the right of the picture.  This shot was around 1950 when he had his real estate office in there. It's home to the Studio Cafe now.  To the far right is the shack where my family spent our summers in the 50s and 60s. It has since been built over and  incorporated into the Studio Cafe. The palm trees in the boxes were later  planted in the park.
 

Viewer Email

Dear Jim
I had the pleasure of visiting with my siblings last week and got to turn them on to your wonderful website. We all gathered and shared our thoughts and feelings and were happy to recognize most of the folks and could relate to the stories. I emailed you in the past about my life and times growing up in Balboa. I did get a nice response from you asking me to send more info.  You may remember me telling you that my dad was one of the first doctors to work at Hoag when it was only one story tall and having his office on the corner of 9th and Balboa Blvd (on the bay side). I just got home from Hawaii, where most of my siblings now reside. While there, I shared my cartoon illustrations that I do for Londons Times Cartoons website. I was excited to show them the web's storefront where I have painted pictures of Balboa and put them on mugs. Please take a look at http://www.londonstimes.net/tshirt_
frame.html

 ....also, I would love it if you would consider having these mugs available on your site to sell to nostalgic Balboans. It would be fun and I would be happy to make it profitable for you too. What do you think? You are welcome to reply to Rick London, my partner and marketeer at: Beardiethor@Yahoo.com.
Yours truly, Stephanie Allen Bennett, a long term lover of Balboa