Seal Beach Pier, Seal Beach, CA Trip Date: June 9-13, 2008 The Pier The piers of Central and Southern California have a unique subculture. By day, they teem with tourists of all different races and backgrounds, all living completely separate lives. By night, the multi-ethnic tapestry remains, but the occupants of the pier share a…
Read moreHook #3: Ethics
Seal Beach Pier, Seal Beach, CA Trip Date: June 9-13, 2008 The Jetty The night before graduation, I decided to scrap the speech I’d written weeks in advance and start a new one. I finished it around midnight, and it is, to this day, the best speech I’ve ever written. While my delivery was a…
Read moreHook #2: Fish of a Lifetime
Brookings-Harbor, OR Trip Date: May 25-26, 2005 The mind is a funny thing. How we can remember the subtle differences between the radio-edited song and the original, but draw a blank on the name of a childhood friend, I will never understand. While I don’t understand, I do remember. I remember loading into a red…
Read moreHook #1: Record Keeping
Spencer Creek, OR Trip Date: May 25, 2004 I didn’t know it yet, but my life was about to change forever. As I loaded fishing gear into the car with my dad, my brother Jake, and our family friends, the Wogans, I had no idea that an afternoon of fishing at Spencer Creek, the southernmost…
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