Balboa Island

Each summer, my friends rent a beach house on Balboa Island for a week's vacation. Last week was it, and they invited a few of us down for a day. We didn't hobnob with the rich, but we hobnobbed on their territory.

First we spent a couple of hours just steps from the house on the beach. It was a mostly female group--talk, laugh, much more talk. Then, after a lovely dinner on the front porch (almost as much laughing as eating), we took a boat ride around the island. That was a blast. I posted several photos on Overdog.

From the looks of it the richest people in Orange County have thrown their money into Balboa Island and the shores that surround it. The water's edge is cheek by jowl with new-money mansions and ostentatious yachts.

Ah, but it's still a beach town. What you can't see in this photo is the sea lions that have climbed up onto the back of that boat, lolling and barking--hobnobbing on the territory of the rich, as it were.