Tragedy

I'm sure many of you have by now heard about the helicopter crash in Two Harbors. Here is our story of it, which is peripheral. Saturday mornings I usually sleep in until 8am and then make scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast, but this morning was different. For one, we were out of both eggs and bacon. In addition, we had plans to take the 2pm ferry to the mainland, so we couldn't laze about like we normally do. To help matters along, I also wasn't feeling well - something I ate, no doubt. So I was dragging myself around, trying to figure out what we would eat, when I turned on the radio to the local NPR station. I was half listening as I puttered around the kitchen until "helicopter crash...Catalina island..." filtered it's way into my ears. And just as I was assuming it happened near Avalon, I also heard "west end...Two Harbors." I immediately tried to call our friends who live on the WMSC campus because there's a helipad there and I thought it might have happened while someone was trying to land there. I couldn't reach them, and then heard a large helicopter fly over our house, so I poked my head our our front door to see a Sheriff's Department helicopter landing in the large field behind the Isthmus Yacht Club. Walking down to the end of our housing cluster, I could see the the pumper truck, the Baywatch rescue vehicles, another rescue helicopter and a black scar across the field. This happened less than half a mile from our house! I think the pilot did a heroic job of not crashing in town. I don't know if he was one of the survivors, but God bless him, either way.

Here is a picture of the scene. The building up on the hill is the Banning House Lodge (the hotel in town). Fortunately it has been wet (of all things - it's late in the season for rain) recently. It rained Friday, and was damp that day, otherwise the field fire could have been worse. At this point at least one victim had been airlifted out. The others were being cared for behind the yellow rescue truck.


There were six people on the helicopter - the pilot and five passengers. Three survived. I found out today that a good friend of ours was one of the first on the scene and helped pull the survivors out of the wreckage. I like to think that I'd be brave enough to do the same, but you don't know until you face that test, and I'd rather not be in that situation. Below is a closer picture of the wreckage. It's hard to believe anyone survived. I've been on one of these helicopters once. There really isn't much to them, which is clear from the remains.



It was a tragedy, and it was very close to us physically, but it was distant emotionally; we had no connections to any of the people on the helicopter (other than I might have flown on that helicopter at one point, or with that pilot), so to us and many of the other Memorial Day weekend visitors, it felt like a spectator event, like watching one of the 24-hour news channels.

There was no reason for us to postpone our trip, so the Things and I boarded the ferry and headed over to LA. This was mostly a trip for fun, so we saw Speed Racer that night (which was better than I expected; Thing1 was so excited during the climactic race that he was bouncing in his seat and clapping). The next day we did some shopping, including a trip to the Toys R Us so the Things could spend some allowance money, and also went to the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, which had great exhibits, a ton of educational material, sea creature costumes for the little ones, and had free admittance (although they ask for a donation). After that exhausting day, we saw Prince Caspian (pretty much what I expected - very good, but not great). We also had a bit of a junk food binge: little chocolate donuts (sorry for the add, but it's worth it for the higher video quality) for breakfast, McDonald's for lunch and pizza for dinner. This morning it was a quick trip to the grocery store and then back to the ferry. Both boys fell asleep on the ferry within 20 minutes of our arrival. Thing2 actually fell asleep as we passed Bird Rock (which is at the entrance to the harbor).

With all the fun we had over town, I guess this post could have been titles Joy and Sadness, too. Speaking of which, we'll probably be picking Kevin up tomorrow. Oh, and Sweetie called me from Miami yesterday, so she got that far okay. This morning she was scheduled to fly to San Salvador. I've survived the first week of her absence. Two more to go...