There were quite a lot of plans for the day. Some ended up working out and others not so much. Regardless, a lot of fun was had. I was hoping to get in a few more miles of walking than I did. Sometimes you just have to relax a bit.
I ended up going up to the Jetty campgrounds and park. The campgrounds themselves are mostly for RVs. There was a spaceship launch off the coast and yes this is that-- Jetty Park. Many people tend to book a spot and park their RV to watch things go down. Since there tend to be some delays that is where having an RV and a couple-day stay come in handy.
They do have a couple of small cabins and some space you can rent to set up tents. One of those two options I might consider doing some time in the future. This time around, however, I got invited into the campground on a visitor pass.
Originally, I was going to stay for a couple of hours after getting off the boat and wait for the launch. However, the launch ended up getting delayed far too late. I ended up needing to be elsewhere. Hopefully, if I ever come out here again, I'll get to catch a launch!
There was some time to kill before the boat would leave port, so I headed off to the park section where they have a massive dock at the end of it. Some people were also boondocking along the coastline. The views they must have been getting in the evening at launch time must have been amazing.
It did look like quite a fun place. A nice little spot for seating and some other building for restrooms and other things not that far off either. This place is quite known for being the spot for watching space launches.
I did take a moment to admire from afar some of the larger boats that were currently docked at the port. Some of these were massive cruise ships with all the bells and whistles. It’s also kind of cool for the moment I got to look out into the ocean. Later on, I'd be on a boat looking back on shore.
While it might not look like it from this photo that dock goes out quite far. You also get to see the other side which is a rather nice beach that is not covered in rocks like this side is. I was also hoping to go along to eight or so mile trail from this park to the beach. That plan also got canceled. It seems I needed a second day out at this location to do everything I wanted.
The pier itself had quite a few people fishing from it. It is quite strange that you are supposed to obey any local fishing laws. The rules also state you are not required to have a fishing license, I’m not quite sure how that all works. No one was catching anything anyway, so I guess not so well.
The views far out on the pier were just breathtaking. I swear this photo alone is worthy of being an oil painting. I should have known right then the ship part of this adventure was going to be a bit rocky since surfers were out enjoying the waves rolling in.
After standing around near the end of the pier for a while enjoying the views it was time to head back into the campground. We would be boarding soon to get onto our ship and leave the port for a couple of hours.
I was rather excited. I have never been to international waters before. The ship we were going on was called Victory Casino Cruises. They take you out to international waters so you can go gambling. Since the sea was a bit rough that day and this was the morning slot. The boat would not be super packed but it still quite more than I was expecting.
I wish I could have gotten a better photo of the outside of the boat. This ended up being as good as it gets. I took quite a few but you could not see this much from other angles. Any good spot was restricted so I could not enter them.
This boat has four floors and an outdoor deck. There was gambling on most of the floors. It took a bit of getting used to moving around. While this might be the biggest boat, I've been on it sure rocked back and forth. I’m shocked I did not fall over onto my face. Not even once.
Once you get onto the boat you can’t go gambling just yet. It takes about half an hour or so to get out to international waters where you can do so. The sea was also a bit rocky and there were some other boats in the area as well. It seemed to be taking us a bit longer than we were expecting it to.
While many could not wait to jump onto the favorite slot machines this boat has and some even did so they could hold their spot till we were permitted to gamble. I was rather enjoying the views. I ended up exploring around a bit before things started to fill up.
I was also scoping out the place to see what I wanted to play first. There are quite a lot of older slot machines I've never got to play in person before. Such as two different kinds of goldfish, lots of three-wheel slots I've never seen before, and things like block parties.
After exploring around for a bit I decided to head up to the outdoor deck. I had some free coupons to use to order some drinks while I was waiting around. I felt it also ended up being one of the better places to be when heading out or back to port. They had live music, a bar, and lots of fun people.
We ended up passing some rather large boats. Sometimes they would even have people on their sides waving back at us as we passed them by. Somewhere returning from amazing adventures and others like us just heading out to start them.
After some further waiting around for a bit since they let you board an hour before they take off. The engine started up and we slowly made our way out to sea. I was rather thrilled to pass Jetty Park and the pier I had just been on hours prior.
If we had stayed for the space launch that would have been pushed further into the evening. It would have been launched according to people on the boat somewhere in this direction which was across the park a bit. Something about that white building off into the distance.
It was also at around this point I was already starting to struggle with keeping the camera held for photos and dealing with the rocking of the boat. It would end up getting a lot worse the further out we went. I was expecting some waves but not to the scale, the boat was rocking at.
I decided after some photos it was best just to sit down and wait. I ordered myself a mudslide and enjoyed the views till we got further out to sea. After a while, we got an announcement, and we were getting close.
People were slowly starting to funnel out of the outdoor deck and any other place they were held up at and making it to the first slot machine they wanted to play. The group I was with decided to do the same.
The first machine I hit up was the goldfish machine. I had been to a few other casinos looking for this version and most of them had retired at least six months before I got there. I ended up just low-rolling it for a while on $40. Most of my wins were quite low but I lasted a while before it was time to move onto something else.
Next up I hit up some kind of old buffalo game I've never seen before. While playing the boat was rocking back and forth at a great force. There were moments when I was holding quite tightly onto the slot machine itself. I can only hope they are quite well bolted in or something.
There were also some rather funny moments of trying to walk around. I’d take a step and the ship would move quite a bit rocking to one side. Quickly one step would turn into three of me trying not to fall flat on my face. Thankfully I did not drink much at the bar otherwise I think I'd have one heck of a time trying to get around.
After a while I decided to go up the stairs again off the floor I was on. I was quite thankful for the handrails, and I feel they were quite the requirement to even get to the upper deck to get back outside for some fresh air.
I noticed while looking at the ocean that some dolphins were swimming by. While every time I tried to get a photo, they were mostly underwater again. If you zoom in on the middle of the photo. You will notice a black round dot slightly sticking out of the water as one of them dived back down again.
A lot of the fun was just walking around the boat checking out what kind of older slots they had. Most of them I was not going to sit down and play. I also learned quite quickly I rather not play on a slot that was on the edge of the outside of the boat. You rock back and forth on those machines!
While I got to play quite a few different slots. The winning was rather lacking. They are supposed to be the loosest slots in the state. Outside of seeing one person get a hand pay, it seemed no one was winning much of anything.
After a couple of hours and many turns of the ship, we headed back into port. There was a time when they announced no more gambling and started to close down access to those parts of the boat.
It was at that point I decided to risk eating some lunch. I had a “free” sandwich ticket to turn in and ended up getting the cheeseburger. Thankfully I did not get sick! I did not care for the cheeseburger and would get something else if I went again.
The closer we got to being back into port the more claim the seas became again. Thankfully I did not have any issues walking off the boat or being back on land. Since this tour only takes you out for a few hours it seems my body did not have any issues.
Final Thoughts
While there were plans to do a lot more things once we got off the boat. That is where this adventure ends. I did not end up staying as long as I had expected. Sometimes you just have to know when it is called and perhaps in the future, I'll be back. I’d love to explore that beach next to the park at some point and see a live launch from there as well.
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Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar about my personal experiences in the real world away from the computer at home.
