Trip Report Catalina Island - Random Solo Day Trips & Photos

[Sherry E]

No submarine for me. I get terribly claustrophobic. The que on Roger Rabbit made me incredibly ill the only time I was on the ride. Its the glass bottom boat or nothing in that circumstance.

I would be willing to bet the majority of homes there are vacation or weekend homes. The cost of daily expenses has got to be prohibitive.


I think that if I could get Scotty on a boat it might make a nice over night stayt for he and I.

Michele -

Yep. If there is any chance of claustrophobia, the Semi-Sub is not for you. Not that it's unbearable or anything, but for those who are prone to getting uncomfortable in small spaces like that (or like on the Disneyland Subs), this will probably not be a good idea.

If you can force some Dramamine into Scotty, maybe he could manage a trip over! It is a really nice day trip or a romantic overnight trip (although most of the hotels and cottages require a 2-night minimum these days unless they have last-minute cancellations, I think). It's a great place to take nice scenic walks by the ocean and listen to music in one of the bars.

The interesting thing is that the economy over the last several years had a big effect on Catalina and they lost a lot of their tourists, which, as you said, are the bulk of their income. The tourism business dwindled. So I think that a lot of the residents who maybe lived and worked there year-round - or even half of the year - probably had to start working on the mainland and possibly living there too. So I am actually wondering if the number of permanent residents on Catalina dwindled along with the tourists. It's possible that a lot of Avalon residents moved off of the Island and back to civilization just for work.

My friends Jackie and Bob - who you have seen in my DLR trip reports - have a friend who lives in the Hamilton Cove part of Avalon. I posted some photos of Hamilton Cove on the previous page. He lives there for part of the year - the off-peak season, essentially - and then he rents out his condo or villa or whatever it is to tourists and visitors who come to stay for the peak months, like holiday weekends and summer. I would bet that this sort of thing is very common these days, with part-time residents renting out their homes to tourists for peak season.

Then, at some point, the Chamber of Commerce or the Avalon City Council or someone or another decided to start sprucing up Avalon by way of adding in the zip line and other adventures. They replaced a couple of the old restaurants with new ones. They replaced some of the shops. They started having exhibits at the museum that is located in the Casino building. And then they started up the free birthday boat ride on the Express.

So there are obviously some people who have to live on the Island year-round. They have to work in the restaurants and shops year-round. There are even some small offices there. There is a small hospital. There's a school. A lot of retirees might live there too.

But, as you indicated, I would bet that only the bare minimum of those residents are working there, because it is probably not cost effective to employ lots and lots of people year-round, especially if the tourists are not pouring in year-round.

And then there is probably a surge of new employees who come to live on the Island and work for the summer months only, or just for major holiday weekends, and then they go back to their real lives on the mainland for the rest of the year. I once dated a guy (probably like 20 years ago or so) who did that - he lived on the mainland for part of the year, and then moved to Avalon to work for the summer and on holidays (he worked at Antonio's, the restaurant that I posted pictures of, and somewhere else). He would stay with whichever friends he made who actually had houses in Avalon. He didn't really do it "for the money," because the money wasn't great. It was more just a way to have fun and meet people while working in a cool place for the summer!

Great photos Sherry. I see a lot of familiar places. That hike to the Wrigley thing looks daunting with a sore foot but I'm glad you made it.

Only one piece of input for your eventual Catalina Superthread. Be sure to post about five of your "beach" photos and make it very clear that those show every square inch of Avalon's beaches (and how early people stake spots). I'd hate for people to go expecting wide sandy beaches like Huntington or Newport.

Looking forward to more ...

PHXscuba

Hi, PHX!

Yay! Another familiar DIS-friend!

Thank you!

Yes, I was glad that I did the Wrigley thing too. I always curse it at the time I am doing it, but then I'm glad later on, after I'm done with it! It's not something I would do on every trip, for sure. I've gone up there about 4 times now, I think, and have skipped it on lots of other occasions. It takes a chunk out of the golf cart rental time, and I missed stopping at some of the scenic points along the golf cart path because I wasted so much time at Wrigley! So whenever my next trip is - like IF the Express' free birthday deal is happening again next year (past April), I will probably skip Wrigley.

Oh, I will definitely be asking for lots of input from you, Wendy and whomever else has Catalina input to offer when I get the Superthread going! So don't go away! I'm sure I will overlook something crucial and will need to add in things as I go.

I agree about the Avalon beach - I wanted to get some photos of that tiny beach when it was not clogged up with people, but you are 100% correct. People will get there early and stake out spots, and the beach is full by late morning. And I mean, packed with people. Also, it's not exactly a quiet, remote beach. The main street there - Crescent Avenue - runs right behind it, as you know, so it is basically like you are camped out on the sand, in the middle of the hub of activity! There are some places where you can plop down on the beach that are below the main flow of foot traffic - like when you walk towards the Casino and get near the Via Casino arch and the Tuna Club and all of that - so those are a tiny bit quieter and more private, in a way, simply because they are not situated (literally) in the middle of the action.

I hope to get some more rounds o' photos posted tomorrow, as well as add another installment to my DLR Trip Report.

 

[usnuzuloose]

Was there in January 12. Sherry did you catch the two story home that was made out of two ship wrecks? I hope to return, I love your photo's , things I did not get to see.

 

[Sherry E]

Was there in January 12. Sherry did you catch the two story home that was made out of two ship wrecks? I hope to return, I love your photo's , things I did not get to see.

Hello, usnuzuloose!

Welcome! I'm so glad to see more familiar names over in this forum - it seems so separate from the main activity on the board.

Thank you for the compliment.

Did I somehow manage to look past the shipwreck home in my own photos? (I am very old, you know.) Or is it something you saw when you were there that I somehow didn't see? I don't think I saw it, or if I did I certainly didn't 'notice' it. Normally I am very detail-oriented, but if I am focused on looking at something else in particular, I may very well look past something really obvious!

So you were in Avalon this past January? Did you go on your birthday, or just for a regular trip? And was it your first time there? I'm always curious to know what people think when they get back from Catalina because, in the old days it was always a one-extreme-or-the-other kind of opinion. People either seemed to fall in love with Avalon and couldn't wait to return, or they thought it was boring and they didn't want to go back. These days the opinions seem to be more in the middle ground area, where people don't really love it...but they don't dislike it either.

When I get the Superthread going for Catalina, hopefully you can share some of your photos and insight with us? I think there are a lot of DIS'ers out there who would really enjoy Avalon if they made the trip, but there are so many people who don't even know what Catalina is, where it is, what it's about, how to get there, what to do once they are there, etc. It would be great to get opinions and see photos from a variety of people who have been there!

 

[Sherry E]

Continuing on…

Still at the Wrigley Memorial…

The detail in the carvings is exquisite…

Thank the heavens! These steps are heading downward! That’s better than up!

Back in the Wrigley Botanical Gardens…


…Because who doesn’t need a little Woody Lettuce in their backyard from time to time?

Okay, this reminds me of a giant prickly foot and toes…

​

 

[Sherry E]

Continuing on…

A cactus with koala bear ears!

This is the funniest thing – the cactus looks as if it’s wearing fuzzy gloves or slippers or something!

The actual plant that went with this sign was not interesting. It may have even been barely visible – that happened in some cases, where the sign was there but the plant had all but died!

Jacaranda…you love ‘em or you hate ‘em! If you love them, it’s because when they are in full bloom they provide a pop of vibrant color to any neighborhood. If you hate them. It’s because they shed all over your driveway, cars or backyard and leave a fairly sticky residue that is difficult to remove.

I didn’t have time to follow this path to see where it led me, as I was running out of precious golf cart time…

This is reminiscent of some of the light fixtures you’d see at Disneyland Resort!

As you can see, it was a packed house for this educational video viewing area. Standing room only.

​

 

[Sherry E]

Continuing on…

Time was a-wastin’ and I had to pack up my golf cart and go, or else I wouldn’t be able to see any of the scenic views from up in the hills.

Ever since Pebbly Beach Road and Lovers Cove were closed to the public (although you will see that I ignored the signs to stay away later on), some of the best harbor/ocean views of Avalon from up in the hills were blocked. To be honest, there aren’t as many great views anymore – not compared to what there were – unless access is granted to tourists again.

I bid farewell to Wrigley Memorial and Botanical Gardens (and all of those Godforsaken steps) and zoomed off into the hills.

At one point there were some annoying kids or young teens who were literally standing in the middle of one of the roads, chatting away with each other – it’s a casual type of town, so people stand in the middle of the road a lot! Even though they clearly saw that they were partially blocking my path and that I was trying to get around them, they would not budge. In fact, they pretended they didn’t see me trying to pass through the narrow spot they left for me, even though I was only a few inches away.

I hadn’t driven a golf cart in many years and was not feeling totally confident in my ability to squeeze through the spot on the side of the annoying kids. I was afraid I was going to bang into them or into their bikes or whatever. So I attempted to back up and make a U-turn on this hill to get away from these kids and find another road.

In the process of trying to make my U-turn, I overestimated how much space I had before I would touch the curb (that’s the disadvantage of not having anyone in the cart with me – there was no one to tell me exactly how much space I had) and I ended up scraping against it. I had to dust off the red paint shavings from the front right tire. I suspect it’s a fairly common occurrence to bang into things up on some of the narrow roads in the hills, as I noticed other scrapes on the cart (mainly the paint) that were definitely not mine.


Anyway, once I was done plucking the paint out of the tire and getting away from those human roadblocks, I continued along my merry way.



Wow…that road or trail, or whatever it is, is steep! Yikes! If I tried to drive up that hill – which was not accessible to tourists – I probably would have driven myself off the side of it – literally!

Finally I reached a scenic spot – although it’s still not as good as the spots that used to be accessible prior to the road closures…

By the way, I should point out that the kind of pointy, triangular-looking rock on the road in the distance, past the harbor (it’s kind of in the upper third of the picture), is part of Pebbly Beach/Lovers Cove…which was closed, as I mentioned. That rock marks my old “thinking spot.” That’s where I used to go on previous trips to sit on a bench and stare out at the ocean. It’s quiet, except for the sounds of the sea and the seagulls.

Of course, I was not about to visit Avalon/Catalina without walking to my thinking spot, so I ended up defying the rules and walking over there at sunset anyway (as you will see in upcoming photos).

It suddenly dawned on me – after driving around seemingly endless hills with not much in the way of a view – that I’d better check the time. I had a 3-hour limit on the golf cart and wanted to see how close to the 3-hour mark I was getting. For some reason I thought the golf cart rental guy had told me that I was supposed to bring my cart back at 3:50 p.m. In fact, I even repeated it back to him for confirmation and he nodded.

But when I pulled over to the side of the road and looked on the yellow slip hooked on to my steering wheel, I saw that it said “3:20” as being my return time.

I looked at the time display on my cell phone and it said…“3:04 p.m.” Yikes! I had spent so much time at Wrigley that I was now in a time crunch to get out of the hills and back to town.

Now, even though it had been a while since my last Avalon visit and my last solo golf cart ride, I was still pretty familiar with how to get back to town. At least I had previous experience on my side. And I knew it was going to take a while to pull into the Island Rentals lot. I was going to have to go up, up, up into the hills a bit further before I got to a road that would take me down to the residential streets in town. These golf carts only go like 20 or 30 miles an hour, if even that much. That might be a generous estimate.

With an urgency that I can only equate with, perhaps, Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride, and a few not-suitable-for-DISboards words thrown around, I put the pedal to the metal and I high-tailed it through the hills as fast as I could manage.


I pulled into the golf cart parking lot at 3:17 p.m.!!!! Just. In. Time. Whew, that was close!

I headed back towards Leo’s Drugstore, which is where I’d left one of my camera batteries and charger to be charged - for $5. It took them hours to charge just one battery – much longer than it takes me to charge it at home – and that’s why I got such a late start in renting the golf cart. Normally I would have rented it in the morning, but I was afraid that I wouldn’t have enough battery power to last me for photos up in the hills and I wanted to get the battery charged before I rented the cart.

However, after realizing that Leo’s was taking forever to charge my battery I had to rent the cart anyway, or else I would miss out on the ‘get 3 hours for the price of 2’ deal at Island Rentals, which ended at 1 p.m. on that day. I had to risk taking the camera with only one partially-charged battery already in it and pray that it held out, while the second battery continued to charge at Leo’s.

My advice – if you go to Catalina for a day trip and do not spend the night on the Island, be sure to bring at least 2 fully charged batteries with you (if not 3 batteries) if you are the sort of person who takes lots of pictures. One for the camera; one to use as immediate back-up. Don’t rely on Leo’s or any other place in town to charge your battery. I’m not sure if their electrical currents are ‘different’ or ‘off’ because they are on an island, but the charging should not have taken as long as it did and it really threw me off schedule in my day.

A cute window display at Lloyd’s, home of the famous fresh salt water taffy…

Wherever you go, Disney is never too far away!

​

 

[Sherry E]

Continuing on…

Lloyd’s colorful taffy comes in all sorts of flavors…

And apparently, Hello Kitty is never far away either!

An interesting light fixture for those light fixture enthusiasts out there!

This street – Whittley – is a hill. About 95% of the places I have stayed in Avalon in the past have been located up this hill! Whether they’ve been apartments, cottages or hotels, I have usually ended up on this hill, quite a ways up. I think there have maybe only been two places I’ve stayed that were not on this hill. This is another thing that I cursed – and so did my friends – at the time I had to walk up it, especially after a long day of being in the sun or horseback riding, or whatever, but over the years of being away from Avalon I have come to miss this annoying hill!

Did I walk up the hill for old time’s sake, just to relive the memories? Heck no. But I certainly stood at the end of the hill and looked up at it fondly, taking a couple of pictures by which to remember it!

​

More to come later, including what I named "The Walk of Tile" (not to be confused with the Walk of Fame)...

 

[Sherry E]

When I was standing at the foot of Whittley, looking up at that dreaded hill that had plagued me on most of my previous trips to Avalon, a very attractive man (who looked like he may have just come from diving or something) asked me if I wanted a picture taken in front of the sign. I didn’t, but I thanked him. We made small talk about the hill for about 1 minute and then he told me that I’d better apply some sunscreen to my nose because it was getting red! He was right, but the sun burned through all the layers of sunscreen I had applied, so my hands were red, my forearms were red, my scalp was red, my neck was red, etc.

It’s a very interesting phenomenon in Avalon, as opposed to Disneyland – I get sunburns no matter what (the pasty Irish skin syndrome), BUT I find that the sunburns are more deceptive at DLR. I can lather up the sunscreen and apply it at DLR, and I will see that I am burned by the end of the day or by the end of the trip – but the burns don’t seem to be quite as harsh.

However, in Avalon I could apply the exact same amount of sunscreen to my skin and walk around for a few hours, and that budding sunburn will show itself in a big way early on. It will be obvious to all that I am a walking tomato. And the sun will be much harsher, too. I have always suspected that all the water around the Island is what attracts the sun’s rays and makes them worse.

I went to the Cars Land/Buena Vista Street preview at DLR in June – I came back with a bit of a burn but it was not severe, although I was sick to my stomach and had a terrible headache the next day from being out in the sun. I went to Avalon 2 weeks ago and I am still peeling and shedding today, but I did not get sick the next day! Strange!

Anyway, continuing on…

I highly recommend the Flying Fish tour. I haven’t been on it since maybe 2001 or so, but it’s a lot of fun. It’s only active from June-ish to September because the fish are not as active in the off-peak season.

You go out in an open boat at night, and the captain shines a big spotlight onto the water, which attracts the flying fish (they have wings; hence, the “flying” title). They jump, they glide across the water, the do somersaults, they glow, and sometimes they even leap right into the boat.

The colors of all of the flowers (of all shapes and sizes) in a particular flower bed I discovered in the center of town were so vibrant! They were like little jewels sparkling in the bright sun!


These little tiny bunches o’ flowers (and I’m not sure if you can tell exactly how small they are in the pictures) were grouped together in such a way that they looked like individual bouquets of tiny flowers…

And it was very, very hard to get a close-up picture of them because they were so tiny, and everything turned out blurry when I zoomed in. (I tried it repeatedly – these photos I’ve shown are the least blurry of the bunch!) But to have taken a distant shot would not show that they were like little teeny bouquets…

Time to leave the gorgeous flowers and start walking towards the famous, iconic Casino!

​

 

[Sherry E]

Continuing on…

The late artist Thomas Kinkade painted several scenes from Catalina, including the Via Casino archway (this picture is from Google Images)…In fact, there used to be a gallery in town, solely devoted to his work.

I love the shadow effect in these “Leaping Tuna” pictures (these were taken outside the Tuna Club – an exclusive, private club in Avalon)

As I mentioned in a previous post, there are many scenic spots around Avalon that are straight out of a postcard…

This is the Yacht Club…

Thomas Kinkade also painted the Yacht Club (photo from Google Images)…

​

Coming up in the next post…the Walk of Tile begins!!!

 

[PHXscuba]

Great pictures, Sherry. I am partial to the ones from the candy store . Could do without the cactus -- we have enough of that here. It's great that all of the flowers were blooming when you were there.

My mother has a great lithograph of the Casino that a local artist (who coincidentally was my kindergarten teacher's husband) painted. I told her if she ever gets rid of it that I have first dibs. It's much better than Thomas Kinkade, or at least more my style.

PHXscuba

 

[Sherry E]

Great pictures, Sherry. I am partial to the ones from the candy store . Could do without the cactus -- we have enough of that here. It's great that all of the flowers were blooming when you were there.

My mother has a great lithograph of the Casino that a local artist (who coincidentally was my kindergarten teacher's husband) painted. I told her if she ever gets rid of it that I have first dibs. It's much better than Thomas Kinkade, or at least more my style.

PHXscuba

Thanks, PHX!

Candy stores are always fun because they usually involve some sort of stark white, or white and black, decor, and then big splashes of actual color in the candy bins. I was just shocked to see an interesting light fixture in Lloyd's too!

Yes, nab that Casino litho if your mom ever tires of it!

There's another artist - I can't remember his name exactly but I think it's something like Cao Yong - who used to paint some amazing Catalina scenes a while back (don't know if he still does).

I actually really like Thomas Kinkade's work, although I don't own any of his work and I certainly like many other artists as well (whose work is often in a totally different style than Kinkade's). Kinkade's Catalina pieces are different from his usual style that everyone knows (like the Cottages and meadows and all of that) because they were done in the "Plein Air" style...so they look a little - for lack of a better word - sloppier. They don't look like perfectly executed paintings. They also don't look as dreamlike.

Kinkade's Cottage/Meadow/Waterfall/Small Town/Disney pieces are much more 'perfect' looking, and, of course, those were the ones that were mass produced and became synonymous with shopping malls and what not!

But setting aside the fact that Kinkade's work is sooooo familiar and mass-produced (which I know can turn people off), I still always really liked the dreamy, fantastic, idyllic quality to his pastoral scenes. Who wouldn't want to stumble upon a cottage - next to a stream in the middle of the woods - like the ones in Kinkade's paintings? They always looked like the best cottages, best streams, best pathways, best waterfalls, best lighthouses, best small towns - ever!

 

[Sherry E]

Continuing on (even though only 4 people have spoken up and said anything, and even though only 2 people who follow my DLR trip reports have come over here to say hello!)…

Catalina Island is well-known for its decorative tile work, which you have probably noticed from the sprinklings of tile pictures that I have posted so far, in between all of the other photos.

The particular walkway that leads from the Via Casino arch (shown previously), past the Tuna Club and Yacht Club, and on to the Casino, has one particular section of a wall that I silently labeled the “Walk of Tile.” I remember tile being there during previous Catalina visits, but I think they re-did the wall and added much more over the years.

Each of these mini-masterpieces seems to focus on a different aspect of Catalina, whether it’s the sea life, the wildlife, the Island’s history or other landmarks in town…

​

More from the Walk of Tile coming up…

 

[Sherry E]

Continuing on…

Let’s enjoy the gorgeous view for a moment…

Back to the Tile…

This sculpture is part of the “Bay of the Seven Moons” display along the Walk of Tile. There is a more ornate tile mural of sorts that goes along with it, but it features a tiny bit of artistic nudity, and I didn’t know if it would be appropriate for the DIS, so I left it out!

There are a quite a few tribute plaques and statues around town – this is one such plaque…

When you reach the Casino and the entrance to the movie theater, you will notice several stunning murals overhead…

​

More fun with murals, and hanging ‘round the Casino, coming up in the next post!

 

[PHXscuba]

Awesome tile work. Did you get a wide shot of where those tile murals were located? I don't have a mental picture of where they are.

I seem to remember them being on the walk down to the Casino, but last time I went that way I was lugging a heavy SCUBA bag and didn't really focus on anything but getting there before I fell over.

PHXscuba

 

[I'm mikey]

Sherry, love your pics. their just gorgeous, they make me want to go to catalina. I think we're going to have to work this in on some future trip....mike

 

[endy]

Hi Sherry
Hope your foot is healing.
I wonder if the poster asking about the shipwreck houses was referring to the boats turned into houses? We'll be home in a couple of weeks and I will post the picturess I took.
We just arrived in San Diego, spend yesterday in Anaheim. Heat wave? Holy catfish. We went to SeaWorld today & lasted little more than 1 hour, good thing we have passes. DS15 actually wants to go to DL, so that's early next week for 1 day.
I can't believe how detailed you are with your pictures. Must've cost you a fortune before digital cameras were common.
Wendy

Stay cool, the temps are supposed to drop a bit this week. I really hope so, it was this warm at home last week.

 

[Sherry E]

Wow! For some peculiar reason I didn't get any e-mail notifications this time, so I had no idea that there was even one new post, let alone 3 new posts! I should have at least gotten an alert about PHX's reply but I guess it got lost in cyberspace!

Awesome tile work. Did you get a wide shot of where those tile murals were located? I don't have a mental picture of where they are.

I seem to remember them being on the walk down to the Casino, but last time I went that way I was lugging a heavy SCUBA bag and didn't really focus on anything but getting there before I fell over.

PHXscuba

PHX -

Unless I am forgetting something that I took a photo of on the way back from the Casino, I don't think I got a wide shot of that wall. Wouldn't you know, I got 9 million photos of everything else but not a wide shot of that! I was getting frustrated because it is a busy little walkway, and every time I would kind of step out in the middle of it a little bit to get a photo of the tile art someone would be passing by me at that exact moment. So I had to keep moving around. I'm amazed that I was able to get the photos I got given how many times I had to step forward, step back, step to the side, or just move out of someone's way.

The best I can describe/remember as to where those specific tile murals are is on the left-hand side of the path, right around the Yacht Club (which is on the right). Then after those murals you get to the Bay of the Seven Moons display - also on the left-hand side - and then the Casino/movie theater is soon after that.

Sherry, love your pics. their just gorgeous, they make me want to go to catalina. I think we're going to have to work this in on some future trip....mike

Mike -

Hello, and welcome! Thank you so much for the compliment. I really appreciate it. I got a few photos that I'm happy with, I guess. A few clunkers, but a few good ones too. Not "good" like yours are good, obviously, but good enough for me to be satisfied with!

Now if you ever get to Catalina, that is a thread I know we will all want to follow, as I think we can all agree that your photos will be amazing! You would get some breathtaking shots, I'm sure. I would love to see the wonderful Avalon sunset pictures that I'm certain you'd get!

I think you should definitely work Catalina into one of your future trips down to SoCal!

I'm a bit sad that KCmike and his family didn't really get to have the Catalina experience I had hoped they'd have. I was hoping they'd love it, but I think they liked it. Part of it was due to time constraints, I suppose. They rented a golf cart, but since it was only for one hour they didn't have time to go up to the Wrigley Memorial and Botanical Gardens - which I think would have yielded some great photos from Mike! At least they got to see some of the wonderful scenery around town and up in the hills.

Hi Sherry
Hope your foot is healing.
I wonder if the poster asking about the shipwreck houses was referring to the boats turned into houses? We'll be home in a couple of weeks and I will post the picturess I took.
We just arrived in San Diego, spend yesterday in Anaheim. Heat wave? Holy catfish. We went to SeaWorld today & lasted little more than 1 hour, good thing we have passes. DS15 actually wants to go to DL, so that's early next week for 1 day.
I can't believe how detailed you are with your pictures. Must've cost you a fortune before digital cameras were common.
Wendy

Stay cool, the temps are supposed to drop a bit this week. I really hope so, it was this warm at home last week.

Hi, Wendy!

Yep, it's hot. My PC is right next to my window, so the heat penetrates through the glass even when it's closed and the drapes are pulled. It's been more humid than usual out here too, which is always fun. I have a really hard time in amusement parks when it is hot. I'm sure I would have been miserable at Sea World too - all that water attracting the heat!

Let me know what you and your son think of Cars Land and Buena Vista Street next week when you go. I really enjoyed both lands a lot, with the exception of the foot injury on Buena Vista Street! I'll be curious to hear your reviews!

My foot is alternately better and then hurting again. There are days that go by where it does not bother me at all so I assume it's healing. And then the next day it will hurt again. It's very odd. At least it didn't seem to get any worse after the Catalina excursion, despite all of the walking to and fro that I did.

I, too, was wondering what usnuzuloose was talking about in regards to the shipwreck house/boats, and if it was also what you were talking about. Whatever it was, it sounds like I may have missed it! I don't think I saw anything like that.

Yep, I am detailed! You should see the photos I post in the Halloween and Christmas Superthreads!

Now you can see why I knew before getting to Avalon that I had a lot of walking around to do. I had it mapped out in my mind what I wanted to do, and most of that involved walking everywhere to get photos. I knew that for an eventual Catalina Information Superthread (which is still in the works), and for my FREE Catalina Express Boat Ride thread over in the SoCal section, I would need a wide array of photos to give a good pictorial overview. I didn't get to every single place I wanted to hit while in Avalon, but as you can see I covered a lot of ground!

Oh, the digital age of photography is a wondrous thing! In the old, old days of 35mm I used to take a lot of 'people pictures' of friends and what not. I always had rolls and rolls of film to be developed and copies of pictures that needed to be made. It was expensive, considering that each roll of film only had 24 or 36 photos in it.

Currently, I can easily share 25 pictures in each post, and maybe do 2-4 posts per day, in this thread, in my trip report thread, in my Halloween or Christmas Superthreads, wherever. Can you only imagine how expensive it would be if I had to develop all of the photos I post before I could view them? You would probably see very few pictures from me, that's for sure!

​

Anyway, there are still more photos coming up, so everyone stay tuned!

 

[Sherry E]

Continuing on…

Back at the Casino and the entrance to the Avalon Theatre…

There is another mural in this area featuring a mermaid, which, if I recall, largely influenced the décor in Avalon Cove, the Wolfgang Puck Catalina Island-inspired restaurant in California Adventure that eventually became Ariel’s Grotto. However, again there is the issue of ‘artistic nudity.’ I am not sure if it is DIS-appropriate, so it’s better to be safe than sorry and I will leave out the mermaid mural!

Beautiful views around the Casino and dive park area…

The Casino…which is not an actual gambling casino, by the way…

Walking back into town from the Casino…speaking of ghosts, actress Natalie Wood notoriously drowned in the waters off of Catalina (except she was over on the other side of the Island – Two Harbors – and not in Avalon)…

The Cabrillo fountain…

Look who flew in for a visit!

​

 

[Sherry E]

Continuing on…

I highly recommend the Semi-Sub tour…It’s a great way to see fish up close

Giada De Laurentiis once did a series of shows on Food Network (a few years ago) about weekend getaways, and Los Angeles was the subject of one such episode. During this episode, she visited Catalina Island and ate at Rosie’s on the Pier…

Thomas Kinkade’s Rosie’s on the Pier painting:

This is where I was sitting (on the Green Pleasure Pier), when a family standing against the railing next to me got excited over some “stingrays” that they spotted on the bottom of the ocean. (No pictures, though – sorry!) Trouble was, those were not stingrays. I looked over the railing and down into the water and saw nothing but some kelp!

The sun began to set in Avalon. This is where a DSLR camera would really work wonders – capturing the best possible sunset shots – but I did what I could manage with my little reliable camera (and some Auto Fixing) that has served me so well for daytime pictures!

I decided to walk down Pebbly Beach Road, towards an area called Lovers Cove. It is past the boat docks and Catalina Express terminal on the Island. This road has been (sort of) blocked off to visitors for the last several years due to “falling rocks.” Some of the island residents scoff at the idea of falling rocks meaning anything other than a few pebbles – which happens in a natural setting such as an island – and others claim that there are actually sizeable rocks. This road was even blocked off to residents for a while, but they had to be able to access it to get to their homes and businesses so that block was lifted for them. It is technically supposed to be closed to anyone but residents, and sometimes there is even a guard that sits on the road to stop people. But I was told that the main reason for this is so that litigious tourists can’t sue “if something happens.”

I wasn’t worried about being killed by falling rocks. I have walked this road to Lovers Cove many times in the past and it is one of my favorite things about Avalon. It is a true gem. Peaceful. Serene. It’s a great walking path – and it is not too well-traveled by other people despite it being roadside as well - because you are literally adjacent to the waves crashing on the beach. Since there are not as many boats in this area can often spot sea life popping up. If you walk this path at sunset, you hear nothing but the roar of the ocean…and maybe a pebble or two rustling around on the hillside to your right!

So I broke the rules and walked down Pebbly Beach Road to Lovers Cove! And I am so glad I did! I have missed this path and this view for years, and my return trip to Avalon would not have been complete without being able to walk on it!

​

 

[Sherry E]

Continuing on Pebbly Beach Road…

This is where the rocks are supposedly falling from…

This is my thinking spot! I used to walk all the way out to this bench and sit there, staring at the water, pondering the meaning of life! I was so happy to see that my bench was still there and intact, albeit a bit covered in bird poo…

Moon over Avalon…

This shot is very dark, but for some reason I really like it. I like that the Casino is kind of buried beneath the cover of night, while the sunset is fading. It’s like the town has gone to sleep!

​

We’re almost done, folks! There will only be one more post to go in this Trip Report/Photo Report. Just a few more pictures. And then it will, sadly, come to an end. Maybe, if I end up going again next year, I will add those photos into this thread, as I’ve done with my Disneyland Resort Trip Report thread.

I will save that final post for tomorrow or the next day.