Summer Vacation Time - San Diego, Hotel Del Coronado, Catalina, and of course DL

[Elk Grove Chris]

Oh man, great report so far. Looking forward to the rest and the DL/DCA pics!

 

[KCmike]

Mike, I am really enjoying you shots, looks like they may have to last me for another year. Keep em comming>

Jack

What? Tell me it isn't true.

 

[KCmike]

If your DW loved the look of the pictures, I'd be dropping huge hints to add this lens to the collection. I have it in my bag and its become my second most used lens.

My biggest expenditures are my vacations.

 

[KCmike]

Oh man, great report so far. Looking forward to the rest and the DL/DCA pics!

Thanks sir! Really respect your eye for photography.

 

[blackjackdelta]

What? Tell me it isn't true.

Sorry wrong post

 

[KCmike]

Mike: this is Alex, Jacks daughter. Dad is the ICU, he found out that he had two close relatives pass yesterday, which caused a huge amount of chest pain, sweating, etc. His heart appears to be OK after tests but they did find two pieces of shrapnel that have migrated close to his heart so they are trying to figure out what to do next. He got those when working in Afghanistan when the Russians were there. The family will be going down he will be staying home if he gets out OK. He says Hi to everyone, he is a bit bummed. Thanks for asking.

Alexandra

Oh Alex tell him I'm glad he is going to be ok but feel so terrible that he is going to miss the trip. I know (or have a really good idea) of how much he loves it there. I do as well. Sometimes to the point of too much. I will keep him in my prayers. Pass along my condolences for your losses. Take care and thanks for keeping us updated.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Best wishes to DeltaBlackJack and family. Condolences for your losses and I wish you a speedy and healthy resolution.

 

[KCmike]

Alright we're going to veer of the path a little and take you a couple of days ahead of time. We stayed at the Hotel Del for three days and then went to Anaheim for six. On one of our off days we went to Catalina Island which is about an hour and 20 minutes off the coast of Newport Beach. We took the Catalina Flyer and it was amazing to be on the ocean with nothing in sight. Pretty surreal really. As we were taking off there were some big swells. There were many people getting sick. I felt bad for them. They were telling people to get to the back of the boat and to be on the middle floor. There were three levels. I will say at the beginning it took me a few minutes to get the feel of the ocean but after that it was all good. In fact the ride back was super smooth. No issues for anyone except for a gentleman who had a little too much to drink. He was flipping the bird to other sailors going by from the boat. Needless to say he had to be "chaperoned". Here are some pictures....

Leaving Newport Beach it was very gloomy and overcast.

Looking back

First views of the island

Getting closer now...

There are several touristy shops there. By saying several I mean a lot. Here is one shirt that caught my eye.

From Avalon's beach

So we decided to do two things while on the island. The first was to rent a golf cart. They have four person or six person carts. Since we have five we were forced into the bigger cart. It was $60 for an hour and then another $60 for a deposit. That was pretty steep in my opinion for hour of touring but this is something I really wanted to do. We sprang for it. I will warn you if you are wanting to do anything on the island most things take cash only. I thought this to be very weird. There are only certain roads you can drive on when touring on the golf carts. They give you a map and then its up to you on what you want to see and do. You use to be able to see the entire island but they have cut that part out because of several rock slides. So we rented the cart and made our way out.

We made it to the botanical gardens area but decided to keep driving as the "cab fare" was ticking. Here was one of the first pictures I took as we were heading up the hills.

As you keep going up the views get more spectacular.

There are zip line tours you can take as well but I wasn't that adventurous. Some of the roads were right on the cliff. I had to put my foot on the break while driving down this one.

The second thing we did was the glass bottom boat tour. Stay tuned.

 

[azdisneylover]

Best wishes to DeltaBlackJack and family. Condolences for your losses and I wish you a speedy and healthy resolution.

Keeping DeltaBlackJack and family in my prayers. So sorry for your losses.

 

[azdisneylover]

KCMike,
I apologize for just posting on your thread, I read what happened to Black, and I just had to respond. I enjoy your pictures you post on the daily picture thread. Thanks for sharing your trip with us. Makes waking for the next trip (don't know when it will be) a little easier.

 

[KCmike]

KCMike,
I apologize for just posting on your thread, I read what happened to Black, and I just had to respond. I enjoy your pictures you post on the daily picture thread. Thanks for sharing your trip with us. Makes waking for the next trip (don't know when it will be) a little easier.

Are you kidding that is no problem at all. I feel like we all know Jack and hope he feels better and am sorry for his losses. Thanks for saying that you enjoy my shots. Glad I could help ease the pain of waiting for your next trip. My potential next trip is probably two years away. How sad for me. Again thanks for the nice comments.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Great pictures of Catalina! Did you make it back to the Wrigley Garden to see the plants?

Can't wait to see your glass bottom boat pictures.

 

[Sherry E]

Thank you for skipping ahead to the Catalina portion, Mike (which I suspect you did because I was asking you questions before I head over to Avalon next week)!

Lovely photos, as I expected! That first glimpse of Catalina that you got is Hamilton Cove - a little enclave with condos and villas. I've never stayed there but everyone says it's great.

It's really too bad that you had to skip Wrigley, but I know what you mean about the cab fare (meter)! If I recall, I think we (friends and I) only did one hour in the cart on our very first day trip to Catalina. (And we also did the glass bottom boat on our very first trip,too.) It was only on subsequent trips that we started doing the 'get 3 hours for the price of 2' deal. But with 6 people, 2 hours is expensive! Even with 4 people it's costly. I'm going to take 3 hours in the golf cart next week, but I know the sorts of things I have to do and how much time it will take me. I am not even sure I could get done with Wrigley (knowing my photo habits) in 3 hours of golf cart time, but I will try!

Believe it or not, some of the shops in Avalon are quite cool (Perico Gallery, for example), but along Crescent there are a lot of touristy shops.

Anyway, I look forward to the glass-bottom boat portion of the trip!

Oh, by the way, I way cringing in horror at your description of the swells and people getting sick. I've been fortunate thus far to never get sick on the boat and to not encounter big swells. But I know it's only a matter of time, quite frankly. I'm older. The equilibrium changes. I know that I may be in for some trouble if I don't pop a Dramamine next week...just in case.

I have seen people getting sick in Avalon, right by the area where people get on and off the Catalina Express, which was, um...pleasant.

 

[KCmike]

Great pictures of Catalina! Did you make it back to the Wrigley Garden to see the plants?

Can't wait to see your glass bottom boat pictures.

We did make it to Wrigley Gardens but not out of the Golf Cart. We were so worried about the time.

 

[KCmike]

Thank you for skipping ahead to the Catalina portion, Mike (which I suspect you did because I was asking you questions before I head over to Avalon next week)!

Lovely photos, as I expected! That first glimpse of Catalina that you got is Hamilton Cove - a little enclave with condos and villas. I've never stayed there but everyone says it's great.

It's really too bad that you had to skip Wrigley, but I know what you mean about the cab fare (meter)! If I recall, I think we (friends and I) only did one hour in the cart on our very first day trip to Catalina. (And we also did the glass bottom boat on our very first trip,too.) It was only on subsequent trips that we started doing the 'get 3 hours for the price of 2' deal. But with 6 people, 2 hours is expensive! Even with 4 people it's costly. I'm going to take 3 hours in the golf cart next week, but I know the sorts of things I have to do and how much time it will take me. I am not even sure I could get done with Wrigley (knowing my photo habits) in 3 hours of golf cart time, but I will try!

Believe it or not, some of the shops in Avalon are quite cool (Perico Gallery, for example), but along Crescent there are a lot of touristy shops.

Anyway, I look forward to the glass-bottom boat portion of the trip!

Oh, by the way, I way cringing in horror at your description of the swells and people getting sick. I've been fortunate thus far to never get sick on the boat and to not encounter big swells. But I know it's only a matter of time, quite frankly. I'm older. The equilibrium changes. I know that I may be in for some trouble if I don't pop a Dramamine next week...just in case.

I have seen people getting sick in Avalon, right by the area where people get on and off the Catalina Express, which was, um...pleasant.

Well I have to say you did kind of influence me. No worries. Hope you have a blast over there.!

 

[KCmike]

Random shot of DLR

 

[mvf-m11c]

Very nice pics of the Catalina. It would be nice to go there one day on a vacation.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

First off, best wishes to Jack and his family. I hope and pray that everything turns out fine.

Mike, I'm enjoying your shots. One of my best friends and his family live in Colorado Springs, but fortunately they were not in danger.

Can't wait to hear and see more!

 

[LovintheLodge]

On board now for your trip report! Can't wait to hear more. My family is headed to DLR for the first time next month!

Kerry

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[mom2rtk]

The shots of Catalina are......... absolutely heavenly.

And loving the random DLR shot! I do love the total Disney immersion at WDW...... but all the ther interesting things around DLR are SO tempting.