Farewell Catalina

Our last day in Catalina began with breakfast at the Pancake Cottage with a little bit of slow service, but a kind waitress. After eating, we did some more shopping to find souvenirs. I found my best friend, DeRon, a proper gift and mom bought a sign for our ballroom as well as some saltwater taffy. Once shopping was completed, we headed back to our hotel to pack our bags and check out. Since weren’t leaving Catalina until about 4:00 pm, we placed our luggage in storage by the harbor. Afterwards, we headed over to the Catalina Island Museum.

Yummy

The museum was small, but featured a descent amount of history about Catalina. The island was originally purchased to be a resort, but much of the town was destroyed in a fire. It was sold to William Wrigley Jr. who rebuilt in into a resort and even brought over the Chicago Cubs for spring training. The island was used to film various portions of films and was a frequent getaway destination for movie stars. I thought it was interesting that during WWII, the island was secretly used by the Office of Strategic Services (which became the CIA) as training ground for spies. The museum also had a collection of glass art by Dale Chihuly. There were several pieces from small to huge, but all pieces were quite complex in design. After the museum, we decided to visit the Botanical Gardens.

The gardens were about a mile or two from where we were and after seeing the steep road we would have walk up, everyone, except my brother Zach, decided it wasn’t worth the trek. We still had about two hours before our boat departed, so we decided to wander around town as Zach walked up to the Botanical Gardens. We ice cream again at Scoops and looked at the different houses on the island. We later found a less steep road up to the Botanical Gardens and began walking up. Zach met up with us partway up the road and told us the gardens were too far off from where we were. We continued up the road and saw the old Bird Park which originally houses an assortment of different birds, but was now used a preschool playground. After a bit more of walking, we were still about a half mile from the Botanical Gardens and head back down so we could meet our boat on time.

The boat back to Long Beach took about an hour and we hit the road once we returned to the mainland. After some traffic, we stopped at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. The service was slow, but the food was delicious. We arrived back at home around 10:00 pm tire, but satisfied with the completion of another fun road trip.

For a different perspective of the day’s events, read my mom’s blog here.

Touring Catalina

This morning we ate breakfast at Jack’s Country Kitchen and then headed off to start our jeep tour of Catalina at 9:30 am. We all buckled in the jeep and we set off with our driver and tour guide, Ron. I couldn’t help thinking of the tour jeeps in Jurassic Park as we started the tour. Ron took us around the different areas of the island, telling us the history of different buildings and the wildlife. I guess there’s some sort of invasive plant that has taken over the area causing a native plant to become endangered. Ron said they have volunteers rip out the invasive plant in an effort to restore the native plant. Our tour guide also told us there’s a species of fox that lives only on Catalina and the efforts that were taken to prevent their extinction from a disease years earlier. We also got to see a bald eagle and bison on the drive too. After some great views from higher up on the island we headed back into town.

What's on the menu?

Welcome to Catalina Park

The red plant is good and the green is bad

The bald eagle was camera shy

Bison

We had some time to kill before our next adventure, so we looked through some of the shops in town. I spent time looking for a proper souvenir for my best friend, DeRon. Every road trip, I try to find the most unique or odd gift to give him. After perusing a few shops, I think I found a worthy gift.

After shopping, we headed to the pier to go on a glass bottom boat tour to Lover’s Cove to see the marine life. We received a private tour due to being the only group signed up for the 1:45 slot. It was nice to have the entire boat to ourselves with multiple views from the floor and sides of the ship. I don’t remember all the names of the fish, but there were certainly a bunch of them once we threw feed at them. We even saw some fish jump out of water to eat the food. Our captain had a full supply of jokes that would make my Dad proud. After we’d seen all the fish, we headed back to land to get some ice cream at Scoops. After finishing our ice cream, we walked over to the Casino for our last stop of the day.

Shopping

Ice Cream

Too many fish

The Casino isn’t a place of gambling, but a gathering place originally built to be a theater and ballroom for dances. The theater was the first to present films with sound and the ballroom above it is the largest circular ballroom in the world. We took the Behind the Scenes tour in which we visited the original backstage areas of the theater including men's and women’s dressing rooms and even saw the original projectors used for film screenings. The ballroom used to play to big band music and could fit 250 dancing couples on its floor. After the tour, we ate dinner at Antonio’s Pizzeria which encouraged us to throw the complementary peanut shells on the floor. Dinner was delicious and afterwards we headed back to our hotel for the night. Tomorrow, we’ll conclude our road trip by going to the Catalina Island Museum and possibly some hiking.

The Casino

The Theater

The Projectors

The Ballroom

For a different perspective of today’s events, read my mom’s blog here.

From Queen Mary to Catalina

We were up and ready for breakfast at 8:00 am this morning. Breakfast was at the Promenade Café on the Queen Mary which had a decent buffet. After eating, we showed Joe a bit around the ship and then drove into Long Beach to start our scavenger hunt.

Bye Queen Mary

The scavenger hunt was completed via text messages on our phones that gave us clues and directions to different historical landmarks in the city. Each of us had a role to play. Mom was team leader and would read the clues, Joe was the architect, Zach was the artist, and I was the photographer. The roles didn’t really matter that much besides mom’s role as the rest of us could earn points by answering bonus questions or taking snapshots of different things. As photographer, all I did was take pictures based on random suggestions the scavenger hunt sent me (like take a picture of somebody taking a picture). The hunt involved a lot of walking too, especially at one point where we walked a mile before we arrived at the next destination. There were some cool tidbits about Long Beach (e.g. did you know there’s this building with a copper roof, that survived an earthquake and another building that looks like a beer can), but it wasn’t worth all the walking in my opinion. We did complete the scavenger hunt though with a score 80% higher than the average person. After walking back to the Honda Fit, we headed to our ride to Catalina Island.

We're on a scavenger hunt

It said it looks like a beer can

Our boat was scheduled to depart at 2:00 pm, so we got our tickets and boarded for the hour sail over to Catalina Island. Joe took a nap. Mom read some pamphlets for things to do on the island. Zach read a book. I played on my Nintendo Switch for the majority of the cruise over. Mom teased me a bit when I brought the game console with me, but the selling point of the system is that you can play it anywhere and it certainly made the hour journey seem quicker. We arrived on Catalina Island and walked over to our hotel, the Mac Rae. We ate dinner at Coyote Joe’s and walked through some of the different shops nearby. We retired back to our hotel rooms for the rest of the night in order to plan our next two days on the island. Tomorrow, we’re going on a jeep tour and to a museum.

Hello Catalina Island

To read a different perspective of today’s events, read my mom’s blog here.