Catalina Island - Random Solo Day Trips & Photos

Sherry E

Currently tag-less...
Joined
Jan 5, 2008
I’m not used to posting in this section of the DIS, but I wanted to share some photos from my recent solo day trip to Catalina Island on July 21st – specifically, the main town of Avalon – and this is the place to do it! I guess we could call this a “photo report,” as opposed to a regular trip report.

In our Disneyland and Southern California forums, there are a lot of DIS’ers who travel from other states or countries to visit Disneyland…but who also want to see some other sights around town. On many occasions folks will spend at least a full week – if not 2 full weeks – in Southern California, and would like ideas for day trips outside of the Disneyland Resort.

While there are many interesting things to do and see in SoCal (Knott’s Berry Farm, Universal Studios, the Original Farmers Market & The Grove, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the La Brea Tar Pits, Hollywood Boulevard, the Santa Monica Pier, Venice Beach, the Aquarium of the Pacific, the Queen Mary, San Diego, etc., etc.), I have always thought Catalina Island was a great place to make a day trip. It’s about a one-hour boat ride away (give or take 10 minutes), and you can depart from San Pedro or Long Beach on the Catalina Express, and Marina Del Rey or Newport Beach on the Catalina Flyer. I prefer the Long Beach location for the Express, as it has the most departures and arrivals, especially during the summer, which allows more flexibility and room to do more things.

Just some quick background: I’ve been to Catalina/Avalon many times in the past. I fell in love with it back in 1988, after looking at some of my grandmother’s old photos of her Catalina trips in the ‘50s and ‘60s and deciding to round up some of my friends to go there for a day. In fact, Catalina is my ‘other’ favorite place in SoCal aside from Disneyland Resort. I just love it. There’s a certain charm about it that lures me in.

But, alas, I had not gone to beautiful Avalon for many years - until this month, when I took advantage of the Free Round Trip birthday boat ride with Catalina Express (which is being offered through at least April 2013, if not beyond that). It is approximately a $72 value, so it’s a great deal. This is the second year in a row that the free birthday boat trip is being offered.

I’ve been to Catalina with and without friends before – sometimes I have had one friend with me; sometimes a big group of friends. Sometimes I have gone totally by myself. I’ve stayed for a weekend. I’ve stayed for extended holiday weekends. I’ve stayed for a full 7-night/8-day week. I’ve also done a few one-day trips. I’ve had very busy trips where I was rushing from one tour to another to another, and I’ve had very laid back trips in which I did not do much more than wander around and enjoy the beachy ambiance.

As it had been so long since my last Catalina visit, I wanted to have a lot of ‘wander around time’ to check out all the things that had changed or stayed the same. I also wanted to do one of my favorite things – rent a golf cart, go up in the hills and visit the Wrigley Memorial and Botanical Garden. I succeeded in both wandering around and renting the golf cart, but I didn't have nearly as much time as I would have preferred.

I am a bit of a picture-taking fanatic too. I take pictures of anything and everything. So I do hope you will join me on this photographic report of my one-day solo trip on Saturday, July 21, 2012. I have a lot of photos to share!

I normally do a much more detailed, vaguely humorous written report to go along with all the photos, but I am currently working on my holiday 2011 Disneyland TR over in the Disneyland TR section (7 months late!), and that’s where all of my detailed written efforts are going for the time being! Right now I just want to share some photos of Catalina to show people out there who may be interested in visiting and would like to see more of what Avalon looks like.


…Arriving at the Catalina Express terminal at the Downtown Landing in Long Beach, just after 5:00 A.M. (my boat was set to depart for Avalon at 6:15 A.M.), I attempt to wake up!!

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Inside the terminal, a bison – one of Catalina Island’s famous furry residents – greets you…

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A map of the Island (reflections from lights in the terminal made it impossible to get photos of this map with or without a flash!)…

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I took my spot in the line building outside and waited to board my Catalina Express boat…

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Thankfully, this Aquabus was not my boat!

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The sun was starting to rise…

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And it’s time to board! I found a seat on one of the upper outside decks, by the railing, as I planned to scout for dolphins and other sea life. Dolphin sightings are an almost daily occurrence on the Catalina Express boats, and at times there may be so many of them leaping out of the water that the captain of the boat will actually slow down or stop to let the passengers take photos.

On some of the Express boats, the backs of the chairs are facing the ocean – so you essentially miss out on the action, if there is anything to see, or you have to turn your body all the way around to be able to see what’s going on.

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On other Express boats the chairs are positioned a little differently, where the sides are adjacent to the railing of the boat, making it a little easier to look out at the ocean.

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And we are setting sail! Here are some views of Long Beach as we pass through the harbor…

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As you can see, the water is very still and placid in this part of the harbor. It changes a bit when you get out on the open water.

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Continuing on…




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There she is! The regal Queen Mary…

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Suddenly the sun hit us…

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Yep…there’s a whole lotta ocean out there…perfect for a dolphin sighting…and the dolphins decided to appear on the other side of the boat, where I couldn’t see them!

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It was around this time when a fellow passenger asked me – as he stared out into the vast sea – if I thought there were sharks out there.

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It was a little choppy at this point, but I channeled my inner Gorton’s Fisherman and rode it out without getting sick…

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That island in the distance is Catalina – we are fast approaching!

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This is Hamilton Cove, an enclave of condos and villas with private golf carts, swimming pools and spectacular views!

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Continuing on…

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And here it is! The Casino! This is the iconic building (not an actual gambling casino) that people identify with Catalina. This is the sight that those of us who love Catalina can’t wait to see from the boat as we pull into the Avalon harbor…

There was a cute young couple on the boat – I am thinking that they were Japanese tourists – and when the guy pointed out the Casino to his lady, she literally squealed with delight and pointed at it with glee! I think all of us were a little taken aback by the piercing squeal so early in the morning (it was shortly after 7:00 A.M. when we approached Avalon), and especially over a sight that many of us have probably taken for granted when we visit the Island, but it truly is a lovely sight – for an international tourist or for someone who has not been there in years (yours truly)! I was squealing in silence, though…

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There are many, many views around Avalon – both from the Island and from the water – that are postcard-worthy.

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This Casino represents so many wonderful trips to Catalina in the past for me…

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Hamilton Cove is just a few minutes away from the main hub of activity in Avalon by golf cart or shuttle…

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The town of Avalon has a Mediterranean feel to it, from the amazing tile art that you find all over the city to the way the houses and apartments are stacked on the hillsides. It’s very evocative of Spain, Italy or Greece.

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One picture-perfect view after another…

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I’m still on the Catalina Express at this point!

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This is what I was sitting next to on the boat the whole ride over – hey, I’m no fool!

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Continuing on…

Time to disembark…yay!!

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Down the ramp…

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And up another ramp…

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I’m finally off the boat and on the Island! Woo hoo!

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“Mine! Mine!” There are many of these feathered friends all over Avalon – some of them are huge. They seem to be quite used to people as they get very close.

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Time to get a locker. You can rent one from the baggage service/storage place near the boat dock. It’s $5.00 for all-day service, with a $10 deposit that you get back if you return the key by 8 p.m., and you can go into the locker as many times as you want all day long for that flat fee, which is great if you pick up souvenirs throughout the day and need a place to store them safely.

There are also lockers you can rent for something like 75 cents each time you open it – those are good if you don’t plan to buy anything and just need a place to store your jacket until evening. Otherwise, I can imagine that it could add up if you have to open the locker many times.

I think the all-day locker for $5.00 is a good deal – knowing myself and how many times I need to dump things out of my bags – so that’s what I got.

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And thank you for having me!

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And there’s another feathered friend!

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The pathway into town…

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Continuing on…

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The water is murky in this spot, but you can see some of the Island’s bright orange Garibaldi fish swimming around…

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Some beautiful flowers, which appear to be thriving in the sea air and sunny weather…

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Notice that this sign is pointing to “businesses across the street”…

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And this is what the sign is pointing at! Lol. It’s a hole in the rock – and that hole was not there the last time I was in Avalon! I’m not sure how or why it’s there.

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And there is a path leading up to the hole in the rock…I didn’t go up to check it out – I was afraid of what might be in there and I wanted to keep moving at that moment.

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Continuing on…

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This is where I will be renting my golf cart from later on in the day…They charge $40 an hour, but you get 3 hours for the price of 2 hours if you rent before 1 p.m.

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That building at the top of the hill is called the Holly Hill House – another historical Catalina spot. The last time I was in Avalon it was still intact, but it appears to be undergoing quite a bit of construction…

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Number 22 is going to be my cart, as you will see a bit later…

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What’s interesting is that I think this is the same exact sea lion that used to sit out on the actual rocks, overlooking the water and greeting boats as they docked. Apparently someone decided to carve it and part of the rock it sat on and place it in town.


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The postage stamp-sized beach!

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This sand is imported. Avalon’s natural beaches are rock beaches, so they have to have the sand imported from other beach cities such as Redondo Beach and others…

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Continuing on…


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The main street in town – Crescent Avenue…

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The green pier you have been seeing in many pictures is called the Green Pleasure Pier…

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Luau Larry’s is very popular in Avalon…

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I will have many more photos to come, probably tomorrow, so stay tuned!
 


Continuing on…

A reflection in a window…

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The Marlin Club is one of those hangouts for people on the island where they can shoot pool, throw darts, knock back a few beers and listen to Frank Sinatra music on the jukebox…

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This is a newer restaurant that was added since my last Catalina visit (prior to this month)…

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A view of the Green Pleasure Pier…

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Dessert Island is one of the places at which you can get a birthday freebie – a free ice cream cone!

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I’d say that 50 cent Seattle’s Best coffee is not a bad deal!

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And they even have large candy/caramel apples!

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This is one of the more clever shirts I saw around town – the fisherman is trying to catch the shark, and the shark is trying to catch the fisherman!

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They sell Kodak “Film” – for those who still use film, apparently…

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The “Wrigley” mentioned in this plaque is the same Wrigley of chewing gum fame, and also of Wrigley Field.

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Continuing on…




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Okay…message received, loud and clear…

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And these are the flowers we are supposed to be staying off of! I’m just wondering – is anyone actually trying to be ON the flowers?

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Another fun shop…

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Here we go again…

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This is another one of the places where you can rent a golf cart…

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Continuing on…




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The beautiful Metropole Market Place…

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At Bay of the Seven Moons you can choose a free fortune bracelet or a free mineral stone as a birthday gift (no purchase necessary)…

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Continuing on…






There are many spots around town where the scenery is just gorgeous…


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This is the birthday ribbon and the list of free things and discounts that you can get on your birthday…

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Okay, another warning sign…

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And here are the “children at play”…

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The Catalina Coffee & Cookie Co. offers a free cup of coffee on your birthday!

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A memorial to service men and women…

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Time to rent my golf cart - #22 from Island Rentals! I hadn’t driven a golf cart in 11 or 12 years. I was a little worried I would run it off of a cliff in the hills!

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There’s my sweet ride!

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Leaving my cart in the parking lot, I realize that I didn’t park it completely straight. I had to fix that. I also realized that these carts are different from the ones that were there the last time I rented one. I think that the ones I used to rent were not quite as long, and some of them were totally open and had no covers.

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…At the Wrigley Memorial & Botanical Garden (where you can get 2 admissions for the price of one on your birthday, and one admission costs $7.00)…

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This is a hill! You may not be able to tell that from this photo. It’s not a steep hill, but it is a steady, gradual incline. I think it catches some people off guard, as they assume it is a fairly tame hill but by the time they reach the end of it and then have to climb up endless steps to get to the Memorial, they are a bit tired. Be sure to wear some good walking shoes if you plan to visit Wrigley!

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Now I will confess that I did not take a photo of every single plant in the Botanical Garden. There are very few flowers in the Garden – if there had been more flowers, I would have taken more photos. Plants – especially cactus – tend to start looking alike after a while, and it gets redundant. I took some random photos of some of the names of the plants or plants that were especially unusual looking, but not all of them.

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Continuing on…

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Finally, at the top of the walking trail (hill)…

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Trust me when I tell you that this is only a small portion of the many, many steps that take you up to the Memorial. Trust me again when I tell you that no one climbing these steps (in the heat) was happy about it (except for maybe the people who live on the Island and use this as a daily workout). The rest of us were cursing them.

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Getting closer…

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Lord help me…

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I’m not even all the way at the top yet…

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I love this door…

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Continuing on…

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More from the Wrigley Memorial & Botanical Garden and Catalina Island a little later…there's lots more to show you! That is, if anyone is even out there following along. (I feel as if I am in the middle of nowhere over in this forum, just talking to myself!)
 
I'm here!!


A few questions for you. Is that a submarine I saw in the boat harbor? Do people actually live on the island? I see tourism is their industry, and it makes total sense.
 
I'm here!!


A few questions for you. Is that a submarine I saw in the boat harbor? Do people actually live on the island? I see tourism is their industry, and it makes total sense.

Oh boy! An actual person!:rotfl2: It's strange over in this forum, isn't it? Even though I can see that there has been some activity in the last week, it still seems like it's another planet over here! It seems quiet.

Yes - you have sharp eyes, Michele. That's the Semi-Sub. It's also called the Undersea Tour. Actually, I think that two different tour companies on the Island might have their own versions of the Semi-Sub.

Anyway, it's a really cool tour if you want to see fish up close and get pictures of them. I think it is a thousand times better than the famous Glass Bottom Boat tour. The Glass Bottom Boat is cool just because it's a boat with a glass floor, but you can't really see anything up close. So as long as you don't get claustrophobic and can handle a submarine-type of environment, the Semi-Sub tour is the way to go!

People live on the Island - I am trying to remember the number of residents that was once quoted to me. It was at least a few thousand, but they are all spread out. Many of them live in those stacked apartments and houses in the photos I posted above. Some of them live on the "other side" of the Island, which is Two Harbors.

The reason everyone mainly drives golf carts is because there is a long waiting list for people to have vehicles brought to Avalon. If the vehicles are service vehicles of some kind, then that's different. But just to have a car for the sake of having a car will require a wait of many years to bring the car over. It's a small town. There's really no need for a car unless you want to go inland or over to Two Harbors and drive through the buffalo.

I've been told by some of the residents in Avalon that they all have to take multiple jobs because it's expensive to live over there and each job does not pay very much. So a lot of people work day jobs, night jobs and weekend jobs. Some folks shuttle back and forth between the mainland and the Island - like maybe stay on the mainland during the week and come to their apartment or cottage in Avalon on weekends.
 
Great job so far Sherry. Glad you posted on the SoCal board as I would never have looked here.
We didn't go to the museum and I can tell I'm glad. That walk must've been hard with a sore foot. It does look incredible but not likely my DS's cup of tea.

Did you take pictures of the big boats turned into houses? Maybe I can add some pictures if I can find my camera cord.

Looking forward to seeing more. :)
 
Great job so far Sherry. Glad you posted on the SoCal board as I would never have looked here.
We didn't go to the museum and I can tell I'm glad. That walk must've been hard with a sore foot. It does look incredible but not likely my DS's cup of tea.

Did you take pictures of the big boats turned into houses? Maybe I can add some pictures if I can find my camera cord.

Looking forward to seeing more. :)

Thank you, Wendy!

I'm glad to see another familiar DIS'er over here.

I know what you mean - I'm not sure if too many people look in this forum! I didn't really prefer to post my Trip Report/photos here. I would have preferred to post all of it in the specific SoCal forum, where our Free Catalina Express birthday trip thread is located. Better yet, I would have preferred to stick this Trip Report in my existing Disneyland TR tread over in the DL trip report section, where I already have a regular group of followers (such as Michele/kaoden39, who posted above).

But it gets a little tricky when it comes to where certain threads and certain TR's are supposed to go, and I'm playing by the rules. Things like Superthreads, information threads or strict non-Trip Report photo threads that might include photos from many different people (such as a "Post Your Photos of Catalina" type of thing) can go in the SoCal section, which is why I put the Free Catalina Express thread there. The Trip Reports are supposed to be separate.

However, from what I saw, we don't have a separate section for Southern California trip reports only, and I can't stick a Catalina TR in the middle of my Disneyland trip report thread - because one trip has absolutely nothing to do with the other - so I was kind of stuck having to post my Catalina TR here in the California & the West TR forum.:rotfl2:

In any case, when I eventually get a Catalina Superthread going - which is going to have information and photos (hopefully from lots of people) in it, such as info for the different boat services, some of the restaurants and some of the places to stay, info about some of the different activities or tours in town, links to any other threads or TR's that involve Catalina, etc. - that will go in the regular SoCal section.

Confusing, isn't it? It confuses me too!:rotfl2:

Yow know, I don't think I got pictures of the big houseboats, unless I am forgetting! I'd love to see them. I was noticing how clever some of the names of the boats are, though!

Based on what I would have liked to cover and what I would have liked to get photos of, I missed a lot of things. I was thinking mainly in terms of putting together the eventual Superthread in the Southern California forum, so I was trying to get a lot of general 'around town' pictures, like pictures of shop/restaurant signs, pictures of the beach when no one was on it, a few pictures from up in the hills, pictures from both the area by the Casino and the area by Lover's Cove, etc. I just didn't have enough time to get photos of everything I wanted to get. I think I would have needed at least a weekend to do it.

It was a bit rough walking on my injured foot, up to the Wrigley Memorial. In fact, my foot was bothering me yesterday too and I wasn't walking anywhere, really! In fact, I've been trying to take it easy on my foot since Catalina so that I don't do anything to make it worse and give it a chance to heal without extra stress put on it, and it still hurts when I am just going from one room to another! Eventually I will have to get it looked at by a doctor, I suppose. Easier said than done in my case, but don't know if my foot is going to get worse or not.



:cool1::cool1::cool1:



I still have lots more Trip Report photos to share here! I am doing double Trip Report duty - posting my Catalina TR photos here and working on my in-progress Disneyland TR from my holiday 2011 trip.

In addition to those things I am also preparing to launch a "Theme Week Photo Countdown" in my Halloween Superthread as we count down to the start of the Halloween Time season (which kicks off next month) at Disneyland, and a Theme Week Photo Countdown for my Christmas Superthread, as we mark the days until the start of that season too (it starts in November, but there is lots of ground to cover so it takes 3 months!).

And, I am trying to slowly but surely gather little bits of info here and there to put together the eventual Catalina Superthread in the SoCal forum.

I am all over the place, bouncing back and forth between holidays, between threads, between Trip Reports and between forums on the DIS!!!:rotfl::cool1::cheer2:
 
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.
 
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.:rolleyes:

Looking forward to more ...

PHXscuba
 

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