Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Trip to Catalina

Brian and I finally got to take a short vacation the weekend of 9/8-9/11, to Catalina Island. We spent 3 nights at the Hermit Gulch campground, just up the hill from Avalon.

We left home at 7:10 on Friday the 8th, after squabbling with Jacob over who would drive. Arrived at the boat dock at about 9:25, got our tickets, and were in line at 9:30. The line was long, and because we were near the end of it we were lucky to get two seats together - the worst seats on the boat, facing backward with no table. The people sitting around us were friendly, however, and the ride was smooth and fast.

We arrived in Avalon at about 11:00, got off the boat, and walked around a bit looking for a place to eat. I checked into hiking permits, but it turned out we didn't need them because we had campground reservations. We ended up eating at Antonio's Pizzeria (the original) - Brian had a club sandwich and I had the lasagna. The garlic bread was the best I'd ever tasted.

After lunch, we hiked up to the campground. The hill was not very steep, the packs were not too heavy, and it was only 1-1/2 miles, but we were tired when we got to our "cabin". I was rather disappointed with the tent cabin, especially after staying in a much nicer one at Big Basin. This consisted of a wooden platform with a large canvas tent erected on it, and six canvas cots inside - no mattresses. Brian laid down for about an hour, then we made our beds (we had to sleep separately) and walked back down to Avalon. We looked at the stores for a while, trying to find a good deal on t-shirts and other gifts to take back home.

Here's the outside of the "cabin" --

and here's the inside --

We had dinner at Mr. Ning's Chinese restaurant. It was just as good as we remembered it from 10 years ago. We ordered shrimp chop suey and lemon chicken, which had strips of ginger laid across it. After dinner, we shopped some more. Brian bought me a nice zip-up sweatshirt, and we found a magnet made of tile for Brian's mom. We had a heck of a time finding one that was actually made on Catalina. We also got Joseph a rubber duckie.

After the stores closed at 9:00, we headed back up the hill to camp. On the way up, we saw several deer, including a nice buck, on the golf course. The campground was crowded and noisy when we got there, with a large group of Tongans nearby. It got quieter after 10:00, except for the loud snoring guy and the baby in the site next to ours who cried a few times.

We had originally planned to hike into the interior on Saturday, but Brian wasn’t sure if he could make it in his sandals. Instead, we walked to Avalon for breakfast, which we had at Antonio's Cabaret on the waterfront. We sat outside on the deck, which hung over the water, all by ourselves. There was a seagull and a couple of pigeons looking for a handout. The seagull was really cute - he'd sit on the railing behind me, slowly sneaking up on me, until I turned my head and looked at him - then he'd scoot back a couple of feet and start the whole process over again. I had a little paper cup with half a ball of butter in it, so I put that up on the rail to see if he'd pick the butter out of it - instead, he ate the whole thing, cup and all! Brian thought he was going to die, but he seemed fine and even begged for more.
Here he is after his "breakfast"--

We looked in a few more shops after breakfast, but didn't buy much. We walked out on the green pleasure pier and looked at the boats - some guys had gone fishing and caught a 185 lb. marlin. Big fish! I don't know if they kept it or not, because we saw it tied up to a barge later.

We ate lunch at the Channel House - too expensive for dinner, but the lunch prices weren't too bad. We both had sandwiches - Brian had hot pastrami and I had a meatball sandwich. Pretty good and lots of food. Our table overlooked the sidewalk, and we had fun people watching. The fashion police would have had a field day with the lumpy old lady in a metallic hot pink French-cut bikini, high heels, and way too much makeup - the restaurant patrons sure did.

After lunch, we walked out on the breakwater to watch the outrigger canoes come in. When all but the last few stragglers were in, we looked around in the museum store and took some pictures of the murals at the front of the casino, then walked over to Descanso beach to see what was there - looked like mostly the party crowd. We headed back to Avalon and got some ice cream at Big Olaf's, and sat by the beach and ate and watched people, boats, and birds for a while, then looked in the shops again.

We had dinner at Mi Casita - Brian had a burrito, and I had chicken tortilla soup and a salad, since I'd been eating way too much on this trip. After dinner, we headed back to camp, which was still quite noisy and crowded with rowers and support teams.

When we got up on Sunday morning, one of the Tongans was sleeping on our picnic table. He finally woke up, and Brian asked him if they made him sleep there. I felt sorry for the poor guy - he had no pillow or sleeping bag. We had granola bars and juice in camp for breakfast, then walked to the Wrigley Memorial 1/4 mile up the hill - unfortunately, it was $5.00 each to get in and we would have only had an hour to spend there. We walked around outside the gate and read the names of all the plants that were labeled, then headed down to Avalon. We walked out on the pleasure pier, then sat by the beach and looked at boats until time for church.

At about 9:40, we headed to the Catalina Bible Church. We got there at 9:45, so we had time to chat with the pastor's wife and some other members before the service started at 10. The church is very small - there were only about 25 people there, including several visitors (no children). We were not impressed with the music service, since they use a karaoke-type setup along with a bass player, organist, and drummer. The organist plays for the casino on the weekends, and the drummer has a band - both of them are excellent musicians. The pastor's wife (who is also the song director) wants to get rid of the canned music when they get a lead guitar player, but we think they've got enough already. The sermon was okay - the pastor uses the same approach as Jon, preaching verse by verse, but covered a whole chapter. Brian thought he used too much extrabiblical material. There was a fellowship time after church, with coffee, tea, and snacks, and we had a good time talking with people.

We went to Vons to get batteries for the camera and string cheese and fruit for lunch, then sat in the city park to eat. There was a baby shower going on - we had fun trying to figure out who the shower was for, since there were several babies and pregnant women there.

After lunch, we hiked partway up Mt. Ada, stopping at an overlook to take pictures. There was a big stone bench on the edge of the cliff, and a passing hiker offered to take our picture sitting on it. Unfortunately, the bench was covered with graffiti, which spoiled the effect. The view of Avalon and the harbor was beautiful, though. We saw a doe and her fawns on the way back down, and took some pictures of them as well. Here's the view from the overlook --

We rested on a bench down by the beach after our hike, and talked with some backpackers who had hiked with a large group from Two Harbors. It was interesting to see the variety of backpacks they had. Most of them were much newer than ours, with internal frames and ergonomic designs, but there was a blue one just like Brian's, and couple of other "classic" frame packs. I think I'm going to have to either replace the straps on mine or get a new one, because my hip bones were sore after only a 2-mile hike.

We looked at the menus at several restaurants before deciding where to eat, since it would be our last night there and I wanted to eat someplace nice. We decided on El Galleon, since they had a pretty good deal on local swordfish and the decor was interesting. It seems that at least 4 restaurants in Avalon - El Galleon, Antonio's Pizzeria, Antonio's Cabaret, and Mi Casita - are owned by the same people, and we ate at all of them (and they were good). Anyway, I had fettuccine primavera and Brian had the swordfish, which he said was the best fish he'd ever eaten.

We did our final shopping after dinner. Brian got me a mug that said "Smarty Pants" on one side and said I had to use it at work. We hiked back to the camp - there was a horrible rock band playing at Bird Park, but fortunately they quit before we went to bed. The camp was practically deserted - maybe 1/10 of the spaces were being used.

The campground was quiet Monday morning, so we slept in a bit. We packed up our stuff, then headed down to Avalon for one last breakfast out. Several people asked us about our backpacking trip - we gave up explaining that it was just a short hike.

We got to Joe's Cafe about 10:15 and had French toast. The service was quick, but the food wasn't as good as Antonio's. We walked over to the boat dock, where there were only about 10 people ahead of us in line. A woman in line screamed, "Oh my God! Look at that!" There was a pelican trying to eat a fish that was way too big for his pouch. It was quite entertaining. A guy kept trying to help him, but he never did get it down. He finally spit it out and sat there looking dejected. He didn't even seem to care about people petting him. I felt sorry for the poor bird - he was obviously a young one, with a little down on top of his head.
Here he is with the fish in his pouch --

The trip back was much less crowded. We got better seats this time, though not the ones we'd hoped for, with the window in front of them. Since it was the 5th anniversary of 9/11, there was extra security, including several members of the Coast Guard who rode with us. It was quite uneventful, of course, and we made it back to Long Beach only a few minutes late. Jacob picked us up at the curb, and we met Rachel for lunch at a Burger King outside of Ontario Mills mall.