♫26 Miles Across the Sea♫

Actually about 19½ miles at the closest point.

So while all you poor saps in the Midwest and East Coast were getting buried under snow and sleet, we were living it up in sunny Santa Catalina Island. The Murloc and I took a late anniversary/early birthday trip for three days. We were sure to leave food and water out for the boys so they were all taken care of.

To further rub it in, I thought I'd share some picture of our gorgeous visit.

Leaving Dana Point

 The ocean was calm on trip out. We saw several pods of dolphins and a gray whale before I was able to get my camera out and zilch after.

Sea lion Greeting Committee.

 The sea lions liked to group together. They'd stick one fin out to absorb the warmth from the sun.

Avalon!

So named by real estate developer George Shatto's sister-in-law, who picked the name after reading "Idylls of the King".

Hamilton Cove, just northwest of Avalon.

Hi! I'm a sea lion!

I has a buoy.

Our second day there, we went on a glass bottom boat tour. Saw lots of fish, like these Garibaldi.

Named after Italian general Giuseppe Garibaldi, whose followers often wore bright red shirts.

Hello, hello, hello!

Hey! Hey! Hey! I'm a sea lion! Hey!

Hey! Hey! Hey! I'm on a buoy! Hey!

Don't be takin' mah buoy!

After the tour, we met a falconer. He was using his pet falcons to keep the pigeons away from the beech front.

Although, if you have something that awesome looking, I don't know why you wouldn't use it to take over the world.

For some reason, these guys make me think of The Dark Crystal.

I've had nightmares about this guy.

 There were also plenty of ravens about.

Can I get a "nevermore"?

How about just a "rook rook"?

Later that afternoon, we embarked upon the bus tour of Skyline drive, which meanders the 10 miles or so to the airport.

The Wrigley (as in Chicago Cubs) mansion, behind the longest wall in LA county without graffiti.

 We got some good views of Avalon as climbed the windy road in the rickety old bus.

Picture perfect.

St. Catherine of Alexandria church, after whom the island was named by the Spanish explorer Sebastian Vizcaino, who re-discovered the island on the eve of St. Catherine's feast day (November 24th). Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo had first discovered the island 60 years earlier and named it San Salvador, after his ship.

One of the new tours they've added in the last couple years is the zip line tours. You can hang from a rope hundreds of feet above the ground as you go zipping at speeds up to 45 mph from one landing base to another.

The longest of the five lines, at 1100 feet long.

 We did not go on the zip line tours.

The winding road up which the old bus climbed.

A California Ground Squirrel, or "suicide squirrels" as the bus driver calls them.

Of course, you can't go to Catalina without seeing some bison! Fourteen were initially brought to the island in 1924 for the filming of the western silent movie The Vanishing American. However, the scenes with the bison were left out of the final cut of the film. The bison were left on the island because it was too expensive to bring them back.

And that, my friends, is how you introduce a new animal to an ecosystem by not planning ahead.

The bus driver had named these two Chuck and Larry. Being males, they were loners who didn't stay with a herd.

The Catalina Island Conservancy closely maintains the bison population. Too many has a disastrous effect on the island's ecosystem. If there get to be too many, the have to ship them off the island, and put them on a train to South Dakota. This is expensive, so they mainly keep the population in check by giving the females a contraceptive shot.

Along the way to the airport, we saw the two highest peaks on the island.

Mt. Orizaba, 2097 feet above sea level.

Black Jack Mountain, 2010 feet.

 The tour's half-way point was the Airport in the Sky. They had a restaurant/gift shop that sold terrific beer and cookies. Thank goodness we didn't go during Lent.

Elevation 1602 feet. Ask me how I know.

The largest airplane that can land at the airport is a DC-3 (or C-47, for you WWII aficionados). They get their mail this way.

There were even some airplanes at the airport.

The view from the airport.

After a brief stop at the airport, we began making our way back to Avalon.

We passed our friendly bison again.

I swear, every time I look at this picture, I hear a vacuum cleaner.

It rained the morning of our final day on the island, but there were patches of sun between short showers.

The historic Catalina Casino, which is not a casino in the gambling sense, but in the building used for entertainment sense. It has a 1154-seat movie theater and the world's largest circular ballroom.

Avalon harbor, as seen from the shore.

Mine. Mine. Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine.

 The rain cleared up the sky well enough that we could see the Palos Verdes peninsula quite clearly.

Alas and alack, it was finally time to return to reality.

The Catalina flyer comes into port from San Pedro.

The Catalina Express to Dana Point.

One last parting view of the harbor.

The Flyer left for San Pedro about the same time our boat left for Dana Point. We could see them for most of the way out.

The PV peninsula in the background.

The waters on the way back were extremely choppy, stirred up by the wind and rain.

All in all, a fun and relaxing visit. I'd recommend spending a day or two to visit the island when opportunity permits. There isn't much need for extended time—there's not much to do on the island, which, to me, is part of the appeal.

You can check out all (900 or so) of the pictures I took here:


Final tab count: 5.
Santa Catalina Island, Catalina Casino, Garibaldi (fish), Giuseppe Garibaldi, and Natalie Wood (who drowned to death of the coast of Catalina).