Susan, Sequoia, and Todd go sailing

Catalina Island has a permanent population of under 4,000 people, but is visited by a million tourists a year! Since we only had a few days before we had to be in San Diego to pick up Koiya, we decided to head straight to Avalon Harbor. After hearing so much about Catalina, we were prepared to be disappointed. After all, it was certainly no Morro Bay!

We had to admit that it was beautiful, though, as the afternoon sun pierced through the fog. And Avalon, with its houses covering the hills, the boats in the bay, and its quaint streets reminded us of the Caribbean… minus about 20 degrees!

We launched the dinghy and went ashore to check out the town. “We’ll just find out where the services are, and look around a bit, and then go back to the boat for a nutritious dinner of kale and tofu,” I said. Todd grunted something that I thought was agreement.

Well, we got about 10 yards from the main pier, when Todd’s keen vision spotted a sign at El Galleon Restaurant: Happy Hour: 16 oz. margaritas $5. “Time to practice my espanol!” he cried.

Todd sucked his first one down before I’d finished half of mine, so I kept a tight grip on my glass and moved it outside of his striking distance. “Would you think less of me if I ordered another?” he asked. “Oh honey,” I replied, “How could I possibly think any less of you?” “Alrighty then!” he chirped, motioning to the bartender.

Luckily, happy hour ended, and I was able to coax Capn 32-ouncer out of the bar, with the prospect of finding dinner. We settled on a pizza joint that gives you a bunch of peanuts when you sit down, and you just crack them open and drop the shells on the floor. “I wish Koiya were here,” burped Todd. “She would love this!”

The next day we walked up the hills on both sides of the town, visited the museum, and got to see a movie (“American Gangster”) in the famous art-deco theater. The guy playing the organ reminded us of our local Castro Theater, where the Wurlitzer player entertains the patrons before the film starts, and launches into “San Francisco” as a finale.

On Saturday, we walked up to the Wrigley Botanical Gardens. William Wrigley, Jr., of chewing gum fame, devoted himself to promoting and preserving Catalina Island, and even had his Chicago Cubs do spring training there. The gardens have a great succulent collection, and we also got to see a number of plants that are unique to Catalina and the Channel Islands.

At the end of the gardens there is the Wrigley Memorial, which I’ve decided is tied for first place in my “Favorite Memorials” category (the other Number 1 being the MLK memorial in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens). The Wrigley Memorial is made almost entirely of materials from Catalina Island, including island stones and lovely Catalina tile. It is pretty, not ostentatious, and when you climb to the top, the most striking thing is the beauty of the canyon around you. You can see why Wrigley loved the place!

Though it must be a zoo in the summer months, we found Catalina charming, and hope to return and see more of this and the other Channel Islands. And, we have to grudgingly admit that Los Angeles has one thing that San Francisco doesn’t: easy access to these fabulous isles!

We left Avalon on Saturday night. It was a dark night, with no moon and light fog, so the inky sea was barely distinguishable from the charcoal sky. Knowing we were crossing a shipping channel, we kept a close watch on the radar. As it was so dark, our wake glowed with bioluminescence. Suddenly, two glowing streaks torpedoed towards us. “Missiles!” yelled Capn Spineless, “Prepare to abandon ship!” “Do they make missiles with dorsal fins?” I asked.

There is no word to describe dolphins riding the bow at night, lit with glowing phosphorescence! Their bodies, beaks, flippers and tails were outlined like a house trimmed with white Christmas lights. They’d charge ahead of our bow, crossing and diving, surfacing for air in a split second. And then from each side of the boat, we’d see the tell-tale streaks of light as more dolphins sped in to join the fun. “Incoming!” yelled Todd. I hate to use militaristic terms to describe them, but well, we were blown away!

We’re now in San Diego, Koiya is back on board, and Todd’s cousin Eric will be joining us soon.

See all our Avalon photos here:

20071103AvalonCatalina

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 at 11:04 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.