One place that I have wanted to visit since moving here is Catalina. Which is an island off the coast that I can sometimes see on a clear day from my office window. I think seeing it from a far 17 days out of the year inspired me to purchase the half off Groupon for a roundtrip fare, normally $90.My very good, and newly fianced, friend t and her beau also a t and I set off early on a Sunday. We quickly learned that the latter t is not a sea person. Which is rather unfortunate because the trip to Avalon from Marina Del Rey is approximately an hour and 45 minutes. Which I am sure that if you are seasick can be a rather long trip. It was too bad because as we were leaving the port we were greeted by flotillas of birds, dolphins and this guy... (totally missed by t)
Which is a Blue Whale, the largest mammal on the planet. Of course it fluked and I missed it. Oh well. (if you look closely it is spouting, you may need to click on the photo to get a better look)
Avalon reminds me of an East Coast seaside tourist town. Compact, main street, sand dollar key chains, very palatable food. I wouldn't go to Avalon for the best Mexican food. Our first stop was a diner for breakfast, call Joe's. All the servers had Eat at Joe's t-shirts.
After a hearty breakfast we headed to the Conservancy to see what kind of nature stuff was available in Avalon for us to explore. With limited time, we decided the best option was the trek up to Wrigley Memorial garden, yes the chewing gum guy and former owner of the Chicago Cubs, hence the name Wrigley Field. It was an hour and 15 minute hike, we passed deer in the golf course and many golf carts passed us, I guess the preferred method of travel on the island. Golf carts are loud and many of them smell of gasoline, which was not the nature we were hoping for.
The garden was well worth the journey:
It was a very overcast day, I think the first photo with the memorial in the distance is very tim burtonesque. A lot of the plants in the garden are not native to Catalina, the ones that are are called endemics, which is just a fancy way of saying native. For more garden photos and additional other, please go to my flickr album:
click here
And coincidentally, or most likely not, the memorial ended up reminding me of The Trophy of the Alps in France.
The view from the top is pretty fantastic as well as the tile work.
We walked back to town and had an hour or so at the beach. The tide pools in Avalon are pretty non-existent, so maybe next time we will take the boat to Two Harbors, which is much more natur-y and I hear has some excellent places for diving. (Now if only I can find a Groupon for that)
We got to the boat in the nick of time, just about to depart we got a passive aggressive warning from the crew "cutting it close, guys" when we looked around for seats we couldn't all sit together, I sat up top, the two lovebirds on the lower deck. And I am glad because the way back is much choppier, and down below a baby started a vomiting chain reaction that is likened to the pie eating contest in "Stand By Me"
But on another note, I got some amazing pictures on the way back. (see flickr, day is in reverse)
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