I know, I know....it has taken me over a week to write this, but I just have to tell the world about our trip to
Catalina Island. Paula and I were able to take a 3-day weekend June 24-26 to Catalina where we had a fabulous time.
The weather was awesome. Clear blue skies, temps around mid-70's, nice ocean breeze blowing in from the east....it was pure heaven and we enjoyed every minute of it. I told Paula several times, "I could easily do this for a whole week."
We departed Dana Point that Friday around 7:30 AM. The
Catalina Express was flying across the water to our beach island destination. We were excited at the possibility of seeing some dolphins following the boat, but unfortunately none were found. We arrived around 9:00 AM faced with a dilemma...what to do until our check in time of 3 PM? We went straight to our hotel, located in the middle of Avalon on
Sumner Avenue. We weren't able to check in quite yet, but they did store our luggage and promised to call when the room was ready.
So, we walked around Avalon, taking in the quaintness of it all and breathing in the relaxing atmosphere. I immediately felt a calm, easy-going feeling, like everything had slowed down and there was nothing to worry about, just the kind of feeling you want on a vacation. We checked out some stores and I bought a pair of
Flojo's. It was great to get my shoes off and let my feet breathe. We had a good lunch of Mexican-style food at
Coyote Joe's and got the call at noon that our room was ready.
We were so overwhelmed by our Santa Barbara-themed room at the
Snug Harbor Inn. It was just the right size room, with a great view and a very comfortable bed, complete with about 10 pillows. We immediately felt the desire to take a nap! Because Paula and I were celebrating our anniversary, the hotel staff had set us up with a bottle of wine and a balloon. The gas fireplace was going, the air conditioning was running, the fan was slowly turning, and some soft classical music was playing....it was very inviting and very comfortable.
Paula enjoyed a bath in the jacuzzi tub while I immediately took to snoring away. It was SO great to catch some zzzz's in the middle of the afternoon. After we had both napped for a while, we decided to discover more of Avalon and walked down to the famous Casino building and around to the
Descanso Beach Club. There we enjoyed a few drinks at the beach bar and made our way back to the hotel for wine and cheese hour. Oh yes, included in the rate offered at the Snug Harbor Inn is free wine and cheese from 5-6 PM every day. Sweet!
Now we were ready for some real action, so we stumbled down the street to the minature golf course. It was a tiny bit difficult lining up the putts, but I managed to hold it together enough to give my wife a miniature golf clinic. She'll claim until her dying day that the only way I can beat her at miniature golf is to get a few drinks in her, but I let her enjoy her little fantasy. I know that I can whip her any time, any course...
After the 18 holes of mischief, we headed over to Big Olaf's and had big waffle cone ice creams for dinner. We sat right there by the harbor and ate every last bite. Afterwards, it was back to the hotel where we were able to check out a movie from the front desk. We watched "Bridget Jones's Diary" and enjoyed the comfort of our room.
Next morning started off with breakfast delivered to our room. Oh yes, included in the cost of the room is breakfast....delivered....to our room. Nice! We enjoyed our meals and then headed over to the Descanso Beach Club again. We signed up for the early bird special and rented a double kayak, wetsuits, masks, snorkels, fins, a dry bag and a cooler for food. All for $70 for four hours! We then headed out around the cove to find the perfect snorkeling spot. We had never been snorkeling together, or kayaking together for that matter, so it was quite an adventure. For some reason our kayak kept turning to the right. I don't know if it was my steering or Paula's paddling, but our kayak needed an alignment!
We did not get all that far, because paddling a kayak is not the easiest thing in the world. That right there is some hard work. My arms were burning, but the water was cool and the sights were awesome. We found a little rocky cove where nobody was at and pulled the kayak in. I think we discovered why nobody was there once we got ashore. It was that "rocky cove" thing. The rocks were slippery and painful, but we managed to get in the water and see some fish in the kelp beds. I even saw a tiger shark on my way back to shore. We bought an underwater camera and a few of the pictures came out pretty good. I'll get those scanned in and online soon.
After we walked our tired bodies back to the hotel for a little rest, we got dressed up and went out for dinner. We ate at
Antonio's Pizzeria & Cabaret. The food here was OK, but the atmosphere was better. We ate peanuts and threw the shells on the floor and even had a pigeon fly in and try to find some peanuts to munch on. Later that night, Paula and I put our dancing shoes on because across the street from our hotel was the
Chi Chi Club. It is advertised as the only night club in Avalon. So, we hung out there for most of the night and danced our tushes off! We have done some country dancing before (is that too much information?), but never this kind of dancing. It was quite fun, even though we felt like old people out there on the dance floor. Hey, us old birds can shake a tail feather or two....
Granted, our late night required us to sleep in a bit the next day, but there were no hang overs! Next morning we enjoyed our breakfast (did I mention delivered?) and packed up our bags to check out of the Snug Harbor Inn. Our little adventure had come to an end.....but, we have plenty of memories and
pictures to show for it. I hope you all enjoyed my recap.
Can I go back to Avalon now?
