A Beautiful Day In Catalina

Last November I wrote about the Boys & Girls Club charity auction and how we had received the Catalina Island gift basket. Well, with temperatures returning to the mid 70's, it was finally warm enough to use it.

Since things have been pretty hectic at work, I needed a vacation, even for a day. So I picked a weekday during Nanci's spring break and we set our reservations for the Catalina Express at 10AM...Only to miss the boat by 15 minutes after driving like mad through the morning traffic (and slowly passing an accident). The next boat didn't leave until 2PM.

So with 4 hours to kill in downtown Long Beach we decided to walk around. We just took our time, walked through downtown to the marina, sat on a bench and relaxed at a lookout point for a while, checked out all the shops and the trinkets they sell, had a delicious lunch at the Yard House, along with a fresh candy apple for dessert from one of the candy shops. We finished it up with a walk to the lighthouse.

Relaxing at the lookout point.

Panoramic view from the lookout point.

Arrrrrrrr!

Arrrrrrrrgh!

The habitation of illumination.

Panoramic view from the lighthouse.
It actually turned out to be better than if we had made it onto the boat because we would have still been all stressed out from rushing to be on time. After our little hike we made sure we were back at the port with 20 minutes to spare and got ourselves in line to board. We weren't taking any chances. ;)

We decided to sit on the top deck so we could enjoy the fresh air. Then promptly fell asleep...

When we woke up, we could see the island. After "disembarking," (now there's a word you don't use everyday) our first order of business was finding the golf cart rental shop. Once we arrived at Island Rentals we showed them our free rental slip, signed a form, got a sight seeing map and drove off in a "Catalina Limo" (aka golf cart).

Driving through the neighborhoods in Avalon was like driving through a miniature town or movie set out of the '50s.

They had all sorts of sweet golf carts, we even spotted a tow truck golf cart by the end of the day.

We drove all around the island and stopped at some great lookout points.

There was even a cruise ship sitting off the island providing background music.

We finished up the day by shopping for gifts for family and eating dinner at Armstrong's Seafood Restaurant overlooking the water.
"Seafood always tastes better by the ocean." - Nanci

Can't wait to do it again sometime since we still have a 2nd free golf cart rental slip! It's for a 4 seater, so who else wants to come?