A Trio of Quick Fall Trips...Number 2 - Catalina Island (Part 2)

(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) For Catalina standards, it's a large room. Still, it can feel a bit crowded with Tim's rollaway bed taking up the extra space between our bed and the two easy chairs next to the patio door.

We sleep good, though, the beds are comfortable. There's no noisy air conditioner and the hallways in this part of the first floor are far removed from the street.

I get Tim up, he takes a shower, and we get ready to greet the day.

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First up, we walk over to the nearby pier. I want to show Tim the spot where I proposed to his mom. 34 years ago, when I brought Letty over here with the idea to ask her to marry me, there were a series of wooden benches. A severe New Year's Eve storm a few years ago cause a lot of damage along the waterfront and those benches are long gone.

Benches set into concrete walls have replaced them so I do my best to find the exact spot and show Tim where that bit of family history occurred...just south of the old pier by the drinking fountain now guarded by thirsty seagulls.

Letty wants to see what's on the street a block up from the main drag here. We walk up and, to tell the truth, there's not much other that a large Von's supermarket under construction and a tiny miniature golf course. 

It's handy, though, because the ticket counter of the mini golf course doubles as a ticket window for various island activities. We're a bit limited on what tours we can take because most of them take place on non-accessible boats but Tim has said one thing he really wants to do is take a tour of the Casino.

There are two flavors of tours...the discovery and the behind the scenes...one of which is accessible and one which is not. We sign up for the 11:45am discovery tour and set off to do a little souvenir shopping in the meantime.

About 11:30, we wander over to the building. The Casino is Catalina's iconic building...the largest one in town. It's not now, nor has ever been, a gambling palace. Chewing gum magnate William Wrigley, who owned the island, used the Italian meaning of the word..."gathering place"...in naming the structure.

We're ushered in to the lobby where millions of dollars worth of brown mahogany line the walls. Gold leaf stars line the stucco ceiling. Out on the portico, sealife murals line the walls. They were supposed to be made out of the famous Catalina tile but time was short. They were painted on and only the mermaid above the ticket booth ended up being tiled.

The bottom floor is a movie theater. Still in use to this day, it is one of two of the original theaters built specifically to show films with sound back in 1929.

The domed room has great acoustics. The Radio City Music Hall studied its design before being built.

Twinkling lights blink in the ceiling, giving it a starry night effect until the lights come up. A glorified California history in art adorns the walls.

Upstairs is a giant ballroom. Originally 15,000 square feet, tabled terraces were installed taking the dance floor down to 10,000 square feet.

An early version of a disco ball spins above while we mill about the huge space where dancers would sway to the likes of Kay Kaiser, Bob Crosby and Dick Jurgens.

We move outside where a promenade wraps around the upper level giving us incredible views of Avalon.

Wrigley had baseball-stadium ramps installed to be able to get the masses people in and out quickly to the ballroom. Today, these ramps are useful to get the wheelchair up and down from that floor.

Afterward, we spend some more time shopping and exploring the pier. Fish food is available from vendors here and you can feel the calico bass and garibaldi fish (California's state fish) off the end of the pier.

Now, it's time to collect our bags from the hotel. We have a last meal of the special pub burgers at El Galleon before we get back on the Catalina Flyer for the voyage back to Newport Bay.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Island Margaritas on a Budget, a Catalina Happy Hour Pub Crawl

(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) We've got an afternoon to kill here in Avalon. Tomorrow, we'll do a little more on the active side here on Catalina Island. Today, we'll explore the bars and pubs along Crescent Avenue, the main waterfront thoroughfare of the city.

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Avalon is not a big place, in fact you can walk from end to end in a matter of minutes. That's what we're going to do. We've had a good lunch at Antonio's Pizza and Cabaret. Now, we're headed beyond the Casino.

34 years ago, when I brought Letty over here to propose, we spent the afternoon having drinks and snorkeling off the shore at Descanso Beach Club, one of the very few (if not the only) private beaches in California. It seems like a good place to start off at.

Well, it seemed good but we waited awhile. Server after server walked by our table without so much as a "Hi" or "I'll be right with you." Enough, we get up and start leaving when a young woman server comes up and says "what'll you have?"

"Nothing...we give up. We've been here 15 minutes waiting for you to take our order."

"But I'm here now," she protests.

"Sorry, too late," I tell her. "We've got better things to do with our limited time."

With the club behind us, it's back to Crescent Avenue. Happy hours start as early as 11am here but it's a bit later than that now.  At the other end of town, just up Clarissa Avenue a couple of doors, is Mi Casita. You probably won't be surprised that it's a Mexican restaurant.

$7.50 is their happy hour price for a large house margarita or you can choose a flavor. Just for kicks, I get a pineapple margarita on the rocks.  It's decent but on the sweet side.

Tim one ups me there by getting their very large dulce de leche ice cream sundae for his happy hour snack.

Around the corner, facing the sea, is El Galleon which is owned by Antonio's, where we had lunch. 

It's also $7.50 for their house margarita, served in a highball glass. It's a bit on the weak side but better when I add another shot to it.

I find that they have an outstanding Cadillac margarita, though, at only $2 more. Larger, tastier, and stronger...it's a darn good version of this drink.

Our last stop is the Catalina Cantina, a few doors north of El Galleon. This is the cheapest happy hour margarita on Catalina at only $4 and...you know what?...it's also the best. 

Very tasty and strong (but I asked the server to make it that way). Letty topped off the day with a glass of chardonnay. Nice place, great prices, and some friendly people hanging out here as well.

That was our afternoon of seeking out cheap libations on the island. It's a good way to make your cash go a long way on this expensive rock in the ocean.

Cheers!

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

A Trio of Quick Fall Trips...Number 2 - Catalina Island (Part 1)

(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) I'm wondering what possessed me to commit to this...driving at 6 in the morning across the 605 and 405 to try to get to Newport Beach on this cloudy morning. I need a parking spot for 36 hours, the only lot around here that will let me stay this long is the lot next to Balboa Pier.

Navigating the Byzantine parking payment system is a true hassle. The sign says parking is limited to 7 days. No problem, I only need a day and a half, but the machine is limiting me to one day. That's a problem because in 24 hours, I'll be 30 miles across the ocean and unable to come back and renew it.

I go to add time by hours...it'll only let me add 10 hours which is cutting it 2 hours too short. I snap a pic of the sign on the machine which has a website for the parking company. Maybe I can extend it online later. It's my only hope at this point...

When I retired back in March, I realized I had more time on my hands but not as much money as I was used to. I started browsing for things I could do cheaply. One thing that popped up was a Groupon deal for a half-price cruise to Catalina. I snapped it up without even thinking twice. I should have thought a little harder.

The deal was only for the boat, the Catalina Flyer, that operates out of Newport Beach. It makes one trip a day, each way. 9:00am to Catalina and 4:30pm coming back.That only gives us 3-4 hours to enjoy the island. 

I'll have to add a hotel so we can stay the night.

This will probably blow the budget since lodging in Catalina can be expensive...very expensive. And that's before you factor in that we'll need a wheelchair accessible accommodation. Summer prices are even worse so we wait until fall to cash it in (it expired November 9th) so we can get just a little break in the hotel price.

Really...what was I thinking?

Back in Newport Beach, the day of reckoning has arrived. After doing our best to figure out the parking (and crossing our fingers that our van will still be there when we get back tomorrow), we head over the short block to Balboa Pavilion, located within the iconic Newport Beach Fun Zone mini amusement park and next to the even more iconic Balboa Island Auto Ferry.

Our online reservations told us we had to arrive at 8:00am for the 9 o'clock boat. This puts us third in line, waiting an hour for the boat to start boarding. At 9, the crew takes us and two other wheelchair passengers onboard first. It's a bit tricky on the ramps and the crew insists on us putting Tim's chair in neutral so they can push, pull, and manhandle him into the boat for safety reasons.

We find a nice table by a window while the other couple of hundred passengers board...many who think the 8:00 arrival time was a mere guideline and show up at the last possible moment.

9:05 has us shoving off. The boat is much faster than the boats of yesteryear. At least twice as fast. A short hour and twenty minute later has us tied up at the dock in Avalon, Catalina's lone municipality.

We spot two giant cruise ships offshore, a Carnival ship and a Regent Cruises vessel, so it's going to be a bit crowded today. The main effect for us is having ship's photographers setting up stands directly in middle of the little sidewalk to take pictures of their passengers for souvenirs, blocking our way.

Not to gently asking them to give us room, we finally get by. It's about six blocks of walking, towing two small rolling suitcases, along the waterfront until we find our hotel.

I had to call, email, text, at least a dozen hotels in the area. Most did not have accessible rooms at all, a few had accessible rooms limited to two people, two had rooms that would accommodate the three of us. One for over $600 a night, and the Catalina Island Inn.

Our chosen hotel has a fairly roomy fireplace room with a king size bed. An extra fee for the third person includes a twin size rollaway bed for Tim. 

There's a small but very nice private patio, refrigerator, coffee maker, and a large bathroom with a very nice roll-in shower. With tax and extra bed/person fee, the room costs us $288 for the night.

Luckily for us, the room is ready when we arrive at 10:45 in the morning. Normal check-in is 3:00pm but they'll watch your luggage for you if you want to drop it off early and go exploring the island.

Being that we don't have to rush to see everything before the afternoon boat leaves, we take a little time to unpack and unwind before heading across the street to Antonio's Pizza and Cabaret perched over the water on the edge of the harbor.

We have a giant beer, some pizza, soup, and salad as we start today's activity...an island pub crawl.

Well, so far it's turning out OK, if not on budget. Let's keep rolling and see how it works out.

This is to be continued on this week's Cocktail Hour on Sunday as we compare happy hour bargain margaritas in Avalon's many pubs.

See you then!

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved