Catalina

This Memorial Day weekend found me on Catalina Island. How can I live so close and not go? My time remaining in California is flying by. Catalina highlights and insights:

1. Take some Dramamine one hour prior to boarding the Catalina Express. It’s a bumpy ride.

2. If you don’t have camping gear, the next most affordable option is staying in an “E” room at Hermosa Hotel and Cottages for $75/night. The friendly staff will show you upstairs to your room, which consists of a bed and a rusted out sink in the corner. No television. Communal toilets and shower are down the hall. Wear shower shoes.

3. Show up at C.C. Gallagher shortly after 5:30pm. Order a seaweed salad, a couple of salmon nigiri, and a spicy tuna roll. This simple meal will be much more delicious than any other meal you will get at any other restaurant on the island at any time of day. For breakfast, buy fresh raspberries and a Milk Chug from Vons. Don’t beat yourself up for going out on a limb and trying to find good food at other local establishments, only to watch yourself fail again and again. It’s not you, it’s them.

4. Buy a 7:00pm movie ticket for the theatre down at the Avalon Casino (not a place of gambling but rather a gathering place of entertainment in the Italian etymology sense of the word). The movie changes weekly. It doesn’t really matter what is showing…spending only a few minutes inside the theatre is worth the price of admission. Arrive early and listen to an organist play one of only four remaining Page Organs in the world. During the performance, admire the beautiful art deco frescoes and sparkling lights that adorn the ceiling of the first theatre built exclusively for the advent of “talkies” (but also has an orchestra pit, you know, just in case this “talkies” phenomenon doesn’t catch on).

5. Go back to Avalon Casino the next day and buy a ticket for the Behind the Scenes Tour. Soak in the history and listen attentively to the docent’s stories about how the Wrigley family (yeah, that Wrigley family) had the casino built back in 1929 to commemorate their 10^th year of owning the island. Find yourself wishing you’d been there, in the Avalon Casino ballroom, when swing first hit the scene.

6. There’s no need to pay one of the many tourist companies to take you out snorkeling. Rent a mask, snorkel, and wetsuit (this isn’t the Caribbean…the water is cold, folks!) for $10-15 from one of the many snorkel and scuba shops and walk down the street to Lover’s Cove. Suit up and go for it. You don’t even need to swim away from shore to be surrounded by schools of silvery and blue fish, along with bright orange Garibaldi (the official state fish of California). The giant kelp forest sways back and forth, parting to let you through and swishing shut behind you. The water is clear enough to allow visibility of 60-100 feet, aided by rays of sunlight that hit the surface of the water and splinter into 100 beams of light shooting straight onto the ocean floor. Amazing!

SoCal Living

Huntington Beach at Sunset

Balboa Peninsula

Mission San Juan Capistrano

Jamie Cullum at the Avalon in Hollywood. No, I'm not zooming in. I was just that close to the stage.

Palm Springs and Joshua Tree

Those of you who use hotels.com know that if you sign up for their member rewards program, you get 1 night free for every 10 nights you stay. Prior to March 1^st, the value of that free night is up to $400. Starting March 1^st, the value of that free night will be the average of the prices paid for those 10 nights, so it seemed like a no-brainer that I needed to use my free night (a product of staying in hotels during internship and fellowship interviews) ASAP. I’d always heard good things about Palm Springs and have wanted to visit Joshua Tree National Park for a long time. Best of all, the area is only two hours from my house. In the spirit of soaking up as much California as I can before moving to Denver later this year, I hit the road and ended up at The Riviera Resort & Spa this weekend. Suggestions for those who wish to do the same at some point in the future:

1. Check out the Palm Springs Museum of Art. There is an emphasis on modern and contemporary, but it definitely merits about an hour of your time, especially if you like Calder, photography, and glass.

2. If you enjoy eating bacon, stop at Cheeky’s for breakfast and go on a “bacon flight.” Flights vary from week to week. My flight consisted of applewood, jalapeño, maple vanilla, and dark chocolate.

3. Bypass Shields Date Farm and go to Oasis Date Farm. I’m not a fan of dates (the fruit, although judging by my love life, I must not be an aficionado of the hey-are-you-busy-Friday-night variety of dates either). They are too sweet and kind of grainy. However, I now love date shakes. Still super sweet, but when you puree and mix them up with vanilla ice cream, you’ve really got something special…at least with the Medjool variety. Oasis offers over a dozen varieties of dates. Sadly, they did not have any Latter-day Saint dates in stock. Okay, so now we’re back to my love life? Speaking of love lives…

4. …was anyone else confused by John Mayer’s recent interview in Rolling Stone, particularly the quote that likened a certain part of human anatomy to a Joshua Tree? If John is being totally honest with us, then it seems as though he is searching for intimacy with something dry and prickly that has an expansive national park named after it. John, please don’t forget to bring water with you on your special night…hydration is key here. Also, if you stop at the Cholla Cactus Garden and wish to use your hands to explore this particular wonderland, please have the good sense to wear protection. I observed another tourist get out of her car, walk over to a piece of cholla cactus that had fallen to the ground, pick it up with her bare hands, and bring it closer to her eyes for further inspection. Shortly thereafter, she started screaming in a language I didn’t understand and tried to shake it off. Bad luck, my tourist friend. Cholla is harder to shake than an obsessive groupie, right John? She then reached over with her other hand to pull the cholla free and, well, yeah.
   

My Suite in the Riviera Resort & Spa

A Couple of Shots from the Palm Springs Art Museum

Bacon Flight at Cheeky's

Oasis Date Farm

Joshua Tree National Park