New State of Mine: Catalina Island

The Queen Mary and the shuttle (mid right)

I apologize. It has been much too long since I've updated this blog. It's been a whirlwind past couple of weeks as I finished up a few days of internship and work before my mom came for a week for a lovely vacation. Now I've finally gotten back to the grind so to speak.

When my mom first got to LA I picked her up from LAX and we spent the rest of the day touring Los Feliz, the neighborhood I live in, and the Hollywood area. We saw the Chinese Theater, Walk of Fame, and where I have my internship Mondays and Tuesdays. We even had a celebrity sighting (Dominic Monaghan) at House of Pies as we were walking back from dinner in Los Feliz! The next day we ventured through Century City and on to Venice to take in a bit more of the city finally ending up back at my house for homemade pad thai and mojitos with my friends from LA. The next day we were off to Catalina. For those of you who don't know, Catalina is an island off of Southern California where many people go to vacation, particularly to dive or "summer". It's a beautiful island and has a very small town feel to it although it's filled with big city people. I guess that close proximity always creates that kind of vibe no matter where you spend the majority of your time. I was amazed to meet some of the true locals who have grown up on the island going to the K-12 school that is further inland. One of the unique things about Catalina is that it's a golf-cart town. There are limits on how many vehicles can be on the island so the majority of people get around by golf-cart.

Goodbye Long Beach

Hello Catalina

In order to get to the island we left from Long Beach Pier (I really need to re-watch Gone in 60 Seconds and see if I notice anything about Long Beach now). The day we left the space shuttle Endeavour was doing flybys around Los Angeles and we were able to see the shuttle from the ferry as we started out towards Catalina! Once on the island we enjoyed our hotel, walked around the art fair that was going on that weekend, and ate delicious fresh seafood. On our last morning we even braved the cold and incredibly clear Pacific water.

Morning from the hotel room

After Catalina we drove down the PCH to Dana Point, just past Laguna Beach in the OC, and stayed at a lovely Inn called the Blue Lantern. I highly recommend them. Service was friendly, rooms were cute, and there were several complimentary things that I enjoyed (who doesn't like free stuff?) including complimentary bikes (a trip down to the harbor was very fun), post cards (they mail them for you and cover the postage, great marketing!), California wine and cheese in the afternoons, and freshly baked cookies, coffee, and tea 24-7!