Catalina is an island off the coast of California. It actually is California, but a lot of people don't actually know it's there. I'd never been there, and didn't think I could go. Emily had wanted to go for her birthday the year before and I knew I couldn't because it can get really expensive. A trip on the Catalina Express with general seating is $36 each way. It's a lot for a day trip. But the suggestion stuck in my brain, and so I started doing research and found the best deal: the Catalina Express is free on your birthday, and my birthday fell on a Sunday. There are also Groupon deals, but we could only find them on the Catalina Flyer, which is different and would get us there are different times. So because my friends are awesome, a group of them ponied up the full amount to meet me at the Long Beach port so that we could have a day on an island. (I have the best friends in the world for many reasons, but that's the one I'm going to talk about in this post.)
The trip out there is about an hour, and it's nothing special. We got seats on the top deck, slathering on sunscreen and watching for dolphins. (I should note that exactly a week before this was Tijuana, where my feet were horribly blistered and I was sunburned to hell and back, so I took extra precautions for a trip where I knew I'd be in the sun again all day.) And when I checked in and got my ticket, I was given a blue ribbon so that people knew it was my birthday. I'm that loser who never really grew out of that high school mentality of "But someone might think I'll look like a dork!" so I didn't want to wear it and bring attention to myself, but I needed it to get on the boat. Then people on the boat would cheerfully wish me a happy birthday whenever they saw me. This was something that continued on the island, too. They're so used to people doing this that they'll just automatically be awesome to me. Granted, they were all awesome to my friends, too, but it was kind of nice having people say hi to me all day because they were probably contractually obligated in order to work there. You also get free stuff and discounts. I think I was able to get us a percentage off lunch, I got a discount at a candy shop where we went nuts with taffy and gummy sharks, I got free coffee, etc. There's a sizeable list of things where you get free gifts if you buy something else or free things or 20% off or whatever. If you go on your birthday and you're careful, you can do Catalina for almost free. Score!
Avalon, the big city there, is small. There are very few cars, and there's a waiting list in order to get yours on island. Instead, everyone walks or drives golf carts. Everyone's super nice and it's very quiet and relaxing, and I think I could maybe spend a year there before I ran (swam?) screaming back to a city because my lungs crave the pollution. There's a gorgeous casino that gives tours, you can go hiking and ziplining, you can go to spas... We didn't have that much time, maybe eight hours total, so we didn't want to give up a chunk of our time for one thing. Also, ziplining is pricey. Instead, we walked around and went into the many, many adorable little shops, trying on hats and buying food and little stuff. We also went to one of the beaches, but it's not like any other California beach I've been to. The sand is a lot rougher, and going into the water means walking over rocks. I didn't have a bathing suit, so I waited on the beach with Kelsey while the others went for a swim- and got to swim with a seal. Another thing is that they charge you to hang out on the beach. It's like $2 for a wristband, but there were people near us who were nice enough to give us theirs when they left, and also gave their drink menu with recommendations. The drinks were $10 and they came in little plastic cups, but they brought them right up to us on the sand and my god were they alcoholic. I did not plan to get drunk on a beach on my birthday, but it totally happened.
The other big thing we did was the golf carts. You can rent them for $20 per person for two hours for a four-person cart, and there was some trouble in actually getting it. We tried at the start of the day but would have to wait a long time, and then we ended up in line for a while as people returned theirs and it was a kind of slow process. But we got in there and with a short lesson in how to drive it, we were off. There are plenty of hills, and it's a little nervewracking at points going around curves by a cliff riding in a cart the driver literally just learned how to operate, but it's so much fun. It's a common thing, so we'd run into other people and everyone would pull over to take pictures of the gorgeous scenery. You drive through neighborhoods, see the houses and schools. We also found the Catalina Island Conservancy, the botanical gardens. We got there as they were closing, but there was a guy at the front who just let us in so we didn't actually realize they were closed, and we ended up walking along some of the trails and checking out the different plants. They wanted to do more, but I was not dressed correctly. I was wearing a skirt and sandals, and I was still recovering from last week's dehydration, so I let people take my camera to take pictures from the top of the Wrigley Monument while I waited on a bench at the bottom. By the time we left there- and by the time we had to escape because they'd locked us in, wtf- we decided to take the cart back to the rental place since we didn't have a ton of time left to do any one thing. Also, they give you a map, and it's not a big island, but I still got us lost because that's what happens when you let me navigate.
We had to be back at the dock by around seven, when it was starting to get cold and windy, and we got top spots on the boat back. That was my favorite part of the day. While it was super windy, we got to see the most gorgeous sunset I've ever seen, and at some point people started freaking out because they swore they saw a shark next to the boat, which I feel like was the universe's happy birthday to me, even if I didn't get to actually see it. I know it was there.
Anyway, if you can do Catalina, go for it. I liked it a ton. Also best birthday ever, and this year's going to have to step it up.
That masterpiece you so kindly added is what happens when I'm bored on a Saturday night and you're posting pictures from a vacation.
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