The Professor Errant

If you are in the LA area, there are lots of great places to go for quick weekend trips. So I plan on highlighting a lot of them on this blog. One of our favorites is Catalina, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California.

Getting there

Most people come to the island by ferry. We always take the one from Long Beach to Avalon, the main town on the island (it’s the only “incorporated city,” with a population of less than 4000). There are also ferries from San Pedro, Dana Point, and Newport Beach. The much smaller village of Two Harbors is served by a ferry from San Pedro. (We’ve never ventured over to that side of the island)

My mom tells tales of the “Great White Steamship” that used to bring people to the island; these days they use modern catamaran type boats. (I think she’s referring to the S.S. Catalina, AKA the Great White Steamer, but she’s 83 so I won’t quibble with her.)

Small private planes can fly into Catalina Airport, also known as the “Airport in the Sky” due to its 1600 ft elevation. There’s also helicopter service to the island for the really fancy people.

Since we are decidedly unfancy, we took the Catalina Express ferry from Long Beach. It’s a little over an hour to get to Avalon and the day we went (on Veterans Day weekend) the crossing was quite beautiful. Apparently we passed through a “tuna boil,” which I’d never heard of before, but, according to the guy next to us, is a large feeding frenzy by a school of tuna. There were tons of birds and dolphins swarming around to feed on the tuna in turn (circle of life, I guess?). I think the ferry captain even slowed us down on purpose so everyone could get a look at the dolphins (‘cause who really cares about tuna and birds, right?).

Hotels on Catalina

Once we docked in Avalon, we headed over to drop our stuff off at Bellanca Hotel, where we stayed for one night. It was only lunchtime, since we took a morning ferry, so our room wasn’t ready yet.

One of the important things to know about Catalina is, everything is local. There are no chains. Not hotels, not restaurants, not coffee shops. You might miss your Starbucks but it’s very refreshing to know that everything you do on the island is supporting local business. (The one notable exception is the Vons grocery store that serves Avalon, can’t blame them for that. Also, at least one cafe serves Starbucks coffee, so you can get your fix if you need to.)

So you won’t be redeeming any points for hotel stays on Catalina. I think Catalina Canyon Inn used to be part of IHG/Holiday Inn, but that ended a long time ago. You have to book through a portal or directly on the individual hotel’s website. One of our favorites has always been Hotel Mac Rae, but it was booked up for this trip so we went with Bellanca.

Bellanca was nice, though it felt strange to have the door to our room be a sliding glass door and not a regular door. It also suffered from a common Avalon problem: street noise. Thankfully, it did not continue late into the night. At Hotel Mac Rae, we always book a courtyard room, since rooms facing the waterfront are noisy. (Didn’t help us the time some rowdy college students were staying there and climbed up on the roof, but that’s another story…) Our room at Bellanca didn’t actually face the waterfront but the small bathroom window was facing a side street, which brought the noise in.

What to do on the island (lots of eating!)

We’ve been to Catalina quite a few times and done most of the big things that interest us. This trip we just wanted to walk around, shop, eat at our favorite restaurants, and simply relax.

After depositing our stuff at Bellanca, we made the trek to have lunch at one of said favorites, Buffalo Nickel. And yes, I do mean “trek!” It’s about a 20 minute walk from the ferry dock in Avalon. Now, you can rent/borrow/somehow acquire a bike or golf cart in Avalon, or even get a taxi. But Rob and I prefer to hoof it. There are a few drawbacks to our choice, though. You lose sidewalks right outside town and have to walk on the gravelly shoulder. And if you drink too much at the restaurant…well…you’ll be staggering a bit on the way back. I think it’s worth it for the Buffalo Milk, the official drink of Catalina. No buffalos are involved, though. It’s just a cocktail similar to a mudslide. The name’s connection to the actual bison that roam the island might be apocryphal.

For dinner, we went to another favorite, Steve’s Steakhouse, which overlooks the waterfront. Their steaks are great, but I’m partial to the swordfish and it’s usually what I end up getting. And bonus: it’s not that far to stagger back to the hotel!

For breakfast the next morning we went to Catalina Coffee and Cookie Co. Great coffee (according to Rob; I’m not a coffee person) and pastries and breakfast sandwiches. Lines and waits for orders can be long, though. Infamously (to us), I once left my camera under one of their tables and walked away. This was on our first anniversary, one year after I left the same camera under a table at Starbucks while on our honeymoon on Maui. Luckily, both times no one had disturbed the camera and I was able to retrieve it. I’m much more careful these days!

Our lunch was at Luau Larry’s. It’s a tiki bar and we love tiki bars. They have their own version of Buffalo Milk, and I think I might rate it even higher than Buffalo Nickel’s. I always get their tuna melt. Rob had wings that he seemed to think were some of the best ever.

In between all of this eating, we visited the shops, which are plentiful on the waterfront, and walked around town. The Steamer Trunk is a personal favorite in the shopping dept. Oh, one last eating recommendation: Lloyd’s of Avalon is a candy store that has great ice cream. Something nice to snack on between meals and shopping!

We found out in the morning, to our dismay, that Bellanca doesn’t store luggage after you check out. But that turned out to not be a problem. They offered to send our bags to the ferry dock where we could reclaim them when we were ready to board the ferry home. That was actually a better deal, since it meant we didn’t have to come back to the hotel before getting on the boat. Now I wish all the hotels did that!

When the time came, our bags were waiting for us and we took the ferry home. It was a nice little weekend excursion.