Catalina!

Day 15

Nancy, our Biologist, told us that her favorite part of the three-hour Catalina Eco-Tour that she was leading was the second half. She said that the first half was all learning, but the second half was all fun.

          I think that she liked the second half of the tour because she really got to show off her four-wheel driving skills as she wielded our Toyota Tundra truck (with stadium-style seating for us students) around the interior of Catalina.

          Nancy works for the Catalina Island Conservancy who “owns” and manages about eighty-eight percent of the Island. The Wrigley family (Yes, that one, of Gum and Chicago Cubs fame) deeded over all of the land to them back in 1972. The family still has a presence on the Island, they are involved locally as benefactors and they have several residences there, one of which has stables and an active, producing, vineyard.

          Our day started really early as the availability of the high-speed catamaran that makes the crossing from Long Beach to Avalon was booked up by the time we arrived. The only places left for our day were on the first and last crossings of the day, namely 6 AM and 7:45 PM.  And we needed to be in line by 5:15 AM.

          Thankfully (and we didn’t plan it this way) the embarkation port was a five-minute walk from our RV Park.

          The benefits of this situation was a guarantee of a full day on Catalina and of course, great lighting for early morning photos! We were not disappointed as once again; we had a fifteen on the one-to-ten scale of weather. Catamaran’s ride nicely in the water, with a minimum of movement compared to a displacement (regular shaped) hull, but still, there is some movement, it’s the ocean!

          Avalon, the largest city (?) on Catalina was barely waking up by the time we arrived, the crossing takes a little over an hour, but that was ok, it afforded us the opportunity to have a leisurely breakfast and stroll around before we met Nancy for our adventure which started at 9 AM.

Avalon is a really cute little town, complete with the obligatory shops, but some how they have managed to remain less kitschy and rather inviting. The whole place is adorned with beautiful tile-work, most of it depicting scenes from around town, The Casino, which does not have gambling, is the gem of the harbor and is worthy of all of its fame. Unfortunately it is closed on Thursdays, so we were not able to avail ourselves of a tour.

         Nancy was a fountain of local information. We learned tons of factoids about the flora, fauna, and history of Catalina, all of which would fill this post with ease, but probably bore you to death! Maybe I’ll do a separate one with a Cautionary Warning about the content in the beginning of it.  😊 Some highlights are the fact that there are only about 4000 residents on the Island, there is a 20 year waiting list to register a car here, and the other mode of transportation, a golf cart, can only be had to residents and you only get one per household! There is one grocery store, Vons, which they all adore!

          Anyway, there are lots of stories about the waxing and waning of several species of critters and plants on the Island, namely the Bald and Golden Eagles, the Channel Island Fox, and some cool butterflies. Just like what Mr. Darwin learned way down in the Galapagos Islands, here too, Catalina has her own stories to tell about how species adapt and evolve separated from anywhere else.

          Oh, and there are American Bison (Buffalo) on the Island.

           They are not endemic, they are invasive! The story goes that twelve males  were brought over to the Island back in the 20’s for a movie that never got made here. Enter a well-intentioned Wrigley family who brought a bunch of females over to keep the males company and the rest, well, let’s just say biology took over and in a few years there were over 500 of these grazers roaming the hills. Combine them with the goats and sheep which were descendants of some long-ago settlers, and we have a recipe for intense over-grazing.

          Here’s the good part of the story.

          Enter the Conservancy who determined that the optimum number of Bison was about 150, (sans goats and sheep who were successfully repatriated to farms on the mainland). That was all well and good, but what to do with the rest? They put out inquiries to anyone that they thought that would like them, but the caveat was that they could not be slaughtered. The Lakota Indian Nation of South Dakota was interested but when they found out what the cost was going to be to round up, inspect, and transport them, they determined that they did not have the funds to accomplish this. So…. they sent out a request to every Tribe in the United States asking for some assistance. Every single Tribe responded in the affirmative and even sent a representative to help with the round-up when the time arrived.

          There is now a very nice herd of American Bison securely ensconced on the Lakota Reservation thank you very much!

          The Bald Eagle story is as good. It involves DDT (Boo!) and an enterprising young biologist, Dr. Sharpe (Yay!) who use the fine imposed on the nasty company that dumped all of the DDT illegally off the coast, and started a very labor-intensive salvation program. This involved the gathering of nesting pairs of eagles from the Northwest, watching the nests, taking the eggs out of the nests, replacing them with wooden ones, hatching said eggs, and putting the little guys back in the nest after they hatched.

          Phew!

          It was very successful and now the Eagle population is thriving once again on Catalina!

          Our inland excursion ended around noon back down in Avalon. Thankfully there were no cruise ships in port this day. I cannot imagine this tiny town being over-run with that many people. Good for business, but I’m sure that our experience would not have been as enjoyable. We were able to procure a water-side table on the deck of Antonio’s for lunch and once again, we took our time as our next adventure did not start until 3 PM.

          At 2:45 we reported to Captain Nemo aboard the Nautilus where we were given or orders to report to the engine room of the submarine for Duty Training before our under-sea excursion.

          Well, not really.

          We did report to the Captain, but it was to be shown our seats aboard the semi-submersible craft that we would cruise over to a Marine Sanctuary in to view the undersea denizens that lurked behind every strand of propeller-entwining  kelp there.

          Well, not really.

          The kelp is just really pretty and all of the little fishies like to swim around it.

          After we were safely deposited back on terra-firma we made our way back into town and awaited the arrival of Bear, our Avalon Discovery Tour Guide. He probably could nave been one of those guys at Disneyland as he peppered his travelogue with funny anecdotes that kept us smiling. I can’t believe how he guided his large, articulated, two-bus sized, vehicle around those tiny streets. Up and down the surrounding mountains we went to give us great views of Avalon.

          An hour later, back in Avalon proper, we landed at the Blue Water Café, the prized location for lunch or dinner, which has a first-come, first-served policy. The waiting times can be excruciating as this place is right next to Antonio’s, which means waterside!

          No Cruise Ship, No Waits!

          We procured a rail-side table complete with two propane overheard patio heaters as it was starting to get cool. Avalon is on the east side of the Island, so those surrounding mountains cast a long shadow in the evening, helping to cool things off. Good in the hot summers, but this day was around 70 degrees, so when it cooled off, it cooled off!

          Dinner and dessert completed we walked back to the pier and waited for our ship to come in (literally).  We tried our best to fall asleep on the voyage back to Long Beach.

          Catalina is one of those places that you can immerse yourself in and not worry that there’s no Walmart or rental cars, or any fast-paced annoyances to mitigate your de-compression from real life.

          The kid in third grade staring longingly at Catalina from his school bus those many years ago, was not disappointed.