Thursday, January 05, 2017

Camping in Catalina Island

Happy 2017! I wish you nothing but the best in this new year. I hope you have already started on your New Year resolutions.


xoxo

Wrapping up my Catalina Birthday, we headed back to the campgrounds. I couldn't wait to put my feet up...or down, seeing as we were sleeping on the ground! Our tent was already up, we just had to blow up the beds and go to sleep.

camping, catalina island, sleeping bag, neck pillow
My California King.

I made both our beds and charged the phones. The usual night time routine.
portable charger, camping, power bank
This portable charger is the best thing since!
Calvin decided to go hiking because the hill looked inviting.

hills have eyes

The hill didn't look that inviting to me. The bed did! I stayed in that tent, in bed, trying to find service (network) to no avail. Once I had given up, messages started coming through my phone. There I was trying to read my notifications and responding without moving the phone an inch. Didn't work! Eventually, opened up the zipper to the 'roof' of the tent, looked at the sky and was so thankful for having had such a nice birthday. I drifted off to sleep in gratitude.

In the middle of the night, I heard Calvin conversing with someone. It must be a new camper, I thought. They seemed to be whispering though. Why? Mhh! Oh well. I drifted off to sleep. The following morning, after a delicious night's sleep; I found out that there was a guy who was camping in the fixed 'tents' meant for groups of people; one one person, if you're willing to pay for all those beds. 
catalina island camping
The guy spent the night in one of these. 
The guy didn't pay though. Like, at all! Apparently, he figured because he arrived sneakily in the middle of the night, he could just use the facility and sneak right out the following morning. He had a dog with him. I remember the guy exchanging phone numbers with Calvin telling him he would call him, they should hook up when back in LA. I don't think that happened. Nobody was sitting by the telephone waiting for that call though. 

cooking outdoors, camping stove, tent, catalina island
Breakfast time!
As usual, Calvin made breakfast. First, he made green tea for both of us, then, breakfast.

Camping Life
The food was tasty and warm. Now you know what some of the stuff in those gigantic bags of ours was!

After breakfast, we went up to the botanical gardens to check out the plants before heading back home. 
Tree pose
But first
It's very serene out there, I highly recommend it if you want to do something different. Camping, not the botanical gardens... or both!

Random art on the way to the botanical gardens

We walked to the botanical gardens. It wasn't far, even I walked haha.

hiking in catalina island
Walking Brook
That's me in Calvin's panama hat. Notice how there's nobody else out there but us.

prickly pear
Prickly pear
You know prickly pear reminds me of my childhood days in the farm where we were surrounded by prickly pears. When done with the gardens, we went further up to view the below building, Wrigley Memorial something something. Apparently, they host weddings and such here. I can understand, it's beautiful.

wrigley memorial, catalina island, botanical gardens
Wrigley Memorial
The stairs up to the actual building though!

stairs
That's me tired, trying to breathe through my nose!
We walked up to the building from one end. and down this way. Apparently, there are 150 stairs down this way, less the way we went up. Do you think the bride walks down this stairs towards the groom during the weddings? I wonder! This is assuming the bride doesn't walk up the stairs, talk about starting your marriage on a high note.
Somewhere up there
We worked up quite an appetite with all that walking and had time to kill before our ferry back to Los Angeles, so we went downtown for some nibbles.

Feed Me!
American food spot on the water. The waiter was so handsome, I had to ask if he's an actor. Just like the guy in this blog. The food was good, service awesome!

Hot chicken wings, french fries
Hot Wings and fries


half pound burger
Half Pound Burger
After trying to the catch the bus in three different bus stops, someone gave us a ride. We paid them what we would have paid the bus. She was so happy! I felt bad for her. It wasn't even that much. She actually was walking to work when she saw us, talked to us, walked back to her house and gave us a ride on her golf cart. It was such a nice thing to do. She then went back downtown, I was secretly hoping she would give us a ride back downtown. Why not, right? She was going back there and We were already packed.

catalina island buses
Bus Stop
Country roads! We waited at this stop for what felt like forever. Luckily, we had time. And because we had time, when we arrived downtown, Calvin jumped over the fence and went for a dip here! I was worried, he was going to get into trouble. He told me there was nothing that says not to do it. OK! 


The security person, came and had a chat with us, instead. He told us they had to fence the area off because people take their children there, or some people are under the influence and it's slippery. They don't want to get sued, should something happen to someone.

While waiting to check in.....
catalina island prison, getting arrested
Dude in a hoodie is in handcuffs
Apparently, there are no jails in Catalina, so they take you to LA somewhere if you're in trouble. This guy was arrested for disorderly conduct. 


Very unexpected sight
Back on the ferry! Of to the city of angels!

On the Ferry
This was around the same time Calvin's fedora flew off hahahahah! It was of the stuff I got him for Christmas. P.S. If you click on Christmas, it's not the red one! Everyone laughed at him, it was just so silly. I was thinking to myself, this didn't just happen hahahaha!

Thank you Catalina Island!




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