A Catalina Birthday Weekend

I am lucky in that I never have to work on my birthday, it being on a national holiday. But this year was extra cool when my birthday fell on a Friday, making for a long weekend perfect for a little getaway. Having spent only one day on Catalina a few years back, I was excited to have an entire weekend on the little island off the coast of Southern California to play in the water, take in the sites and relax.

Thursday evening Ginger & I headed out on the last boat from Long Beach Landing. Packed with groups headed over to celebrate the holiday, there was a festive mood on board with lots of laughter and toasting.

After unpacking at our hotel, we enjoyed a dinner of Mexican food and a shared mango-rita for our first night, before heading back to watch the results show of SYTYCD. (Hey! It's my birthday weekend and I can spend my first night on a charming little island inside my hotel room watching TV if I want to.)

It's inevitable that when you are allowed to sleep in, you can't. So despite my plan to sleep late on my birthday morning, I was up by 6:30am. Fun for Ginger! After a leisurely couple of hours of lounging and reading we met up with a friend Marva and some of her friends who came to the island for the day.

After breakfast we rented a golf cart for an hour to drive the scenic route around Avalon, which included beautiful views of the harbor.

After the drive, Ging & I did a snorkeling tour of the kelp forest near the old Casino building. Ginger's under-water camera yielded some, er, interesting photos from our adventure. As they are film and not digital, you'll have to wait to see those some other time. A late lunch, shower and relaxing time followed before we met back up with Marva & Co. for dinner & fireworks.

Our last day & a half on the island included more relaxing, walking around, shopping, kayaking and more relaxing.

Thanks again, Ging, for a lovely birthday weekend! (See all the photos HERE.)