Catalina Island

Welcome to Avalon - the tiny little city on Catalina Island. It is so small that no new cars are allowed to enter the city unless an existing one leaves. The locals drive golf carts everywhere - even the service workers and police! It's pretty funny.

Some more sights ... the veterans memorial was pretty cool. They even had bricks for active personnel.

We stayed at the Snug Harbor Inn. Our room had a nautical theme - it was super cute.

We had a great view from the room too.

The only not so fabulous thing about our hotel.... it came with a complimentary pair of ear plugs and eye mask. I am accustomed to ear plugs, so I was stoked on that (light sleeper due to babies!) but why the mask? Found out real quick when it was time for bed. No black out shades plus street lights = bright room. I wore them to bed and slept fine. Mike said he didn't need his but I saw him with the covers over his head - LOL!!!!

After checking into the hotel room we walked around looking for something to do (we had no plans)... why not dive again? This time in the water! SCUBA! It was so awesome - even better than sky diving (a tad bit more peaceful and not painful at all!)

1st two pics are gearing up and last two are happy campers upon return. More amazing than the fish was the kelp. It grows 2 feet per day, which is 1 inch per hour! It was truly amazing.

After scuba diving we cleaned up and enjoyed "wine/cheese" hour in the hotel. We read, talked and met a few other couples.

Then we headed out "on the town" in search for some good dinner. We had fabulous surf (me) and turf (Mike) at this upstairs place with a view.

"Continental breakfast" via cute basket delivered to our room at 8:15 am. We had already gone on a 5 mile run and taken a shower by this time! We are early risers, even on vacation... we can't sleep in even when we try!

After our lovely breakfast we got a full body deep tissue massage right in our room... at the same time! Can it get any better????

We went shopping for some sunglasses and a hat before eating lunch at this little local Mexican hot spot.

In an effort to 'waste time' before our boat ride home, we took the 2 hour "Skyline tour." It turned out to be great! Although it was much scarier than sky diving! The driver thought it was great to go fast up the windy, bumpy, dusty, skinny road... and get very close to the edge of the cliff before turning his BIG RIG. Seriously think my blood pressure went up about 40 points!We stopped at the top of the Island for 20 minutes. The airport was at least 15 degrees hotter than the town of Avalon. We found our gifts for Jackson and Owen in the store - I'm always multitasking.

the view of Avalon from above was gorgeous!

A great trip comes to an end... we were ready to go home and see our boys!