After checking out of our San Diego lodging, we headed north towards the port city of Long Beach.  The GPS lead us a bit off the path at the port area (which is enormous), but we finally found our boat area.  Our boat company had added a departure an hour earlier than the one we were booked on, but they said we could take that which got us to Catalina Island an hour earlier than we were planning on.

Catalina Island is the only substantially inhabited island of the Channel Islands.  Developed to a large degree by William Wrigley, Jr. of bubble gum fame, there are few cars and many gas powered golf carts. The main town is Avalon, home to a few thousand permanent residents and the destination for our boat.   We arrived after a little over an hour on the water and walked the short distance to our hotel. 

Our lodging included various tours so we lined one up for this afternoon – the submersible boat.  It’s kind of like a more advanced glass bottom boat.  After you board the boat, you walk down a few stairs and then can sit below the water line and look out the windows at the marine life.  Once out to sea, the crew throw food into the water and the fish swarm around boat.  It was a neat site.

There are a bunch of restaurants since this is a tourist town and the quality fit with a tourist area – not as good as it should be for about the same price.  In any event, we were full and enjoyed the music during dinner.  We played a round of mini golf to cap off the evening.

View the pictures from today:

http://sanjoseabrams.com/photos/SoCalJuly2012/Day%209%20-%20Off%20to%20Catalina%20Island/index.html#