Saturday, May 30, 2009

Island Adventures

Here are the pictures from Carie's and my stay on Catalina Island. It was a fantastic and magical time where we were incredibly productive (Carie finished her 41-page major proposal for her qualifying exam!) and had a wonderful time: we snorkeled, kayaked, watched the fish off the dock at night, and stalked the island foxes and deer that wandered past out front door in the evenings. Also, some of these are the first pictures posted with my new DSLR! I finally sold my film camera and bought a nicer digital camera.

The island appears out of the mist.

We arrive at the Wrigley Institute in the best little cove ever (next two pictures are from the top of that hill on the right).

The Wrigley Institute and inlet (actually a wildlife sanctuary, thus the fantastic snorkeling) in the foreground, with Two Harbors in the background in the upper left and the bird-island in the upper right.

The houses we stayed in; we were in the house on the right. The large building on the left is the research center, actually a very well-equipped laboratory.

We kayaked out to this rock to discover pelicans, sea lions, and the worst smell we've experienced in our lives. Oddly enough there's a large patch of Prickly Pear growing on top of it despite it being just a big poop-covered rock in the middle of the bay.

The dock from which we snorkeled and watched fish.

From my mountain biking trips: the island is completely full of beautiful little untouched coves such as this one called Little Harbor.

This was on Catalina. Seriously. They brought bison here when they were filming westerns in the 30's, and they became a fixture on the island.

Avalon: very touristy (full of golf carts because cars aren't allowed to non-residents), not as neat as Two Harbors, and midway through a 50-mile ride. I pretty much took the picture and left.

Sea Lions have no respect for the law.

It's kind of hard to be back on the mainland now. I miss wandering out to the dock at night to watch the fish, being able to take swims in the ocean whenever I want, and having a beautiful little piece of the island practically to ourselves. It truly is a magical place; we'll for certain be going back.

3 comments:

  1. looks like a really nice getaway!

    i think the touristy golf cart place must have been the place our cruise ship stopped when i was 5... we didn't go snorkling but we went on a glass-bottom boat and i remember there were lots of fancy fish.

    what kind of camera did you end up with?

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  2. There was actually a cruise ship in Avalon's harbor when I stopped by. I've been there before midway through a scuba trip as well.

    I got a Nikon D60, but I skipped the crappy kit lens and bought the 18-70mm (kit lens for the D70; much better lens) instead. I'll eventually buy the 70-300mm VR lens, but I'm set for a little while now.

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