Day Trip to Catalina Island

Thanks to Rosh Hashana, I had a random Thursday off of work the week of our anniversary so I convinced Brad to play hookie and spend a fun day together - just the two of us. My mom was nice enough to watch Libby all day, so we took full advantage and headed to Catalina Island. One of my former YW works for the ferry and got us free passes (normally $70 each!), so we couldn't pass it up! It was just what we needed! ;)

We left a very overcast and cold Newport Beach...
...and arrived about an hour and a half later in the city of Avalon. Wow! What a gorgeous day!

This is one of the many adorable little hotels they have in the city.

We rented some mountain bikes and spent all day cruising around the adorable little town.

We rode our bikes up to the Wrigley Memorial monument - a harder ride than we anticipated, but what a blessing gears are! We are so used to our own little beach cruisers with only three gears, that the concept of anything more than three was mind-blowing!

Brad the lion-lover.

We had lunch overlooking the harbor and it was fantastic! Good food, amazing view, and unbeatable company!

We rode over to Descanso Beach for a bit and actually got to fall asleep on the shore for a little while. Can't even remember the last time I got to go to the beach and didn't have to be on constant baby-alert. It was soooooo relaxing and wonderful!

Once we rode up to the Memorial, we decided to hike the rest of the way up to the top of the island. We reached the peak where we could see the water on both sides and enjoyed some little snacks we had packed.

This is the "far side" of the island. Pictures don't do it justice, but the water color was absolutely gorgeous down there!

From the top looking down on Avalon.

We finished off the afternoon enjoying some ice cream on the pier.

Regretably, we had to load back on the ferry at 4:30 and our day in paradise came to an abrupt end. It was the perfect day - if only it had lasted longer! We fell in love with Catalina and can't wait to go back and maybe stay a bit longer next time.