Critter Country

Something unique about visiting Catalina, even in the "big city" of Avalon, you always seem to be pretty close to nature. You've got the ocean to the front, and hills and mountains all around.

As you get out of the city, you are more apt to see wildlife, but even within, there is some to be seen. The day we arrived, we went over a block to get some lunch, fairly late in the afternoon. My wife finished all she could of her sandwich, and left a fair amount of bread. There were a few sparrows, so we began tearing off chunks, as you do, as tossing them to 'em. Didn't take too long before a crow picked up on the free buffet!!!

Usually you don't see them that close, but we lured him to the next table, and then he hopped up on the railing. I've heard that crows have great memories, so perhaps we've made a friend for life!!!

On the way over to Descanto Beach on our first evening walk, I got a shot of a bunch of gulls roosting on a breakwater, with a glorious near full moon!!! After I took my shot, my boy ran out after them and scattered them while I took a video. I thought it would have been a funny vengance if one had circled back and pooped on him, but that didn't happen.

The next day when we were at Descanto Beach Club for breakfast, a gull came and perched on top of an umbrella directly at eye level with us... Hope they don't have long memories!

That evening, we walked out on the pier. Earlier in the day, we'd been out on the pier and several people were fishing off the end. The kelp bass were biting, and we got to see several get reeled in. As we left the hotel, my boy spied a dollar on the ground!!! He thinks it's a lucky dollar, because afterwards we saw a couple of the kind of animals we'd never see back home!!!

Out there, you've got the noise of the surf on the beach and the pilings, and the surrounding boats in the surf. Heard some splashes off the side, and looking over there, there's a gray blur under the surface... Then it pops up!!!

There was a porpoise, or several of them, in Avalon harbor!!! Didn't think I'd ever see that!!! Not a great picture, but I took some video, and it came out a little better, even though there's a lot of it with not much going on.

After that, we headed to the back of the town. One of the streets lead to a park as it goes back into the hills. If I'm not mistaken, as a teen when we'd gone on a couple of family vacations over there, my brother in law and I had biked back to the same park in the evening and sat there for a while. Anyway, as we walked back there, we caught sight of this guy!!! It was a Catalina Island fox, native only to the island!!!

Got a few pictures of him, and a video of him doing his thing. Then my son goes, "I'm going to see how close I can get to him!!!" OK, hold on, I'll take a video of that. Started the video, he starts towards him, and Mr. Fox skitters off up the hillside, all in about a two second clip!!!

Pictures Taken by Pros

At most theme parks these days, it seems, they have their photographers wandering about taking pictures, and distributing little code cards to find your photos online later. An excellent idea, to be sure, another stream of revenue, and keeps people from having to lug their own cameras around and finding someone to take a shot of the whole family.



Here's what we got (even though, with the exception of the water parks, I had my own camera with me) submitted for your approval!!!











One of the better days we had was the day we went to the Disney Studios Park. If memory serves correctly, it was the 4th Disney park we visited. By that time, my wife & the younger boy were pretty worn out, so they stayed at the resort while the older boy & I went. This was coupled with the fact that the remnant of a tropical depression were blowing through that day. The day was mostly overcast & occasionally drizzly.



That made for many of the lines being pretty short. We pretty much walked onto the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror twice, and at the end of the evening we rode the Aerosmith coaster twice. Also, my older boy has patience for and even an interest in some things that my wife and younger boy would quickly find boring, and he's like me in that he'll stay as long as possible to get the most out of a park. We got to go through the museum-like area and the film of the Walt Disney story. The only ride I would have liked to visit that we didn't get on (due to the over an hour wait time) was the Toy Story shooting gallery ride, doubtless a clone of the one at California Adventure, one of my new favorites.







As opposed to last time, we actually made it on a few of the rides we missed out on last time. At Magic Kingdom, we made it onto Splash Mountain and Space Mountain (both much better than West Coasts'), although we didn't have time to visit the Heritage Square or whatever it's called area we missed last time, too.



At the Animal Kingdom park, they'd shut down the Expedition Everest coaster due to lightening last time, so that was our first stop this time. Made it on after a considerable wait, but also got fast passes to return later that night. Last time we'd gone, we'd seen a show on the in room programming that had that coaster as the best Disney coaster. It's pretty good, but I still like the Aerosmith one better. Got to ride the Dinosaur! ride, too, similar to the Indiana Jones ride out here, but differently themed. Got to take a good look at (and about a zillion pictures of) the Tree of Life. Oh, and the river raft ride that we waited for probably an hour or more last time was pretty much a walk-on. Rode it probably 3 or 4 times in a row.



At Epcot, they had Spaceship Earth open this time, so I got to ride it again, for the first time since 1983. They've added video screens to the cars, and at the end they use a photo of you taken at the beginning of the ride on a an interactive cartoon. Pretty hilarious. Rode it again later to take a video of that. Got to ride the Soaring, another California Adventure clone, and Maelstrom, which were both closed by the time we made it to them last time. Mission: Space we got to ride again, and the boy found someone's dropped fast pass for the GM Test Track ride.







The last few shots here are taken at Typhoon Lagoon, which is where we got the famous free shirts.

Sleep Deprivation, Part 2

The second day we were in Florida was the day that Disney's Animal Kingdom was having the "Extra Magic Hours" in the evening, so when we finally got up after our late night, that was where we headed.




The park is divided up into various Continent areas, with a dinosaur land added in for good measure.


The first ride that we headed for was the Expedition Everest roller coaster, which my older boy noticed was the number one thrill ride on the Disney channel at the resort. It looks pretty cool, but it had a huge line. I figured we'd go there first and get fast passes, then come back and ride later.



When we got to the ride, it was far enough along in the day that they were no longer issuing fast passes for the ride. Oh well, I figured we would come back in the evening when all but the resort guests were out of the park.



In the meantime, there was a river raft ride that the younger really wanted to go on. It also had a sizable line, but we waited anyway. It was also no longer doing fast passes. A pretty typical river raft ride, we all got nicely soaked.



We then went on one of one of the animal exhibit walking tours. That was where I got the shots of the tigers, and the huge fruit bats. That was quite cool.



Not long after that, we went on an animal safari ride. It was near to the end of the time that they did those because the sun was going down. Got to see several animals on that, elephants, rhinos, giraffes, lions, gazelles, and many others.



After that, we headed over to the dinosaur land. They had a spinning wild mouse type roller coaster called the Primeval Whirl. The line was pretty short, and it was a decent coaster, although it didn't spin until the end, and before that it was pretty jerky.



By then the resort guests were the only ones left, so we went back to the Expedition Everest ride. The line was still pretty long, but not as bad as it had been. My wife and the oldest got into the line, and the younger and I went to go do other stuff (back in Dino land, where there was an elaborate play area), but on the way we found out that they had shut down Expedition Everest due to weather reasons. Huh??? Humid and warm keeps them from running it??? We met back up, and just a bit after that a lightening storm started up. OK, that makes some sense, I guess.


OK, one other ride that looked pretty cool, called "Dinosaur!!! The Ride", a time travel and motion simulator. All enclosed, it should be fine to ride on. Nope, it was closed down, too. Not long after that, the rain started up pretty good. Working our way through the park, we came upon the "It's Tough to be a Bug" show that they also have at Disney's California Adventure. It was exactly the same, but it was about the only thing open, and it was also indoors, out of the rain.

After that, we left. Everyone else had the same idea, and the wait for the shuttle bus back to the resort was pretty hellish. I was hoping to make it back to the park on one of the days to hit the two thrill rides we'd missed out on, but that never ended up happening.