Catalina

We were fortunate enough to celebrate our first wedding anniversary on Catalina Island and enjoyed a relaxing four days on the island. We stayed at the cute Vista Del Mar hotel where they served milk and cookies every night.

The beautiful hallway of the hotel, our room is on the left.

We saved the top layer of our wedding cake and we were really excited to eat it! It was a custom flavor of vanilla cake with Olallieberry buttercream inside. When we unwrapped the cake, it had yellowed a bit, but we still wanted to try it. The cake itself was pretty dry but the filling was delicious! Chris said to me "next time we get married, we are going to eat the top layer the next day." Ok!

Before heading out to look at the shops and to decide what we wanted to do all week.

We wanted to go on a fishing charter boat, but it was WAY over priced, so that was out. While fishing was off the list, we did meet someone who takes charters out around the island looking for flying fish. We had seen it advertised online but the website said that they didn't start until June so we were excited to hop on the boat.

The Catalina Island Casino. We took a tour and learned a lot about the history of the island.

See that white spot in the picture? That is an eagle! John, the Captain of the boat told us to look for a white spot in the trees and that would be the eagle. Almost immediately, Chris spotted it!

I think I might turn this picture into a canvas print for our guest room, I just love the clouds!

 It was a gorgeous night and the moon was full and so many stars came out! It was the perfect way to spend our anniversary night.

 

Chris searching for flying fish (that's a flashlight, not binoculars)



We saw quite a few flying fish and it was really exciting when we spotted one and it was magical watching them launch out of the water and fly over it! One fish flew so high it hit the top of the boat and fell down into my arms, then it jumped out and Chris caught it. So exciting!!

{I even got a "free" t-shirt for getting hit by a fish!}



So odd looking!



On Monday we rode our bikes all over the island (we took our own bikes over as it was only $6 extra to take them on the ferry and it costs $20/day to rent them). This pelican came to sit by us as we fed the fish down below.

Chris playing with the pelican.

This might be lover's cove, but remember, this is not a petting zoo! :-)

Having lunch after we took the casino tour.

A painting above the movie screen in the casino.

I love this song and the quote was on the wall in the ladies lounge at the casino.

The green building is the pleasure pier {not to be confused with lovers cove} where most of the sea tours leave from. We also spent about three hours fishing off of the pier on Tuesday and caught over 30 fish, we released them all and of course the pictures are all on Chris' camera.

We played miniature golf and both got scores that qualified us as "better than most"...good enough for me, the only type of golf I play!

We lingered over dinner one night and enjoyed some drinks while watching people on the promenade.

Overall it was a wonderful vacation. It was so refreshing to have four interrupted days together and not have errands to run or house projects to work on.

 I am so very lucky to have married my best friend and have him as part of my support system. He makes me laugh, smile, and feel beautiful.

I am the luckiest.