Las Vegas to Santa Catalina Island (at last!!!) in 2 weeks...

Just about all of our trips to the southwest begin with a flight and 2 or 3 day layover in Las Vegas,  because it is centrally located to just about any SW destination we plan for.  And since it is in the middle of the desert, the car ride where ever we go is always an interesting adventure.  Also the run down streets of old Fremont Street area of Vegas have always been a cornucopia of seedy motels and sketchy, down and out people high and hiding from the sun and selling themselves to the lowest bidder.   The edgy tension was unmistakable, the desperation palpable.  But recently the millennials has been moving east to where it all started and the area is coming back into fashion with a vengeance.   Things have changed and disappeared, and they have solved the problem of the unclean, unsavory and unwanted segment of society who lived there and sold their wares on East Fremont in the usual way, urban renewal with bull dozers, fences, and just tearing things down, thereby rousting the unwanted the remnants of the past left to dry in the sun and die.  Since we were there 3 or 4 years ago it has been going fast.  But the stars were in alignment for one last go at it before it was gone.  It was a rainy morning, overcast in the afternoon, but with persistence and breaks in the clouds I found this treasure at the end of the rainbow on lower Las Vegas Blvd, and the next one is probably the last picture I will take on East Fremont Steet since it no longer exists in its former state...See posting East Fremont Street, Disposable Architecture Disposable People...7/2/15 on this blog for my last and most productive outing...

Many of the original motels are gone, empty lots, and those they haven't torn down have been repurposed into auto repair shops (for now) or flea markets and the only thing you will score on Fremont are some new tires, a catalytic converter, or a pockmarked 275 lb girl literally falling out of what barely passed for clothing.  Most of the landmarks of the 7/2/15 posting are gone...

Weather has been an issue for much of the USA this November and has been for much of our trip.  We have spent a good deal of time dodging storms, heavily overcast skies, and flood warnings, so photo ops were few and far between, but you work with what you have and be thankful for a few good shots...The clouds broke now and then in the Mojave Desert, while we were traveling to Long Beach, long enough for a few good shots and to snap this one...I don't always do that well with landscapes, but this is a good one...

   

They say it is the journey, not the destination that is the thing, and we usually agree with that, and there is lots more to say about our 2 1/2 weeks out, but since Catalina Island was the thing this time around, it's time to just get there and save the rest for another time.

Jackie and I are island people.  When we travel, we gravitate to islands.  Any place that requires a ferry to get to is our kind of place.  We have a niece who teaches on an island and and she is probably sick of hearing me tell her that any job that you need to take a ferry to get to is a great job.  Growing up at a boatyard on an island, knee deep in the mud feeling for clams, brings visceral attachment to the water that comes with the place, although like a fish in water, it was easy to lose sight of our enchanted place in the world, especially when you're stuck in a traffic jam on the Long Island Expressway.  So you might think it was a big deal to spend a few days on Catalina Island, and it was.  The main and only town on this primarily undeveloped dot in the ocean is a place called Avalon, a mythical name that perfectly embodies the magical gaggle of shacks, bungalows, and mansions that rise from the mists of the sea and then flow back side by side down to the water in this man made act of imagination 26 miles across the sea from LA on Santa Catalina Island - a place we have dreamed about visiting...and after all this time, we are here, living the dream!!!

If there was one photo of one place I took that embodies the magical state of mind that is the product of imagination called Avalon, this is it, half way up the hill on Catalina Street.

The gatehouse to an unseen palace that is now a spa.

The Descanso Beach Club at the edge of town butting up against the wild life preserve which covers close to 90% of the island.  We were there off season so the cabanas were empty and there were only a few of us at the club to enjoy the November sun in the seaside cafe nestled in a sheltered cove overlooking the sea.  Jackie had a hamburger, I had a mild buzz from a couple of pretty great Bloody Marys and shared Jackie's fries.  Lifestyles of the rich and famous for the cost of a burger.

The 1920's yacht club and Casino also at the edge of town.  The casino was never a gambling place but was meant for entertainment with a gleaming Art Deco Ballroom, movie theater, and other venues to keep the islanders amused with some of the biggest names in Hollywood performing and vacationing there.  It is still in operation and in pristine shape, or so Jackie tells me since she took the tour while I was out trying to get a few good pictures.

We stayed at the Atwater Hotel originally built in 1920 by William Wrigley who bought the island in 1919 and need a luxury place for people to stay in what was then still very much a frontier kind of town.  The hotel was completely and beautifully renovated and reopened in August of 2019 just a few months before we arrived and it was carefully restored in a manner evocative of the time it was built.

And here is Jackie sitting in the lobby...

Jackie drinking coffee on Thanksgiving morning...

And the pier at the center of town on the rainy morning we were heading to the dock to catch the ferry back to Long Beach.  Tried taking this shot the day before but the pier was packed with people and the bright sun made for a very contrasty image, so this worked out well as a parting shot of Catalina!!!

Pablo