Avalon, Santa Catalina Island, California – Santa Catalina Island has been an island getaway for me since the 1980s. It is one of eight islands making up the Channel Islands chain off the coast of Southern California. Though it lies just 26 miles across the channel from Southern California, it is worlds away from its hustle and bustle. Nice thing is it is quick and easy to get to here by ferry. Which makes Catalina a great place to spend a day — especially a birthday.
Avalon, one of the two cities on Catalina, has been described as having a European feel with a Mediterranean climate. The rich and famous used to hang out here. Some of the architecture of the older buildings takes you back to an earlier era. If you look inside some of the restaurants and hotels, you might find photographs of the movie stars who vacationed here adorning the walls, giving you an idea of what Avalon was like back then.
The city of Avalon is very small. You can walk through almost the entire city in less than a day, and that would include visiting the Catalina Island Golf Course and the Wrigley Memorial & Botanic Garden. If you walk into the residential part of the city, say around Clarissa Avenue, Descanso Avenue, and Catalina Avenue, you’ll likely find a few ornately decorated homes. I appreciate the work the residents put into the unique ways they depict scenes of Catalina in the decorations on their homes and businesses.
The birthday promotion
Ferry service Catalina Express ran a Birthday Ride promotion (which, unfortunately, ended 31 December 2017) where you could sail free to Avalon or Two Harbors for your birthday. The only catch was you had to make the trip on the actual day of your birthday. I did this by myself in 2011, the first year of the promotion. I had a good time then, so I decided to treat my wife to a day on the island for her birthday, and hopefully show her some of what I just told you about.
Surprise!
We drove down to Long Beach, which was the most convenient port for us to depart from. At the time, I thought the only bargain we’d be getting was the free ride to Catalina for my wife. That alone was worth the trip. But as we sat in the terminal before boarding the boat, we saw the flyer listing all of the other offers available to birthday celebrants on the island. You can imagine our surprise upon learning this.
Apparently, around 45 partners on the island joined Catalina Express to offer all kinds of free, half off, gift with purchase, or buy one, get one free (BOGO) deals. You could take advantage of deals on submarine tours, ice cream, the zip line, jeep tours, hotel stays, rock climbing, bowling, massages, golf, tours of the Catalina Island Casino, kayaking, parasailing, golf cart rentals… the list went on.
Bike rental
Our first mission after we disembarked in Avalon was to go find Brown’s Bikes. They had an offer where if the birthday boy or girl paid for two hours’ rental, they’d get the rest of the day’s rental free. We figured we would just ride around Avalon on the bicycles, stopping whenever we found something that interested us.
After the drive to the port of Long Beach and the ride over to Avalon on the boat, we were getting hungry. It was agreed that we would have lunch at Buffalo Nickel. I had never been there before. Plus, it was one of the restaurants offering birthday deals, so that was an easy choice. The person at Brown’s Bikes told us we needn’t worry about leaving our bicycles outside the restaurant, that they would be safe all over the island. So off we rode, down Pebbly Beach Road, past Lovers Cove, and right up to the door of Buffalo Nickel.
Buffalo Nickel serves Mexican food, which both my wife and I enjoy. A special menu was available for the birthday girl. I could buy any entrée on the regular menu and she could get anything on the “birthday” menu for free. This would be her third deal and we had only been on the island maybe half an hour. Our lunch was delicious and very filling.
Buena Vista Point
Back on our bicycles, we continued on Pebbly Beach Road as it curved around the coastline. Soon, the Southern California Edison plant came into view. If we were going to head inland, it was inevitable that we’d have to start climbing some hills. Turning right on Wrigley Road, we zigzagged our way up the first hill.
The bikes we rented were mountain bikes. In hill-climbing gear I would pop a small wheelie with every pedal stroke. I tried shifting to a higher gear to keep the front tire from bouncing. That was ok for a short distance, but too hard for the hills we needed to climb. Then I tried applying less power. That helped, but ended up taking more effort to get up the hills.
The reason I decided to take this road was two-fold: I wanted to find the back route to Buena Vista Point Scenic Overlook, while at the same time I wanted to show my wife one of my favorite spots from which to look out over Avalon Bay, also here at Buena Vista Point. A little effort and few wheelies later, mission accomplished on both counts.
For some reason I chose not to bring my DSLR camera on this trip. My compact camera does a good job of filling in when I don’t have my DSLR camera with me, but the lens is not wide enough to allow me to hold it and take a photo of my wife and I. Fortunately, another couple was also up here. They graciously took a couple of photos for us. That led to a short conversation. We learned they were from Finland. What a coincidence! We were going to be visiting Finland the next month!
More hills!
As we left the lookout point, we got to enjoy going downhill for a change. The streets led us back into Avalon proper. We journeyed northwest on Crescent Avenue, to Casino Way, past the famous Catalina Island Casino, out until it turned into St. Catherine Way. St. Catherine Way greeted us with more hills. This was my first time going this way. We went up this road for a bit before deciding to turn around.
Somehow, we made our way over to Chimes Tower Road. That led us below the Catalina Chimes Tower. Somewhere around here we paused to take a photo from a vantage point I had never seen before: looking southeastward over the bay. With a cloudless sky and temps around 68 degrees F, it was an absolutely beautiful day to be on Catalina Island!
We made many stops in the hills to enjoy the views, and to decide which way to go. (Okay, some of those stops were to rest.)
Heading back down the hill, we came upon a family in a golf cart with a seven- or eight-year-old boy in back. He watched us as we followed them. I decided to have a little fun with him. He smiled. I sped up and stretched out my arm as if I was trying to catch him, occasionally grimacing to exaggerate emphasize the effort needed to catch up to him. They stayed just out of reach. He looked like he was enjoying the game and that made me happy. Soon we came to a stop sign. We waved goodbye as the family turned one way and we went the other.
Ice cream, rocks, and candy
As the afternoon was grew later, we made our way back to Brown’s and turned in the bikes. On foot now, we walked back across Avalon again (I told you Avalon was small) toward the casino. Near the casino we ran across a rock-climbing wall. As you might guess, they had an offer here, too. I think it was a BOGO deal. I bought one ticket. My wife got her climb for free. The guide gave us our instructions, geared us up, and off we went. Kind of. My wife went first. She reported back on what she experienced.
Rock climbing is a lot harder than I thought it would be. You’d think you’d use mostly arm strength. I found I was using my hands, fingers, and arms, mainly just to hold on. My legs did most of the work pushing me up to the next hold. I did make it to the top, though.
Between the cycling and the rock climb, we had worked up a small appetite. As we walked southeast on Crescent, my wife spied Lloyd’s of Avalon. They sell candy and ice cream. Lloyd’s was also one of the places offering birthday deals. Another easy decision. So that meant some free ice cream for my wife. Not be left out, I got some ice cream, too…but had to pay for mine.
On the way back to the dock we passed numerous shops, stopping in a few of them. Some of them offered gift with purchase deals. I didn’t even take note of the stores’ names; we just walked in based on the window displays. We did buy a few small items and my wife got a few more free gifts.
My wife commented on how much fun she was having getting free stuff, basically just by flashing her driver’s license. I envied her, but I was really glad she was having a good time. How am I supposed to top this next year?
Here is a link to the offers that were available at the time of our trip to Catalina Island. Remember, Catalina Express ended this program in December of 2017 so these deals no longer exist: Catalina Express presents Birthday Island.
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