Day 04 - 10/05/2021 - Returning to Santa Catalina Island

Fifty five years ago I loaded up 5 other students in my '56 Ford 2 Door Hardtop and I drove us from Seattle to Long Beach where we caught a small boat that ferried us over to a primitive camp (Campus by the Sea) on Santa Catalina where we slept in tents above the wild goats and hogs.  It was a great time, but we never got to visit Avalon.

 

This time my wife and 1300 of our newest and closest friends arrived off the small harbor at Avalon about 11am on the MS Nieuw Amsterdam.  Before we could get off we enjoyed a good coffee chat with our CD, Valerie, and Nick & Jackie, the billboard online pianists, watched the scenery slowly go by as there is a speed restriction in the Channel Islands, got our mandatory Covid antigen tests taken (it was the Abbott Labs test we took at home before we boarded), and ate some lunch.

 

As 5 star Mariners we enjoyed priority tendering starting at noon.  They ran two tender platforms and 4 tenders.  It was a short ride to shore where we walked the small downtown out to the casino and back.  We considered visiting the botanical garden, but it was a couple miles out of town.  We ended up taking a one hour tour on a small tram that was informative and gave us great viewpoints for pictures.  

 

There was a long line for return tenders and 3 tenders were filled before we boarded ours for the short ride back to the ship. After a quick Lido dinner, tonight's entertainment was a female comedian, Corey Kahaney, who was pretty funny.  She was good enough that returned to watch her 9pm show.

 

I finished the night reading more of Righteous Assassin before falling asleep around 11:30pm.



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