This beautiful tile mural is over the box office in the foyer of the famous Casino in the City of Avalon on Catalina Island. She has been restored form the dark days of the 60s to the 80’s when this gorgeous structure fell into disrepair. Luckily, the whole place is looking good, although some places around the building could use a power wash. Nonetheless, this is one of the several wonderful aquatic murals in the Casino’s foyer. Click on the thumbnail image to see a close up.
September 2007
Island Patrol
When you are on an island, everything you consume has to be barged over from the mainland. In the case of groceries and gasoline, the entire delivery truck is loaded onto the barge and brought to the island and barged back empty. This causes the prices for such commodities to go way up.
While you can’t cut down on groceries and such, you can do something about fuel consumption. In order to cope with 5-dollar-per-gallon-plus gas prices, most Catalina Island residents drive small golf-cart sized vehicles since the town is rather small. You also see motor scooters and we saw a Segway while we were there.
One interesting vehicle we saw was this electric motorized stand-up three-wheeled solution which the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department uses to patrol the streets of Avalon. Click the image for a very big close-up.
Shallow Water
Last week during our anniversary excursion to Catalina, I took this picture of the shallow water on Avalon Beach, right across from our hotel. I love the textures of the rocks, sand, bubbles and the way the sunlight streaks through the water. It’s like Water Zen – sorta makes you feel at peace with nature. Click the thumbnail image for the full-sized picture.
Avalon 2007
We posed for this picture on the balcony of our hotel in Avalon when we were there for our anniversary last week.
Avalon at Dusk
While we were in Avalon, I snapped this panoramic view from our hotel room balcony. Click the image below for the full-sized panorama.
Camera: Canon A710s. Software: ZoomBrowser Stitch.
Avalon Sunrise
Well, we’re going back to the mainland today. It’s only been three nights here, but it seems like we’ve been here for a nice, relaxing, and lengthy stay. I suppose that means that we’ve had a great time.
We were rewarded this morning with this wonderful sunrise. This was taken from the Crescent Avenue balcony at our hotel in Avalon; this is the exact room we stayed in on our wedding night.
Click on the thumbnail image to see the full-sized photo of this beautiful Avalon sunrise.
