Key West, Quad Cities, & Santa Catalina Island (best, cost, largest)

[DANNYY]

Quad Cities, Key West, & Santa Catalina Island

Seriously, why have these two places never been mentioned before on this forum? I did an advanced search right now of the Quad Cities and its only been mentioned in the local boards, which is fine considering its smaller than the medium sized cities but I would still expect some notoriety.

Key West is another beautiful place that gets absolutely no comparison or any recognition here. It's a beautiful set of islands in Florida with some of the most pristine waters and clear blue settings and white sand beaches in the country.

On Santa Catalina Island, I just did an advanced search, only one thread has EVER been created about it and it was in the Los Angeles forum. Why is that? It's possibly one of the prettiest places in the entire country.

Anyways this thread is to notify fellow City-Daters that these places do exist.

Here's the criteria:
- How much do you know of these places?
- Have any of them been referenced before in popular culture?
- Have you personally visited any of these before in your life and if so what was the experience?
- After researching or looking up for pictures, would you ever consider visiting any of these places at all?

Santa Catalina Island, CA, USA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sKDd9uOW-0
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/Avalon-Catalina-Island.jpg/800px-Avalon-Catalina-Island.jpg (broken link)

Any thoughts?

[coo77]

Santa Catalina Island is beautiful! Its our own hidden oasis in Southern California and besides getaways to the local mountains or deserts, a trip out to Catalina is a must do in the summer. Its not a cheap trip though as the 50 minutes ferry boat ride costs usually around $60 round trip. Bring your family and the boat cost alone can add up. Many 5th graders at local elementary schools make the 5th grade trip out to the island in the spring at places like the Catalina Island Marine Institute camp.

Some of the best things to do on the island are hike, snorkel, scuba dive, sail, kayak, shop in the town, golf, etc...

Key West and Catalina are vastly different too. The town of Avalon and Two Harbors makes up probably around 4% of the land on the island. The rest is untouched. Key West is completely developed as a resort town. Both are great retreats for local residents though.

The pictures DANNY posted were of beautiful Avalon. Here is the smaller town of Two Harbors:
Image has been removed by Moderator - copyrighted images from other web sites. See the room sticky for photo posting guidelines! Thank you.

Catalina below water in kelp forests:
Image has been removed by Moderator - copyrighted images from other web sites. See the room sticky for photo posting guidelines! Thank you.

There is also a new 2 mile long series of 5 zip lines on an Eco Tour of the Island.
Image has been removed by Moderator - copyrighted images from other web sites. See the room sticky for photo posting guidelines! Thank you.

[DANNYY]

^^
I agree (and beautiful pictures by the way), I see so often on here people boost places like Venice Beach & Zuma Beach, not that either are bad or anything but Avalon on Santa Catalina Island to me has always been one of the prettiest places in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area (Los Angeles County) and its an island, which adds more flair to the "beautiful and secluded" image.

I've never seen anyone mention the place before at all. Which seems quite unfair in my opinion, it looks so beautiful, and it even has a rich history and perfect weather, and of course its on a secluded island not too far out from one of the largest cities in the Western Hemisphere.