Catalina Island Trip

[bowneline]

Also, make sure you take the 73 toll road on your way down, and have cash to pay for it ($5?), that will save you a lot of time, and get you off the traffic clogged 405 freeway.

In Avalon, the food is on the greasy and expensive side. Cafe Metropole is a welcome change. It,s next to the Vons, and has healthy, cheap-ish meals, including a great breakfast.

[ferretkona]

There used to be some really great fish restaurants that got morning deliveries. I used to see them load it thru the restaurant during breakfast.
I used to eat Clams and chips at Michael John's. There used to be a Mexican restaurant up at Solomon's corner up near the casino that was pretty good.
There was a Italian Restaurant on the water North of the Pier, pays to place a reservation there as there can be quite a wait some nights.

I used to take a Hibachi and my fishing pole to Pebbly Beach when they used to land the sea planes there. By the time my charcoal was ready I had some kind of fish landed.

The casino does have concert nights with jazz, rock and classic music. The town can get quite crowded some nights.

[mricu]

Ok .. just got back (barely) from Catalina ... Here's the play by play on the timings going from Chula Vista, Ca to New Port Beach on Friday morning:

Left Chula Vista at 6am, travel route was via 805 --> 5 --> 73 --> 55 --> Destination
> Mission Valley: 6:15am
> Carlsbad: 6:20am
> Camp Pendleton/Ocenside Border: 6:30am
> San Onofre: 6:40am
> Hwy 5/Hwy 73 Interchange: 7am
> Hwy 73/Hwy 55 Interchange: 7:15am
> Newport Beach: 7:25am

Travelled with the flow of traffic which was averaging 85 mph ... very little in the way of traffic in general at this time.

Toll was $5.75 on Hwy 73 during my travel.

I managed to find street parking at E. Balboa Ave and Palm St. This was free parking, not metered. Only sign that restricted parking was one saying no parking on Monday's between 8am and 6pm. I parked all weekend with no issues.

We were one of the first in line for the Ferry, so a 7:30 arrival or a 9am ferry might have been too early, however the line really started forming at around 8am.

The swells and wind was terrible today on the way back that all of the ferry's from the mainland were cancelled except the Ferry from Newport Beach (Catalina Flyer) ... which was the one I came on. All other passenger's were pretty much "stranded" on Catalina until Monday when the Catalina Express Ferries may resume their service.

3 days was way too much for Catalina. We could have finished everything we wanted to do on day 1, but decided to spread it out. By the second hald of day 2 and all of Day 3 we were just walking aimlessly on the coast. I'm thankful we didn't get stranded due to cancelled ferries because I wouldn't know what to do for the extra night ... not to mention the possibility of my car being towed away due to the Monday parking restrictions :s

Catalina: Did it ... mark it off the list ... probably won't return.

Thanks for all the helpful hints everyone. It really helped plan my trip. I hope my summary helps anyone else who may be going.

[dober1]

Refer back to the advice I gave you on page one