Family Catalina Adventure

We had our first visit to Catalina as a family of 4 and we had an amazing trip! The month of September in Avalon is perfect. Both the air and the water are so warm, the huge summer crowds are gone aside from the Tuesday cruise ships, and we get the condo to ourselves for a week. Both the girls do great on the Flyer, and Pat and Al were nice enough to let us stay at their house the night before. Joe dropped us off at the boat in the morning and kept an eye on the truck for the week, and also picked us up when we returned.
We did so many fun things! We went on a little hike up near the Wrigley Memorial, rented a peddle boat for an hour, went fishingoff the green pier, went on a glass-bottom boat tour and of course spent a lot of time at the beach and pool.
It was a wonderful vacation from reality and so great to all be together as a family for so long. Alex has said he definitely respects me more when he spends so much time with the girls, they are pretty tiring! But also so funny and cute, and while he recognizes I have the best job in the world, he also admits it is the hardest. I love having him around 24/7 to witness the crazy, frustrating, hilarious and sweet moments that make up my days.
Enjoy the pics!

Harper took her first swim in the Sol Vista pool on 9/20 (our 4 year anniversary!)

The heat and lack of water made the deer come down to

the town all over the place! They are very bold

 (she didn't feed it anything or get any closer than this)

Avery LOVED the golf cart! This isn't even ours, just some

nice couple's rental who were kind enough to let her play around in it

Avery and me in the back of our golf cart on our way to a hike

We did the 2.2 mile "Sky High" hike from Wrigley Memorial to the ridge...

VERY hot and dusty and not that exciting, but good exercise

My girls

 

Sisters holding hands while watching Bugs Life

before our lazy day at the beach begins!

(I swear I didn't pose this or ask her to hold

Harper's hand, total spontaneous moment!!)

 

Avery with the mer-people

Pat and Al GENEROUSLY left some money for us to take Avery on a tour

and we chose the glass-bottom boat, my first time too! SO cool!!

 

 

We decided to try our hand at fishing off the green pier one morning...

not a whole lot of luck for us (or the pelican) but Avery enjoyed feeding the fish

food and watching them swarm around to eat it

 

 

Thanks for the memories, Catalina!!

We cannot WAIT to visit again!