St. Patrick's Day Party

Mx. Hollywood

What do you do when the vagaries of travel have you with approximately 9 hours to kill between disembarking from the ferry in Long Beach and needing to be at LAX for your red eye home?

Clearly the first thing you do is get sushi. Luckily for us there happened to be a surprsingly tasty sushi joint very near to Hollywood Boulevard so we got to see the "stars" and eat the veggie rolls nearly simultaneously.

Of course our next stop was coffee (pictured here, in my hand) but the real goal was to get some hiking in before we had to sit on a plane for hours and hours. Well, only about 4.5 hours (thanks, tailwinds!) but still, that's a lot longer than any one of us typically likes to sit still.

No access to the Hollywood sign, you say? You mean this sign, here?

I think not. We're not going to let a sign boss us around. Seems like we're well on our way!

Oops, we overshot! Nice view from the top of... Mt. Lee, i think it is? Somewhere in Griffith Park. Maybe not as iconic as the Observatory, but it was a fun 4-ish mile walk (a little nothing compared to our 8.4 miles trek on Catalina the day before) and we took in some pretty great views. It was also a pretty popular walk, what with the nice weather and all.

We closed out the day getting stuck in some mild traffic on the 405 (not pictured), grabbing some decent falafel and gyros for dinner (also not pictured), and then made it to LAX about 3 hours before our flight, so LOTS of time to spare.

Hiking Beyond Avalon

Cousin Party

One of the many reasons we all ended up here on this island was so we could meet our (not so) new nephew/cousin. Carter was born in April of 2020, so while his grandparents have all had the pleasure of chilling with him, this was the first time we got to hang. He's incredibly fun and we're all smitten. Amity is looking forward to training with him in soccer in the future, he's already got the whole kick the ball thing down incredibly well for a sub-2 year old. Here's a few pics of some hang out time - at the house doing hairstyles, at the playground cross training, and a pic of the Chong/Long family on their way to the ferry home. The final picture is a call back to Bri's feat of strength when we last all hung together in Australia (when Amity was just a tad bit older than Carter is now). Of course the kiddos are old enough to actually hang on to Bri, but on the other hand they weigh A LOT more.

Scuba Crew

We enjoyed one final dive altogether at the Casino Point Dive Park. Yes, the water was chilly, though a 7mm wet suit keeps you surprsingly warm. Some of us like hoods better than others, and same goes for gloves. The ones I had were very toasty but they make your finger dexterity pretty minimal. I'll have to have the kiddos remind me, but we saw a lobster, lots of garibaldi, a baby octopus, some very brightly colored sea slugs, lots of kelp, and Bri saw a big, flat fish but we were further ahead and missed out.

Many thanks to the fabulous crew at Catalina Diver's Supply, particularly Mike and Jeff who helped us with our gear and made sure we all got in the water. But most importantly, thanks to Elaina who is the instructor of record on the kiddos' open water certifications. She was aamzing with them (and with us), and as Mark reminded the kids, the first rule of scuba diving is "don't hold your breath" and the second is "don't embarass your instructor." ;) We promise to do our best, Elaina!

Out and About in Avalon

None of these pictures are from the same day.

The first is the kiddos being exceptionally cute and sisterly, which they were for about 90% of the trip. The other 10%, of course, they were screaming at each other, or maybe slinging obnoxious remarks back and forth.

The second picture is Amity with scuba/ocean hair, maybe there were braids involved at some point?

I think this needs little explanation. It was snapped on a walk Wes and I took on our last evening in town. Nice place, this.

First Open Water Dive

The kiddos and Elaina heading down the steps and getting ready to descend for their first open water dive.

Meanwhile, Wes and I ventured towards the cool "houses built into the cliffs" one cove over from Avalon. We walked past the high ropes course, and after awhile came upon a gated entrance which was pretty much the end of the line. However, we were able to grab some pictures from the official santioned "vantage point." We haven't quite escpaed the canyon, but managing to amble one cove over felt like progress.

Hiking in Avalon

Long Beach

So we should have been in Avalon (on Santa Catalina Island, which will henceforth just be known as Catalina) by now, but pesky winds have made for high seas and the ferry isn't running today. So, it's another night on the "mainland," this time at a pretty nice hotel in Long Beach (shout to M and P for making that happen on such short notice!). Despite the fact our adjoining rooms have some sort of insulation between then, everything else is grand, including this lovely view from our hotel featuring the Queen Mary. The kids got really into the "cursed" history of the boat, ask them about it some time. But no, we did not visit it b/c instead we....

...found yummy coffee!

... walked around downtown Long beach and found a cool mural

... walked down to the harbor area and it was really windy. We saw a lot of boats. But they are not really pictured here. Kinda in the background though, you can peep 'em.

... re-enacted the scene from Titanic but somewhere mid-re-enactment it instead just became, like, airplanes or something?