I went to Catalana Island for the fifth time today and every time

[Lindsey]

I go I just think it's such a weird place. I've gone so many times only because when people from out of state want to go and when friends who've never been want to go. I don't know....it just has a really weird vibe to me.

[Iggo]

1. It is weird.

I used to go there a lot when I was a kid. For not very far away, it sure feels like it's totally somewhere else.

[mackerel]

2. What's so weird about it? It looks beautiful.

[Iggo]

4. Weird in a good way, is what I'm saying.

To come from the suburbs of SoCal, to travel fewer than 30 miles across the water, and then to come upon a place that seemed so...well, foreign, was quite a pleasant shock to the system when I was a little kid. Phosphorescence (sp?) on the fish swimming around our boat at night, swimming to shore through the impossibly clear water over all those stingrays in the morning, camping on Short Beach, spending hours staring at the beauty of the tide pools, running along moutain goat trails during the day, and huddling in our tents at night imagining ourselves being stalked by bobcats. Quite different from the suburbs of Southeast L.A. County. Weird.

[roody]

3. Is that Catalina Island? The setting of The Blue Dolphins?

I want to go there so badly!

[XemaSab]

14. That's San Nicholas

At least from a boat, the Island of the Blue Dolphins ain't much to look at. :P

[Bluenorthwest]

5. Go camping in the interior or at Two Harbors...

Very nice, very nice.

[shanti]

6. i'm a native californian

and have never been to catalina. unfortunately, i get seasick, so that's out :(

[soleiri]

7. You can get there by helicopter, too.

[shanti]

8. really?

i did not know that. maybe i'll get there someday then :)

[IcyPeas]

9. Catalina or Catalana?

How could you go there 5 times in one day? (if it's catalina)?

[Francesca9]

10. Catalina is best in the winter

It is warmer than on the mainland, and no one else is there.

Getting off the ferry, one person said that he was going to climb to the top of the island where he would see the Atlantic and the Pacific at the same time. The next couple asked if they took American money?

[less lee]

11. Does anybody remember Cherry Vally?

It was 1965 and our boy scout troop took a trip on this water taxi to the north end of Catalana near the 2 harbors. It was a summer camp ground. Is it still there? Let me know. How about the new Catalana trail? Anybody hiked it yet?

[Cleita]

12. The Wrigley family owns most of it and that's

why it might seem weird. It used to be you couldn't drive a car there. Is that still happening? That also adds to the weirdness when all that's in the streets is pedestrians, bicycles and golf carts. The last time I was there back in the seventies people were openly smoking pot in the night clubs.

[katty]

13. it's a strange place - Avalon Ballroom is rather haunted