Alright, I’m afraid it is getting to the point where if I don’t make a post about our vacation last weekend that I won’t get around to it at all. Motivation is such a weird thing sometimes.
For those of you who missed our last post—honestly, how could you when its been about 2 weeks ago!—Colleen and I set out on a so-called “Staycation” in beautiful Southern California. Colleen’s parents were in Newport Beach for a conference all week so we decided to join them on Thursday and Friday to provide them with hours of entertainment. We were pretty excited to check out Orange County for the first time (for something other than driving through, that is). In preparation for the trip, we decided to plan out some fun things to do while we were there. That’s when it dawned on us: Orange Country kinda sucks. Sure, it’s got miles of nice beaches but, guess what, San Diego does too. The unfortunate part is that it doesn’t have much more than beaches and shopping, two things that aren’t particularly exciting to us.
I suddenly got the wise idea to check out Catalina Island since its one of the major attractions in the area. We could spend a whole day there and pretty much avoid the whole Orange County scene. There was just one minor hang-up: we’re cheap and the boat ride to Catalina isn’t. We ran the idea by the in-laws before we knew the price and that turned out to be a smart move. Howso? Well, as it turns out they decided to pay for our trip there! I was pretty stoked about the whole situation so off we were to Newport Beach, in hopes of avoiding it as much as possible 
We headed North around noon and we at our destination before we knew it. The ‘Rents were staying at a Mariott in a room with a spectacular view of Newport. After lunch at the deceptively named Fashion Island (at a Cheesecake Factory, no less), we mostly lounged around all afternoon waiting for Colleen’s dad to finish up his work. After that we were off to Balboa Island to check out the sights and do a little geocaching in the process. I’m not sure what is up with things in the OC but Balboa Island was another misleading name as it is more of a penninsula than an island. Alas, I digress on a rather boring subject.
After wandering around for a while there we were on the hunt for food and decided to try out a vegan place named “Native Foods.” It was located not far from our hotel (The Doubletree Santa Ana, not the Mariott) in a shopping area known as “The Camp.” I would describe the Camp as being a “green, hipster” center catering to the indy-music crowd. In other words, I was right at home 
I ordered myself a philly peppersteak sandwich, which was good but not great. I won’t bore you with a full review of the restaurant (you can check out my review of Native Foods on Yelp! if you are interested) but overall I wasn’t all that impressed with the place. After dropping off the ‘rents, we did go back for dessert (carrot cake and cheesecake) but, again, the food didn’t blow us away. By the time we finally got checked into our hotel, we had already had quite a long day so no more hijinx ensued for that day.
We had to be up bright and way-too-early on Friday so we could make it to the harbor in time for the cruise to Catalina. Once again, we received a lesson in “planning ahead” as we nearly got lost on our way there. The 8:30 target time was a bit misleading though as the boat didn’t set out until 9AM anyway. After a little over an hour in the high seas, we made it to the quaint little town of Avalon on the island of Santa Catalina. I had readied us to visit several caches throughout the island so we would definitely not get bored in our 6 or so hours there. The town is a huge tourist trap but it was just the right size to see just about all the major attractions. The first couple of hours we spent on foot, trying to find a couple caches and exploring the harbor area. After lunch (at a place called Antonio’s Pizzeria, I believe), we decided to rent a golf cart and wander around the self-guided tour to see some of the more “remote” parts of the island. The guy who rented us the cart must have been having a very bad day because he was one of the crankier people I have ever met in my life. The cart ride was definitely fun though so if you are planning on visiting I would recommend it. I took the following photo when we were on a scenic part of the cart-tour. Tres magnifique! There are plenty more where that came from, so check out my Catalina pics on Flickr.
After making our way back to the mainland, we headed back to Fashion Island to get something to eat. Somehow we ended up at the Yard House, which isn’t the type of place you typically think of when you think of Orange County. In any case, I learned something valuable while there: a margarita pizza doesn’t necessarily come with pizza sauce. I learned this the hard way when my “cheeseless margarita pizza” came out looking a lot like dough with a couple slices of tomatoes thrown on it. To add insult to injury, I even burnt my mouth on it!
Well, that is about it for my recap of our first two days of Staycation 2008. I’d like to thank high gasoline prices for the lovingly idiotic term known as a “staycation.” Stay tuned for a recap of days 3 and 4 of our adventures.
- Sat
