Day 19    Wednesday, December 31, 1997

Santa Catalina Island

I go ashore around 10 a.m. for a waffle brunch. In the early afternoon, I join Ashikin on a glass bottom boat tour...

Fish, lots of it

...and after that, an inland bus tour. We're in luck, because we're blessed with an unusually large number of buffalo sightings -- they hadn't seen any at all for the last several days. The buffaloes were originally introduced to shoot a film, but it was later moved to Arizona and the buffaloes left behind. The island itself is still owned to 99% by the Wrigley family. The inland is a nature preserve controlled by the Catalina Conservancy on a 50-year contract and very few vehicles have access to it.

Wild buffalo

Back in town, I call home since it's now 1998 in Sweden. Hi Mom, Hi Dad, Happy New Year to you both!  I also call United to reserve a seat for my return trip and buy a ferry ticket.

View from a pay phone

When I return to the harbor, I find the sand red with beached small soft shell crabs that the tide brought in. This apparently happens about 1-2 times/year. There are big groups of people picking the crabs. For what, I'm not sure, but I think some are going to use them for bait. Others might just be trying to clean it up because they'll sure stink in a couple of days.

Everybody's picking...

...the small soft shell crabs

It's still only afternoon, so I sit down and relax over a few happy hour margaritas (USD 3) and some appetizers (½ price) at El Galleon. There are people singing in the Karaoke bar inside. Some are good, but most are outright atrocious. Yikes!

Back onboard, I dress up a bit for the evening's adventures and we all return en masse to have dinner at The Landing at 8 p.m. (USD 40 pp).

The Landing by night

After dinner, Ray, Ashikin, and Eric go on to the Blue Parrot, while I and Ken finish our coffee & cognacs at The Landing. Alas, when we go and try to find them, they're gone!  It's hard to believe, but they have left without telling us. We try to find them, but give up after two or three passes up and down the main drag.  Instead, we return to The Landing to drink the bottle of free champagne that we got when we left. Cheers, mate!