BUFFALO & WHALES
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA & SANTA CATALINA ISLAND
WHERE:
Southern California
El Segundo
Disney California Adventure (Anaheim)
Newport Beach
The Queen Mary (Long Beach)
Santa Catalina Island
Avalon
WHEN:
October 22nd to 28th, 2024
LAX
Flying into LAX, I was pleased to see mountains - something we don’t have in Florida. I took an Uber straight to El Segundo and upon arriving at CV3 was greeted with cobwebs, Frankenstein’s monster and other undead employees. We were well into the spookiness of October and the lobby was no exception.
This was my first time visiting CV3’s headquarters and while the office was only about 10% full, it was nice to see the few faces that did fill the seats including some I work with daily. For the next few days, perks of office life included a stocked fridge with a drawer dedicated to cheese, mini golf, catered Peruvian lunch and Hocus Pocus in the conference room.
After work I caught a ride with Joe in his Tesla back to his home. He and his fiancé Delaney were kind enough to let me stay with them for the week - the kindest of souls.
DISNEY CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE
As the work week ended, it was finally time for a day at Disney California Adventure with my team! We started Friday with an early 45 minute drive to Anaheim down a very foggy freeway.
The remainder of the day was filled with temperate weather, Ghirardelli hot chocolate, birria tacos, horchata, churros and endless smiles in the form of several rides including but not limited to:
Soarin’ Around the World
Silly Symphony Swings
Goofy’s Sky School
Radiator Springs Racers
Mater's Junkyard Jamboree
Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure
Toy Story Mania!
Pixar Pal-A-Round
Animation Academy
Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout!
Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters
Incredicoaster
World of Color
Joe had to leave early and was once again kind enough to let me drive his Tesla back home. This was my first time driving a Tesla and I could see the appeal. I left Disney near closing so traffic was light on the way back. The hardest part of the return journey was pulling into the unnecessarily narrow driveway.
SANTA CATALINA ISLAND
After missing the ferry to Catalina Island, I came to the conclusion that I, in fact, did not wake up early enough. The deadpan face of the girl scanning my ticket muttered “You can still catch it, it hasn’t left yet”. She peeped over the plexiglass counter and immediately shifted her conclusion to “Oh wait it just left. You want the eleven o’clock?”. I took the eleven o’clock.
An hour later we anchored on the shores of Avalon, Catalina’s southernmost city. Catalina is truly it’s own isolated world, immediately giving me mediterranean vibes. I sent a photo to my cousin (who lives in Europe) and she noted it reminds her of summers on Norway. Not a place that comes to mind when you think SoCal.
I wandered the brick lined streets, grabbing a coffee at the aptly named Catalina Coffee & Cookie Co and rounded off my appetite with a buttery lobster roll at Bluewater Grill washed down with a crisp Modelo Especial. Avalon was frozen in time. As the story goes… the island was owned by William Wrigley Jr (of Wrigley’s Gum) who gifted it to his wife, who gifted it back to the public with the condition that the island would not be developed further. So the state of the island today is exactly what you will see 30 years from now. How novel.
If there was a line for the Buffalo tour, I would have been first. What’s that? You didn’t know Catalina Island had a local buffalo population that roams the dust-ridden, Eucalyptus-infested hills and valleys? NEITHER DID ANYONE ELSE.
As the story goes… they imported a small group of male buffalo while filming The Vanishing American in the 1920s. The buffalo scattered in all directions and the grips could not retrieve them. Wrigley bought the rights to the buffalo and imported a group of female buffalo, hoping they would get busy. And busy they did get. Over the next few decades the population boomed to around 650 misplaced bovines.
That’s a lot of buffalo for an island that only covers about 75 square miles. The lack of rain, dry climate and sparse vegetation didn’t help either. Wrigley sent about 450 back to the mainland and population controlled the remaining 150, a few of which we saw on our 90 minute tour. The buffalo were surprisingly elusive with their brown, shaggy coats helping them blend into the hillsides. They’re noticeably smaller than their mainland herd, due to the lack of water and food - diet Buffalo if you will. We were told to stay in the truck since they’re not friendly and will attack - yeah they’re hangry alright.
The tour guide, a lifelong resident of Catalina, was equal parts witty and informative. I learned too many interesting facts to fit in a single run-on sentence so here’s a few highlights including America’s first casino, Marilyn Monroe’s house and those lightweight Buffalo mentioned earlier:
The tour left me covered in dust and primed to sneeze. I found out the last catamaran leaves the island at 5:30pm which I nearly missed (again). But not before stumbling into Coney Island West to enjoy a hotdog with sauerkraut. On my return trip to Long Beach I was sandwiched between a window seat and the cutest couple - the wife a San Fran local, the husband from London - with endless IPAs and rants about their crazy neighbor. You might be thinking I ate enough on the island but the INN-N-OUT I consumed on the drive back to El Segundo would say otherwise. A double-double with no onions please.
WHALE WATCHING
Sunday started with a drive to Long Beach. The traffic was surprisingly light en route to Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles. I was excited to finally try Roscoe’s after seeing it a thousand times on Instagram. As a purveyor in the chicken and waffle community, it brings me no joy to say the meal, while solid, was sub par.
Upon arriving in Newport Beach, I hustled to the pier and loaded the SHEARWATER, a sleek RIB boat that comfortably fits about 12 people (or about 6 Rydons). After a quick run down of rules and regulations, the Shearwater cut through the Pacific for the next 20 minutes straight, alternating between patches of open ocean and dense fog. One minute we were gliding over glassy, deep blue waves with a mostly clear sky - the next minute we were drifting across silver swells, floating through thick mist filtering out nearly all color, resulting in a monochromatic world of black and white.
Compared to most tour boats, the Shearwater was small and speedy allowing us to reach further than most - approx 15 miles off the coast. I attempted whale watching at Newport Beach nearly two years ago where I saw a super-pod of dolphins but sadly no whales. This was more of the same - hundreds of Short-Beaked Common Dolphin, chirping and dancing, mocking us for our inability to stalk whales. But then - a loud spout directly to our left - a cloud of water vapor erupted from the blowhole of our first Humpback Whale! Blink twice and you’d miss it. The whales surface for only a few seconds, taking a breath and waving farewell with an almost mythical, fanning fluke. We had several whale sightings over the next hour, consisting of FOUR whales intermittently breaking the surface between backflipping dolphins and obnoxious seal lions on our way back to the shore.
Watching those whales inspired me to be a whale. Among the Balboa Fun Zone, I passed a rickety ferris wheel and questionable “happy swing” to consume two oversized slices of pepperoni pizza and a hefty single scoop of pumpkin spice ice cream. My humpback was coming along nicely.
THE QUEEN MARY
I spent the last night escaping haunted houses and dodging the body odor of corn-starched latex costumes. My friend Dee invited me to "Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor: The Spirits Rise” - a collection of horrors, festival rides, EDM music and apparently no alcohol. THE QUEEN MARY is a historic Cunard ship which made it’s way from England and eventually retired in California in 1967. Since then it has become an iconic hotel, museum, venue and at least for today - a haunted house.
