Twenty-six Miles Across the Sea...

Santa Catalina is a-waitin' for me... at least that's how the song goes. It's actually like 21 miles, but whatever, the song is catchy!

We've been here on Catalina Island for nearly 2 months now, and my, what a roller coaster it's been. Less than a week after we got settled in, there was a huge fire that made national news. All told, it burned 4700 acres or so, one house, a couple of warehouses, and came close to town - too close for our comfort. It was scary. There was ash, flames, and smoke in the air, emotions ran high, and we wondered if we would be forming a back-up plan for the summer (well, we have always wanted to work for a rafting company...). Where in the past we had gone to New Orleans to assist the evacuees, here we had become the evacuees ourselves. Luckily, we didn't end up at the Red Cross shelters or having to drink any more FEMA water. We spent 2 nights at a co-worker's house in Long Beach, with her two energetic and friendly Irish Setters, and her three even more energetic teenagers. We returned to the island and our jobs - shaken, but not deterred from having a great summer on the beach (even if the "beach" is a slab of concrete with trucked-in sand and lots of pebbles).

So far this summer, we've visited bison in the interior of the island, said hello to some Catalina Gray Foxes, saw a Catalina eagle and thought of his Alaskan cousins, been in a semi-submersible and seen fish all around us, learned what a Garibaldi is (Google it), sailed with the flying fish (Google them too), seen a Giant Sea Bass, sang pirate songs with an organ-playing buccaneer at the opening of "Pirates of the Caribbean 3" (what better place to watch a pirate movie than an island?), been accosted by sea gulls and pigeons on a daily basis, watched orcas soar in sunny San Diego, met Captain America in Hollywood, got spooked by ghosts on the Queen Mary, camped in Two Harbors - truly an island paradise, eaten more ice cream than we care to admit, did a taste of Avalon and tried swordfish, calamari, and day old spaghetti (much better than it sounds), and dodged golf carts at every turn. We've seen a Bird Park with no birds, a Casino with no gambling, a 3rd Street without a 1st or 2nd, seen fish that fly and birds that swim, and we have experienced May Gray and June Gloom. We've seen Gwyneth Paltrow filming a movie on the streets of Long Beach, had Nicholas Cage blow smoke from his cigar at a co-worker, celebrated a 70th birthday with another co-worker who used to date John Wayne, and, most exciting of all, dined with Shamu. We've met fun and interesting people from around the world, and at the company softball game, Begee earned the nickname "Big Papi" for good reason, as he helped the Sightseeing team defeat the Hotels team!

This summer may not have started out the way we had hoped, but we're starting to settle in nicely now. The fire damage is visible in the interior, but it's interesting to see the bison eat the cactus, now free of their spikes - nature at its best. We're not sure what effect the fire will have on tourists, but we hope they're not scared to come to this romantic and magical place. Catalina is the third island we've lived on, and so far is our favorite. We never get tired of smelling the salt in the air and watching the palm trees dance in the ocean breezes, and there's so many colorful flowers everywhere you look - from bougainvillea to bromeliads, from hibiscus to birds of paradise, from prickly pears to California tree poppies. They're not the lupine and fireweed of Alaska, but they still add color to our lives.

Tomorrow is the summer solstice, and we're still not used to the sun setting at 8:30 on the longest day of the year, but hearing crickets at night somehow make up for that. At least for Erin. Coming to Catalina for the summer, we hoped to not replace our Alaskan adventures, but to experience life on island time once again. We still both miss Alaska and know we'll return again, but every time we wiggle our toes in the sand or jump in the Pacific, we start singing "Twenty-six miles across the sea, Santa Catalina is a-waitin' for me..." Told ya it was catchy!