Friday Postcard: Greetings from Avalon

Twenty-six miles across the sea, Santa Catalina is a-waitin' for me...

Happy Friday, everyone! Today’s postcard is from the town of Avalon on Santa Catalina Island off the southern California coast. I’m here as a guest of the Catalina Island Conservancy to spend the weekend here and lead a bird photography class, which is very exciting for me.

View of Avalon harbor, with the Casino building in the background.

I have a lot of fond memories of Catalina Island. I’ve been here a few times, always with my Grandpa. He would sometimes sing a few bars of 26 Miles Across the Sea whenever we’d go there together. He’d take me deep sea fishing off the island, and once he brought me to a retreat with his colleagues in the electronics distribution industry. They played golf, I drove the golf cart, and later we went to the “Casino” (the large round building in the background of the photo above) and saw Ferris Bueller’s Day Off together. Life comes at you fast.

In the evening, we’d hang out along the waterfront, watch people and have an ice cream. One mesmerizing attraction that remains today is the taffy-pulling machine in the candy shop. People would literally stop in front of the window for minutes at a time and just watch the taffy being pulled. It’s still there, but wasn’t in operation when I went by.

When the taffy machine is running, people stop and gaze, mesmerized by the constant stretching of hot sugar

A couple strolls the shops along the waterfront in Avalon

In the late 1990s my grandpa called me up to ask if I’d be interested in joining him on a cruise to Catalina aboard the SS Lane Victory, a merchant ship from the second world war docked in San Pedro. Each year, they would go out and sail to Catalina and back. My grandpa was a ship’s radio operator in the US Merchant Marines during the war, and what a day we had together! Within moments of stepping aboard, my grandpa instinctively led us right to the radio room on the ship, as though he were still serving.

There’s a lot of interesting history here on the island, too. For example, did you know that in 1919, William Wrigley, Jr (of chewing gum fame), bought a controlling interest in the island? By 1921, he'd established Catalina as the spring training home of the Chicago Cubs. It was Wrigley who built the round Casino building that’s the architectural icon of Avalon.

Catalina Island has also been the home to many television and movie productions over the years. If you ever watched Fantasy Island, the airport arrival scene (dee plane, dee plane!) was filmed at the airport here.

Marilyn Monroe?

Yes, it turns out that young Norma Jean Baker briefly lived on the island in 1943-44 when she was married to her neighbor (to avoid going back into the foster care system). You can see a photo of her in Avalon, here.

Sure enough, I was able to find that exact spot, although it’s been built up a bit since the 1940s, so you can't get the same shot. Nevertheless, it’s pretty cool to see.

You can see from the tiles on the left side of the planter that this was where Norma Jean, aka Marilyn, stood in 1943-44. The pier and Lookout Cottage (Victorian home) are in the background.

Anyway, it’s been quite a week and I have a class to prepare for. Enjoy your weekend!

-Jason