July 13, 2025

176. Back to Catalina Island

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac returns to Catalina Island with better preparations to enjoy the island's offerings. He highlights important tips like booking golf carts in advance and utilizing cash-back options at grocery stores to avoid ATM fees. The episode features an eco tour that explores Avalon's landmarks. Other activities include visiting the scenic 'Airport in the Sky,' parasailing, kayaking, and enjoying local cuisine at Antonio's Pizzeria. The episode wraps up with a beach visit and invites viewers to check out the previous Catalina Island episode (Epside 50) for more about this awesome place.

This episode wraps up a long stretch of continious travel. We're planning our next trips and will be back soon!

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Calaroga Shark Media.

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I'm Johnny Mack and Travel is back. This week. We're

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back to Catalina Island, which I first visited in episode fifty. Now,

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if you've never heard of this gym, picture this twenty

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two miles of stunning coastline, crystal clear waters, and a

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laid back vibe that'll make you forget all about the

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mainland hustle. Catalina has been a getaway spot for Hollywood

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stars and regular folks alike for decades, and let me

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tell you, it's got a charm all its own. From

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the picturesque town of Avalon with its iconic casino building

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spoiler alert, it's not actually a casino, to the rugged

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interior perfect for hiking and wildlife spotting, Catalina's got a

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little something for everyone. So grab your sunscreen and sense

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of adventure because we're about to dive into all the

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amazing things this island paradise has to offer.

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Hi, Welcome back to Catalina Island. This time, I've booked

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it properly. You can spend more than three hours here.

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I did not booked a golf cart and advands, and

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I did not bring enough cash. The golf carts are

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cash only, which I knew but didn't plan well. I

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was actually ready for the sixty dollars for the golf cart.

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I was not ready for the sixty dollars deposit, and

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I have about ninety five dollars on me. There are

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some ATMs, I was told. A local also told me

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to avoid the three dollars ATM fee, go to the

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grocery store and buy a pack of gunmet and ASTs

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for cash back. But oh, we did do because we

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booked an eco tour.

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Let's listen, all right, we all made it and we're early.

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This is so cool. Look at our beautiful harbor out

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there once again. Guys. My name is Andrew. Welcome to

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the Conservancy's eco tour today. This is a beautiful little avalanche.

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Start today, not a cloud in the sky. Four thousand

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people live here the year rounder population. Everybody knows everybody.

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This little grocery store here is pretty important. It's the

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only grocery store on the island and it's our Vaughn's.

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It used to be the size of a seven to eleven,

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but the town has started to grow with a lot

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of families, so the grocery store needed to grow as well.

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And that's brand new, really cool man. Each one of

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the aisles in there is named after one of the

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coves on the leeward coastline of Catalina. All the coves

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have names in there. It's a really cool store. If

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you haven't had a chance to go in there, it's fun.

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This building right here, this church, is worth mentioning here.

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This is the oldest building in Avalon. It survived the

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fire of nineteen fifteen when most of the town was

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a tent city and burnt to the ground. The locals

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threw buckets of water on this church and saved it.

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But nobody knows how that fire got started, but it

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really wiped out things quickly. Most of the town was

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made of tent material. But before I pass it, let

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me point out the metropol complex. This is an important

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little area for the locals to take care of important

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family matters. Okay, they don't deliver mail on this island.

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You have to come down here to check your little

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po The wall and where this gentleman's had to hear

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the double doors on the right that is the arcade

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and everything has a little po box on the wall

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right there, This big white wall you see right here

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on the right is the only bank on the entire island.

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That is US Bank. We all have our little accounts there.

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And as you can see, the town is still kind

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of waking up here. But this is our little strip

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of Disneyland right here. Most of the really good restaurants

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and ice cream parlors are on this half of the

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green pier over here. Not all of them, though, but

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some of them go up the canyon. This is Sailor's Delight,

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one of our favorites, because grab a con of ice

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cream and then walk this beautiful via casino. Walk here

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all the way to the casino. A lot of famous

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people came strolling through here over the decades, Bing Crosby,

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Tommy Dorsey, Kate Kaiser, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable.

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This is a famous little stroll up here to the

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casino in a gorgeous harbor. Today. Look at that horizon.

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No cruise ship today. Wow, we hold about four hundred boats.

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A lot of famous houses too. Look up on the

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hill up there. I'll turn the corner here in a second.

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Not the hotel on the left, but that building on

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the right. Have you heard the name Zane Gray. Yeah,

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a couple of you have for the rest of you.

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How about John Wayne heard the names Okay good Zayin

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was cranking out books in the nineteen twenties. He was

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the best selling author of all time Cowboys and Indians

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and wild West and Buffalo Hunts. That was Zane Gray.

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Everybody grabbed a copy of his novels off the shelf,

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including some Hollywood producers. Every good book has a movie,

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right well, they needed a young John Wayne to star

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and in one of the films, a brand new teenage

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cowboy actor. That was his home up there. Though Zayne

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lived in that home, he had three homes in the

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United States, but he wrote most of his books right there.

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He was Marlin fishing when he wasn't writing. And John Wayne,

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a young teenager, starred in his first Silver Scream movie,

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and that was really cool. You're on our property right now,

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and it's very very rare to see something like this

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back up to human habitat in the United States. We're

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not a state park, we're not a national park. We're

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one of one hundred and fifty private little conservancies here

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in the United States, a massive land trust in perpetuity.

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It is frozen forever. No building out here after nineteen

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seventy two. You're going to see uncivilized California today. I

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hope you're excited about that. It's beautiful, but things do

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change when fire hits and you're driving through an area

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of recovery. Right now, it doesn't look like that. But

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over the years it's gotten better. But we had another fire.

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I usually don't talk much about it, but it's important.

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A radio station four and a half miles from here

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had a gentleman that went up on top of a

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tower about one hundred and fifty feet up in the air,

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pulled out a blow torch, which is illegal in the

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state of California. You pulled it out in the month

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of May to cut a guy wire and he accidentally

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dropped it and it fell all the way to the

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ground on fire, and the wind picked it up in

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a forty five mile an hour wind brought it right

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across the top of this truck down this canyon right here.

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It burnt two houses to the ground. We turned around

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and watched the wind start to swirl. Around seven pm

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at night, it just started doing circles. In Avalon does

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it a lot in the summer and a fire fell

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back on top of itself and went right back up

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the mountain where it came from, and the town was saved.

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A total miracle. None of us expected that. Okay, that's

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what those ski slopes are that you see over there.

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Those are fire breaks of them. They go all the

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way around the town. You can see it, two or

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three of them right there. But we're not gonna let

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that happen again. Fire breaks went in after the big

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threat of fire almost took our town out in two

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thousand and seven. May tenth. Scary, scary, scary, and welcome

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to Jurassic Park. There's your zip line. Guy's gonna go

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zipping a couple of you do. The rest of you

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guys are like, no, that's why I'm in your truck, bro.

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They give a night to thele eco too. Over there,

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little flora fauna, little history of the canyon. I've trained

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every one of those guys. They're all in my classroom,

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and I love our zip guys. They're hilarious. They all

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exercise their wonderful gift of sarcasm, and we get along

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great in the classroom. Guys, you are in vice and country.

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If you see one of them making a thousand points, a

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thousand points, and you keep looking. They roam freely. A

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male is gonna be a bison by himself, guaranteed. The

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males venture off alone. They like to be alone. The

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females do not. They like to chit chat. They'll be

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up here in groups of twenty or more. They like

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to hang out. They're all over the place, and they

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roam freely on eighty eight percent of the island. There

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are ninety of them. Hang on a second, let me

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go up this little ridge here. Hold on, let's go

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up this ridge. Take a look on the hills here.

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It's a good little vista. See if you see anything,

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you'll know them when you see them. They're two thousand

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pounds of burning love. And there are ninety of them

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on the island. They roam freely. There's a wallow right

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below the truck right here. See this little dirt hole

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right next to us. That's where a bison has laid

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down and rolled to get the sting off of him.

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They roll in this stuff and coat their body with

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the dirt. Okay, that's how they get clean. They have

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to get dirty in order to get clean. They get

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dirty first. That's the way it works. They roam freely

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and they move every ten minutes. They're always grazing with

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their heads down, eating grass. They're not browsers like the deer.

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They're grazers, so be looking for him. You never know.

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They'll come right out in the middle of the road.

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They'll be just below the road. Sometimes they're hiding. Sometimes

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they're right smack walking down the middle of a trail.

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Get yourself ready for the second leg of the journey.

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There's the whole west head my friends, real quick. There's

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the end of the runway too. On the far right

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right there, see the end of the runway. Want to

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drop up. There's the helicopter a minute ago we saw

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take off landing on the top over there. Great view.

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The tour was fantastic with some really awesome views, and

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the guide was excellent, very very highly recommended. Now on

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the tour, we went to the airport Perched atop a

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one six hundred and two foot high mountain. The Catalina Airport,

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also known as Airport in the Sky, is a site

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to behold. It's one of the most scenic airports you'll

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ever come across, offering breathtaking views of the island and

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the vast Pacific Ocean, and let me tell you, landing

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here is an adventure in itself. Built back in nineteen

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forty one, this single runway airport isn't just for private

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planes and charters. It's become a destination in its own right.

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Hikers and bikers often make the trek up here for

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the panoramic vistas and the unique experience. There's even a

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nature center and a charming little cafe called the DC

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three Grill. Nothing beat sipping on a coffee while watching

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small planes take off and land with the ocean as

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a backdrop. We'll take the break and go back to

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walking around town.

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I we're out here on the pier. Good rent a

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sixteen foot runabout here eighty dollars an hour, hiak a

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running a twenty bucks an hour, stand up twenty bucks

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an hour, pedal boat twenty five. Somewhere out here in

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the pier is.

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This working place?

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Let's walk over and take a look. Yeah, yeah, parasailing

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terrify your Paris snorkle package, Google package, what suit push cart.

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I don't see prices, but this looks good catalinadiversupply dot com.

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I'd like to peer.

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Oh, this is a great photo from this angle.

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For lunch original Antonio's Pizza and Deli in Avalon. Now

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I know what you're thinking, pizza on an island. Trust me, folks,

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this isn't just any pizza joint. This is the kind

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of place that'll transport you straight to little Italy. With

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just one bite picture this. You step into Antonio's and bam,

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you're hit with the mouthwatering aroma of bubbling cheese and

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crispy crusts. The red and white checkered tablecloths are straight

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out of a classic Italian restaurant, and the walls are

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plastered with photos that'll make you feel like you've stepped

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into a time machine set for the nineteen fifties. But

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let's get to the star of the show, the pizza.

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We're talking crispy, thin crust pies, oozing with gooey cheese

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and topped with all your favorites. Whether you're a pepperoni

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purist or in everything but the kitchen sink kind of

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pizza lover, Antonio's has got you covered. Then we went

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and sat on the beach. The beaches are not very wide.

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They are probably the width of your living room, maybe

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two rows of towels and that's it, but it hits

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the spot. For more about Catalina, check out episode fifty

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for my first trip to Catalina. That one pairs up

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nicely with this one. Until next time, I'm Johnny Mack

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and travel is back

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Alongs

176. Back to Catalina Island

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