I love Autumn. Autumn for me means, baking, crafting and holiday decorating. Usually when Fall rolls around I'm so over summer and the oppressive SoCal heat that I'm actually excited to turn my oven on again. This year's Hotumn lasted way longer than most would have liked. It was 103 last week but I'm thrilled to say that it's beginning to feel like fall with a slight chill in the air the past two days. I even was able to put on a sweater! (With my shorts 😝)
Being the hip parents that we are, we've been dressing up the past few years for Halloween. Last year I was Princess Leia, the year before that, a teenage mutant ninja turtle. We're usually the only parents dressed up so I can't say that I'm that disappointed that my son forgot to include us in his Halloween costume plans this year. I'll still be in the spirit of Halloween of course. I'll be wearing my favorite skull print sweatshirt along with my Halloween nails! And I may do skull face makeup, tbd.
I used Nars in Venomous and Sally Hansen Dream Sequins to do a coppery glittery fade effect. With all this Halloween flair, it's best to keep the accessories subtle so I paired it with my rose gold Sidwell ring stacks and my Zig Zag ear crawlers.
Since Halloween falls on a Tuesday this year we had all weekend prior to celebrate fun Halloween themed events. We took our mini dachshund Junior to a Dog Costume Contest. I thought we had it in the bag for the small dog category with Jr's jockey costume and then I saw Einstein, the ghost buster dog. His owner had constructed a full ghost buster mobile with flashing lights, ghosts and projectile silly string.
After the dog contest we walked down the street to One Colorado for their annual pumpkin decorating. One Colorado has the best kids activities. They're never overly crowded, they're easy to park and walk to and best of all they're free and rotate seasonally. They've had face painting and pumpkin decorating, to interactive performances such as Bob Baker's Marionette, balloon art and magic shows. This year inspired me to decorate my pumpkin instead of carving. That way the pumpkin doesn't deteriorate as quickly and can be enjoyed for longer. Plus, I don't have to clean up all that gooey mess.
I took a leaf stamp, stamped it on and then painted it in with white acrylic paint. When I made a mistake I could just clean up uneven edges with the side of my nail. It took a while but it was enjoyable, sort in the same vein as coloring books for adults. If I had planned ahead I would have used a stencil and a stamping tool with paint to make it go faster. Maybe next year!
Avalon Harbor, Catalina Island. Boats, paddle boarders and swimmers abound!
This summer I'm all about weekend trips and short getaways. My next door neighbor, now friend, grew up on Catalina, and invited me home with her to experience another side to the island. Previously, I had only thought of it as a summer tourist destination or for sleep away camp. I hadn't visited Catalina Island since ninth grade on a sleep away trip with high school and my husband and son had never been so it seemed like the perfect opportunity.
To get to Catalina, you take an hour long ferry ride from several ports in LA. The closest one for us was Long Beach so we departed from there on a Friday afternoon. Cars are restricted on Catalina, with a wait list as long as 20 years +! So the ferry is only for people and dogs (either caged or in muzzles). We took our dachshund Junior with us, he didn't love the ferry but he did pretty well overall. Once there, you can walk around the main city part of Avalon on foot or rent a golf cart or bike.
Lovely bougainvillea, quaint beach cottages, license plate birdhouses, colorful murals, proud Democrat (not too many of those on Catalina), and Casino at night on Avalon, Catalina
I had never driven a golf cart before and was surprised to find it was a blast! My son loved it too and would tell me to "Hit it!" and we would blast down the road. A golf cart's engine is similar to a lawnmower so by blast I mean when we were chugging up the hill, you could probably run alongside us.
One of my favorite things we did was swim at Lover's Cove. Dries had fallen asleep and Raf and I snuck out for an hour to tool around in the golf cart, exploring the city and to take a dip in the water. It's been so hot lately, it felt great! The water was a little cold at first but instantly warmed up. Catalina's rocky coastline reminded me of Sardinia where we honeymooned because it too is mostly rocky beaches. Pro tip: Don't forget the water shoes, you will want them! The current was pretty strong the weekend we were there and some of the beaches (Descanso) had sharp rocks but Lover's Cove had really smooth ones which also made them a bit slippery. My friend Katie prefers Pebbly Beach, but there was a construction site nearby to it so we opted for Lover's Cove. You be the judge!
The next day we did Descanso Beach Club, which is Catalina's version of a family friendly Miami Beach. They have a DJ on the weekends, and a section that has cabanas and beach chairs for day rental and an outdoor café & bar (that will also serve on the beach), a smoothie & ice cream shop, and a shop that sells pool floaties, paddle ball racquets, hats, umbrellas and all with decent prices. The day we were there, the private section was sold out so we just sat on the public beach part, immediately adjacent to it. It was just fine, the restaurant brought us our fish tacos, fries and margies and everything was alright with the world.
There are a lot of boats docked in the harbor and you can swim up in one section, another is reserved for kayaks, jet skis and paddle boards. Dries wanted to kayak so we rented a two person one with Dries sitting in the middle for an hour. Once he got over screaming "Oh nooooooooo, we're going to die, this was a terrrrrrrible idea!" he actually enjoyed the last 15 minutes or so. It was lovely out on the water, sunny but not too hot and with no waves.
The next day we headed into the hills, which requires a car (no golf carts there!). We winded our way up and around, passing the zip line station that goes all the way down to Descanso and then paused for a moment to admire some bison and heron at Haypress reservoir. The bison were brought to the island in the 1920's for a movie, but were never used and then left on the island because they didn't want to deal with taking them back. Not very nice. Now they casually wander the island. We saw one just chilling on the side of the road, minding his own business.
We stopped at the Airport for lunch at DC-3 café and gift shop. It's very scenic high up with all the little planes flying in and out. Some of the famous pilots that have flown in include Angelina Jolie and Harrison Ford. It's not for the weak of heart, the runway is only 3000 feet! I think I'll stick to driving up for the food, I had a great salad and Raf had a buffalo burger. No meal is complete without one of their killer homemade cookies, the oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip are delicious. They also sell Rusack wine, wish I had a bought a bottle because it seemed a good price at $30 since Rusack isn't that easy to find, at least in LA. I didn't though because we were on our way to do the Trans Catalina trail and didn't think it was a great idea to keep the wine in the car. Oh well, next time!
With full bellies, we continued on our way to Little Harbor, the starting point for our afternoon hike along the Trans Catalina Trail. Little Harbor was largely deserted except for a few campers, (there's a nearby campground) it was perfectly peaceful. The Trans Catalina Trail stretches 37.2 miles across the island, seemingly never ending but we did just a portion of it since we had Dries and Junior, our mini dachshund with us and we wanted to get some beach time in. It wasn't difficult, and provided lovely vistas along the soapstone path with striking red flowers.
Catalina makes for a great weekend trip, or longer. They have great camps for kids and many scenic options for both the casual traveler and camping options for the outdoorsman. Now that I've done part of the TCT, I think I would like to try doing the whole trail!
