Catalina Hike Jan 2011

Okay, now for the hike. We estimate it to be between 10 and 11 miles. We started at our hotel

and walked up to Stage Road, up Stage Road to Divide Road,. At this point we are now on the 

Trans Catalina Trail. We continued walking on the tops of the mountains enjoying the spectacular 

    views. We then took the East End Road which took us to the end of the trail on Wrigley Rd. From 

    there it was still a walk to Avalon. We walked for 4 1/2 hours. Loved it. We only saw a few other 

    people on the trail. We would definitely do it again. 

A beautiful view during our hike.

This is the beginning to the Catalina Island Conservancy.

It was a long way up this road.

This is Avalon from the east side.

My hiking partner and loving companion.

The trial we walked can be seen on the mountain tops.

Now we have made it across the mountains and looking at Avalon from the west side.

We are now on our last leg. This was nice in this area. There were a lot of birds.

The whole trail is 37 miles one way. Maybe someday we'll hike it.

We did it!

Pretty flowers.

This is a pet cemetery. Fun to read the tombstones.

25th Anniversay in Catalina

January 23-25, 2011, Joe and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary on beautiful Santa Catalina Island. We had so much fun! The weather was beautiful! We rode over on the Catalina Express. Joe had a connection with the Sheriff's Dept there, so they gave us a golf cart to borrow the first day we were there. We just drove it around to get a feel for the area and to give us an idea of where we wanted to spend our time. While we were there, we played miniature golf, browsed through shops and bought gifts for the girls, saw a movie, had a nice dinner out, hiked and did the zip line. That was our first zip line. So fun! There weren't very many tourist on the island except when the cruise ship was in port, but even then it wasn't busy. We stayed in a small, but elegant hotel. The large deck was right next to our room and we were the only ones who used it. Beautiful view and very relaxing. I am so thankful to be married to this wonderful man. He is my best friend! I look forward to many more years with him. The zipline adventure can be seen on    

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_jDWNEh5Po.

Joe got his coffee and we're getting ready to board the Catalina Express boat.

Approaching Avalon

Our Beautiful Hotel Room at The Aurora Hotel.

The view from the deck.

The most popular photo of Avalon

My driver

Being silly... what's new!  :O)




 

Ready for Zippin'

Our zipline group.

We were told to keep our arms in. I know I look funny, but just following directions.

A nice dinner out to celebrate our anniversary!

The Happy Couple! To 25 more!

Let the blogging begin!

I have been thinking about writing a blog for a while, but just now making the time for it. God has and is blessing me in so many ways each day as I strive to serve and seek Him more. I do love to serve God and others and want  to make it more of a priority now that I have more available time. I find that I seek a lot. Not for the truth, because I know the truth, Jesus Christ. I seek to worship Him more and learn more about His word and how to live it out. I am always seeking to learn something new, do something new and go someplace new; all of these with my wonderful, kind, godly, generous, patient, fun, and hardworking (the list could go on) husband, Joe.

What finally got me to start this blog is that Joe and I want to document our memories of hiking. We did a little hiking last year, but have made it consistent  this year. We love to hike. I bought a book last fall called  Afoot & Afield Los Angeles: A comprehensive hiking guide. It has been so helpful in finding hikes in our area. Sometimes we drive over an hour away, but we always enjoy the hikes and the time together! I was going to make a photo album, then thought I would make the pages on the computer and then print them out, then I thought I can make a blog, so what I write can be kept safe off in outer space or wherever it goes and not just saved on my computer. Now I can share it with family and friends and copy it to print out or can have it made into a book. Sounds like the best plan for now.