By Kimberley Lovato TRAVEL Island In the Sun California’s best-kept secret is actually just a short flight off the coast. Full of charm, beauty, nature and an abundance of attractions, CATALINA ISLAND is a destination in itself. With the crowds abating but the weather still delightful, the ideal time to go is now. the southern california heat radiates through Yet many Angelenos have never the helicopter’s glass cockpit, and the pilot hands me been there. a pair of headphones with an attached foam-tipped As a middle school student, I microphone that presses against my lips. envied classmates who ventured “First time to Catalina?” I hear him ask. to Catalina Island Camps’ sum- “No, not the first time,” I say, “but it’s been awhile.” mer program each year. When I was a junior in high T“Enjoy the 14-minute flight,” he says. “It’s just across school, I visited for the first time, taking the ferry over the channel.” for the day with friends. In college, I completed my scuba It sounds close, and it is. Actually only 22 miles across certification there, and I sailed from Marina del Rey the sea (with all due respect to The Four Preps) — a short to Avalon, which is Catalina’s only incorporated town. helicopter ride, or less than two hours by ferry — sepa- My aunt and uncle got married on the island. And in COASTAL CHARM: rate the mainland from Santa Catalina Island. In the the 1980s, my dad, a television producer, shot several The harbor and casino time it takes a morning commuter to navigate Los An- episodes of Riptide there with the show’s star, a lumber- in the town of Avalon on Catalina Island; yel- geles’ notoriously clogged highways, one could travel to ing pink helicopter named Screaming Mimi. The island low, pink and vermillion a laid-back island where there’s not a single traffic light. scatters throughout my remote memories, but for no good beach houses BRICE/ALAMY GEORGE CRANDALL/ALAMY; ROB BOTTOM: TO TOP 36 SEPTEMBER 2014 AA.COM/AMERICANWAY AMERICAN AIRLINES and US AIRWAYS operate a combined 179 peak daily TRAVEL flights from 50 airports worldwide to Los Angeles (LAX). reason I hadn’t reconsidered Catalina until valon looks the way I remember it. retainer, but there’s no worry of that this place instead of a gambling house. I’ve never an invitation had me alighting anew. A Crayola-hued houses stack up the time. The Green Pleasure Pier is still there seen the inside, so I sign up for one of the John Moore, a fellow passenger, of- shrubby hillside behind town, ice cream too. Watermelon-green and jutting into Ava- daily tours. The 1,184-seat movie theater on fers me a ride from the heliport, and the melts down the arms of children carrying lon Harbor, the pier is a hub of water activ- the bottom level, with its curved, painted don’t-take-rides-from-strangers tenet of an cones and the air smells of coconut sun- ity and beckons beleaguered urbanites to ceiling and perfect acoustics, shows first-run L.A. upbringing is left far behind — like the tan oil. Crescent Avenue, the palm-fringed snorkel, fish, parasail, paddleboard and dive. films and hosts the Catalina Film Festival city itself. It turns out he’s the founder and drag along the main beach, is saturated in Golf carts buzz about like summer flies, each September. Above, I can almost hear former owner of Island Express Helicopters, Popsicle colors, and shell wind chimes spill and a well-marked map handed out upon the tapping heels on the wooden floor of the the company with which we just flew. He’s from boutique doorways. I notice that the rental leads to sites and curiosities further glamorous round ballroom, where mainland- lived on the island 28 years, and several swanky Island Spa Catalina is being built; afield. Near the Sandtrap Restaurant, I come ers came by steamer ship in the ’30s and ’40s times a month he travels “overtown,” a word it’s due to open this month. This is where The across a giant aviary that I later learn was for big-band-fueled dinner dances. Annual the locals use for the mainland. Encanto Marketplace used to be, but I stop events, such as the Ava- “No plans to move back?” I ask him. beneath the turquoise awning of Lloyd’s of lon Ball and New Year’s Have fun at “Why would I?” he smiles. “This is paradise.” Avalon Confectionery and peer in the win- the Zip Line Eve Celebration and ball, The island is home to about 4,000 dow. The silver-armed mechanism turns and Eco Tour. invite visitors to don their year-round residents. It was William Wrig- stretches strands of pink, waxy taffy as it has black-tie garb and relive ley Jr. of chewing gum and Chicago Cubs for more than 70 years. When I was in high the era. fame who cast the die and expanded a school, a piece of it loosened my “permanent” On my last night, I 76-square-mile rocky island in the Pacific stop into Luau Larry’s Ocean into a coveted California destina- bar for its famous Wiki tion, after he purchased it along with the Getting Sandtrap Restaurant Wacker, a potent rum 501 Avalon Canyon Santa Catalina Island Co. in 1919 for approx- There: Road concoction. A group of imately $3 million. Under the company’s Island Express (310) 510-2505 friends are gathered for watch, Catalina became an alluring tourist Helicopters www.catalina a wedding, among them attraction, a movie set and playground for www.island sandtrap.com a helicopter pilot named express.com Hollywood, and a nature conservancy. It was Zip Line Eco Tour Aaron Fitzgerald. I’m wel- Multiple daily flights also spring training ground for the Chicago Located behind Des- comed into their close- from Long Beach, canso Beach Club Cubs from 1921 to 1951, with the exception Santa Ana and knit clan, and we pass the (800) 626-1496 of the war years of 1942-1945. As a baseball San Pedro night swapping stories fan, I’m disappointed to discover that little www.visitcatalina until we go our separate Catalina Express island.com remains to showcase the island’s baseball www.catalina part of the now-closed Catalina Island Bird ways. A few days later, a photo arrives in my Descanso Beach Club pedigree. The diamond built in the same express.com Park, once home to thousands of exotic email. It’s Fitzgerald sitting in the cockpit of 1 St. Catherine Way, dimensions as the famous Wrigley Field in Multiple daily ferries species. Today it’s filled with sand and toys a now-orange Screaming Mimi. Descanso Beach from San Pedro, Chicago is now a parking lot, and the Cata- (310) 510-7410 and used by the local preschool. High up in “Since your dad worked on Riptide, I lina Country Club, once the team’s club- Long Beach and the sky is the starting point for the island’s thought you might like to see that Scream- Dana Point www.visitcatalina house, has only a small collection of Cubs island.com only zip line, opened in 2010. Thrill-seekers ing Mimi is in good hands these days and Catalina Flyer memorabilia. But then I meet Lolo Saldana, Cape Canyon scream down the three-quarters-of-a-mile thriving,” he writes. “I am treating her well.” www.catalina a local barber born on the island. Expedition (an course over five consecutive zip lines at Sometimes it’s the whiff of coconut info.com extreme off-road I sit in his shop, where he’s been cutting One daily ferry from speeds of up to 40 mph and end on the sandy suntan oil or a piece of saltwater taffy that adventure) is located hair for more than 60 years. As a high school Newport Beach shores of the Descanso Beach Club. The St. catapults us decades back, and sometimes it golfer, Saldana said he once impressed Char- at the Catalina Island Catherine’s Hotel used to be there, but now Discovery Tour Plaza, lie Grimm, the Cubs’ manager, by beating a it’s a place to lounge, swim or kayak, espe- If You Go: which is one block favorite in a local tournament. cially in September and October, the island’s To learn more about the Catalina Film Catalina Island from the beach be- Festival happening Sept. 24-28, visit “He told me, ‘I like your style,’ and asked “secret summer,” when crowds have thinned Museum (new mu- tween Catalina Avenue www.catalinafilm.org me if I had a glove and could meet him out on seum opening in 2015) and Sumner Avenue. and the weather is still warm. To learn more about Catalina Island, visit the field,” Saldana remembers. “He hit a few (310) 510-2414 (800) 626-1496 Also along my cart path is Western author www.catalinachamber.com balls to me and that was that.” www.catalina www.visitcatalina Zane Grey’s former house-turned-hotel. It A permanent home for the Catalina Island museum.org island.com was a film version of his novelThe Vanishing Museum is being built nearby, opening in Island Spa Catalina Catalina Casino American that brought 14 bison to Catalina in takes a serendipitous encounter to remind us 2015 as the Ada Blanche Wrigley Schreiner 163 Crescent Ave. 1 Casino Way 1924. There are around 150 of them roaming that memories don’t need to be measured in (310) 510-0179 Building of the Catalina Island Museum, www.island the backcountry now, but the only way to years gone by or the desire to re-create them.