Catalina Island

The day after Christmas we took Peanut on her first overseas voyage.  We made a day trip to Santa Catalina Island just 22 miles off the coast of Los Angeles with my mom and sister who are in town for the holidays.  As we were sailing away on the ferry, you could see Catalina ahead of us, and L.A., covered in a brown layer of smog, behind us.  It was appalling to see how thick and brown the air surrounding L.A. was and to realize that we are breathing in that junk everyday.  But in front of us lay Catalina, with clear, crisp air.

The best word I can come up with to describe Catalina is "mysterious."  It's a mysterious place to me because it's in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, very sparsely populated with only a few thousand residents, most of whom live in the tiny town of Avalon, and beyond Avalon is just wilderness. Sometimes on a very clear day I can see Catalina from Malibu and I've always wanted to take a trip there because it looks so wild and undeveloped. 

Most everyone gets around the town by golf cart.  Super cool and would have been fun to do, but Peanut wasn't allowed to ride in the golf cart without her car seat, which we did not bring.  There were actually very few activities that we could do with a baby.  That was kind of a bummer.  I had been looking forward to this trip because of the hiking, the kayaking, the tour of the wilderness, there's a zip line - all of that was not baby-friendly so we mostly spent the day shopping, walking up and down the coastline, and eating.

Family photo time - Peanut looks ready to explore.

Diaper change on a park bench :(

Matching hats!

Peanut was a real trouper.  She took everything in and spent most of the day fascinated by all the new sights and sounds.  She was good the entire trip up to the last 10 minutes of the ferry ride back to Long Beach.  By that point she was so over-tired that she screamed her pretty little head off at full volume for the entire ferry to hear.  There was nothing I could do but hold my screaming baby until the boat docked and we could run off as fast as we could.

What I learned.  Traveling with a baby is tough.  Most places are not baby friendly.  All-terrain strollers do not fit easily between tables in a restaurant and most people will not move their chairs to let you by.  Do not expect people to hold doors for you, and people are not exactly thrilled when you try and bring your baby and stroller into a bar (it was one of those bar/restaurants and we just wanted a place to eat appetizers at 4 p.m. before our ferry left, and actually that one turned out okay because the young waiter was very nice and we found a table in the corner of the room where we sat for an hour killing time and sipping local beer).  And there is never anywhere to change your baby.  As gross as those baby changing tables at fast-food restaurats are, at least they are big enough to fit a child.  I changed Leah on a sink vanity that was only about 20 inches wide.  And speaking of diaper changes, if any part of your vacation involves transportation where it is impossible to change a baby for an extended period of time (i.e. a one hour ferry ride), you can count on your baby to have a very dirty diaper during that time period.