The Breakfast Club
An Affiliate of the
The Knife & Fork
Breakfast Club Visits
Blythe/Catalina
17 May 08
by Warren McIlvoy
The
May Breakfast Club event was one of our duel semi annual events that included
an over night stay at some really neat location; Or, in this case, a two night
stay. Our fly-in started with a breakfast stop in Blythe and a visit to
the truck stop. In the past, our group would park just off the taxiway at the
departure end of runway 26 and then walk the 100-yards through the desert to
the café. Our flight from the
After backing our aircraft off the
taxiway, we headed to the truck stop get some "trucker food".
We entered through the convenient store side of the building and then into the
café. Much to our surprise, there was the Breakfast Club group
all seated at a single table. It seems that the intrepid Breakfast Club gang
broke tradition and parked on the ramp in front of Wolfe Aviation, the
FBO at Blythe, where they were given the use of a pickup truck for the
ride to the café (no adventurous spirit in that group).
Our meals were promptly delivered and everyone had the traditional breakfast
fare but I really wanted the biscuits and gravy. I was quickly informed that
they were out of biscuits. Can you imagine a truck stop café not having
biscuits and gravy?. Anyway, after our meal, we
discussed our route to Catalina Island that would take us to
From our crossing point just south of Dana Point, it was 34-miles across
the channel to the island and the "airport in the sky".
Halfway across the channel and at 8500', I tuned-in the unicom
frequency at the
The
The shuttle ride into town took almost 45-minutes over a paved road that was at
least 20-years overdue for replacement; It had more
patches than a granny quilt. Along the way, the driver would point-out items of
interest as well as locations where the wild fire started that canceled our
trip last year and areas that were burned by it. It was almost shocking
to see just how close it came to entering the edges of the city.
The shuttle bus parked about 2-blocks from the hotel MacRae
as there is no motorized traffic on the street that borders the beach area. So
it was a case of dragging and toting two bags and a cooler to the hotel and up
the stairs to the 2nd floor of the hotel building. There are few if
any hotels along this strip that have entries at the street level as every
available square foot of space is devoted the tourist trade. The one thing that
you must understand about Avalon is that, with very few exceptions, all of the
hotels are fairly dated. I would venture a guess that most were built in the
late 1940's or 50's. This is not to say that they were in bad shape as they
have all been updated and remodeled at one time or another. It is just that you
will not find any "5-Star" hotels there. The MacRae
was nice but the rooms are fairly small but well maintained and clean and it is
located right in the heart of all the tourist activities. At $135 total per
night, you could find nicer hotels in other locations but, then again, those
are not on Catalina or in Avalon.
The rooms are situated on either side of a large patio that is adorned with
lounge chairs, tables, and a few umbrellas. Check-in was pretty straightforward
and in short order, we had our gear in our room and we promptly flopped down on
the bed to get a few minutes of rest. But rest is not what a 3-day/2-night
vacation is about. Since we only had one full day for fun activities, and the
balance of Saturday afternoon for exploring the possibilities, we decided that
rest could come later. The first order of business was to make dinner
reservations and since we were not familiar with what was available to us, we
asked Leslie in the hotel office, if she could recommend a good place.
Leslie suggested that if we liked sea food, that Armstrongs
Sea Food Restaurant was a pretty good bet. Sounded good to us so we had her
give tham a call to lock us in for 1800. Now it was
time for exploring.
The last time that we were here, one of the attractions was a little ice cream
vendor that made sundaes in a waffle cone. This does not sound to exotic but, remember, this was in the 80's and this was
the first time that we saw the use of waffle cones. The ice cream was laid in
on its side and then all the goodies were slathered over it and then eaten with
a spoon. So it was that it piqued our interest to see if Big Olafs was still there. Much to our surprise it was
still there but it was now located in a building rather than a mobile cart. It
was not a large store by any means but the line began outside the store which
might tell you something. We could not resist the lure of trying something that
we had experienced so long ago.
We were joined by Richard and Marcia as we continued our stroll towards
the Casino (not really a casino) that housed a maritime museum, ballroom, movie
theater, and art gallery. To our dismay, the maritime museum was closed due to
some special event later that evening. Rather disappointing! We continued our
stroll around the building until we reached a place that was a
"scuba-diving park". It is a portion of the island coast that is
solely dedicated to the sport of scuba. As it was a Saturday, the scuba
activity was in full blossom. Divers were coming and going from the ramp that
leads to the dive park. We met two girls from central
We returned to the hotel to find some of our group sitting on the patio along
with a couple of other hotel guests. We grabbed some bottles of water and joined
them and relaxed under the deck umbrellas and sharing in the conversation. It
did not take long for the days festivities to catch-up
with me and decided to head to our room and take a quick shower, stretch out on
the bed and enjoy the cool air from the air conditioner and ceiling fan. We had
arranged to have everybody meet in front of the hotel by 1750 for the 5-minute
walk to the restaurant. Our large circular table was waiting for us out on the
deck where we could enjoy the ocean breeze and observe the boating activities.
Another interesting event that evening was the "Prom Walk".
This local tradition involves all of the prom goers to assemble at a staging
area and then proceed down the street to the pier for formal picture taking.
The local folks and a large contingent of visitors lined both sides of the
streets to cheer the kids on. Following this ceremony, they are escorted to the
Casino for prom night.
Sunday
Sunday morning was clear with temperatures in the low 60's. The hotel served a
Continental breakfast consisting of mini muffins, and bagels, Danish, coffee,
and orange juice. I sat at one of the tables on the patio doing my morning
crossword puzzle and enjoying the hotel amenities. It was at least an hour
before I saw any of the Breakfast Club group. About 2-hours later everyone was up and about and
heading to an eatery about a block up the street for breakfast. Since I had
already eaten, I went along for some coffee. There were no set plans for the
day as there is so much to do. After breakfast, some of us decided to ride the
trolley around the town and up to the Wrigley Memorial. From there the
trolley would backtrack so we got off at the Nature Center and waited
for another trolley that would return to the starting point but by a different
route that would take us just past the Casino. I had suggested that we rent one
of the four place golf carts and visit the Wrigley Memorial as we had
been there before.
With Richard and Marcia and Jeri and I, we found one of the many rental outlets
for the carts and, following their directions and map, we returned to the Wrigley
Memorial and Botanical Garden. The small guide card says that:
"In 1935,
The Wrigley
Memorial honors the memory of William Wrigley Jr., who lived from 1861 to 1932.
Although best known as the owner of the largest chewing gum company in the
world, he also played an instrumental role in the history of
Santa Catalina Island, often
called Catalina Island, or just Catalina, is a rocky island off the coast of
the
Part of the
Channel Islands of
The total
population as of the 2000 census was 3,696 persons, with almost 85 percent
living in its only city of
Prior to the
modern era the island was inhabited by people of the Gabrielino/Tongva
tribe, who, having had villages near present day San Pedro and Playa del Rey, regularly traveled back and forth to Catalina for
trade. The Tongva called the island Pimu or Pimungna.
The Gabrielino/Tongva are
renowned for their mining, working and trade of soapstone which was found in
great quantities and varieties on the island. This material was in great demand
and was traded along the
The island
experienced a brief gold rush in 1860s, but very little gold was actually
found. In 1864, the federal government, fearing attempts to outfit privateers
by Confederate sympathizers in the American Civil War, put an end to the mining
by ordering everyone off the island. A small garrison of
Union troops were stationed at the Isthmus on the island's west end for
about nine months. Their barracks stand as the oldest structure on the island
and is currently the home of the Isthmus Yacht Club.
By the end of 19th
century, the island was almost uninhabited except for a few cattle herders. At
that time, its location just 20 miles (30 km) from
William Wrigley, Jr., bought
controlling interest in the Santa Catalina Island Company in 1919 and devoted
himself to preserving and promoting it, investing millions in needed
infrastructure and attractions. In 1921 he sold lots for building in the town
of
In the 1920,s in
an effort to generate tourism towards Catalina, Wrigley tried to convince
Gertrude Ederle, who had just become famous as first woman to swim across the
The tourism
industry was encouraged by the construction of a beautiful Art Deco dance hall,
called the Casino, in 1929. The Casino was 140 feet (43 m) high when it was
built and was the tallest building in
Avalon Theater, on
the first level, shows first-run movies nightly, and the theater's original
Page Organ still plays before the show. The circular domed ceiling has
remarkable acoustics studied by experts from around the world. The upper level
houses the world's largest circular ballroom with a 180-foot (55 m) diameter
dance floor. French doors encircle the room, and
balcony views are spectacular.
The gorgeous Catalina Island
Casino is a two million dollar "
Wrigley put in ramps instead of stairs, an idea taken from his
The upstairs dance
floor has a capacity of over 6,000 dancers, and sits above the glamorous Avalon
Theater, which seats 1,150 and is the first ever designed specifically for
sound movies. The upstairs dance floor is also used by the local high school
basketball team making it one of the plushest and most expensive basketball
courts ever.
The theater is so
well-insulated that theater patrons cannot hear the band playing or the 6,000+
partying dancers on the floor above, yet the excellent acoustics are so good
that a speaker on the theater stage can speak in a normal voice without a
microphone and be heard clearly by everyone in the theater, including those in
the back rows.
While the theater
shows movies almost exclusively, it has the capabilities to host theatrical
productions as well. The Casino's name derives from a more traditional Italian
definition of casino, meaning social gathering place; the building has never
served as a gambling establishment and for many years did not even serve
alcoholic beverages.
In 1975, Philip
Wrigley deeded the Wrigley shares in the Santa Catalina Island Company to the
From 1927 through
1937, pottery and tile were made on the island at the Catalina Clay Products
Company, and these items are now highly sought-after collectibles
The
After hopping aboard the cart, I asked Richard
if he would like to act as "chauffeur" for our city tour while I took
pictures of interesting sites along our route. Our first stop was at the Wrigley Memorial &
Botanical Garden. The trek from the entry gate to the memorial is maybe a
half mile and is all up hill. But because this is a botanical garden, there are
many exhibits of flora to be found along the path. This is truly a great
inspiration for stopping to "smell the roses" even though there is
not a rose within a mile of the place.
"With its
commanding view of
The blue flagstone
rock on the ramps and terraces comes from Little
Harbor, on Catalina's "back" side. And the red roof tiles and all the
colorful handmade glazed tiles used for finishings
came from the Catalina Pottery plant, which was in operation from 1927 to 1937.
The marble inside the tower was quarried in
William Wrigley Jr., died in 1932 at his newly constructed mansion in
The hike down the hill to our cart
was a whole lot easier and Richard continued with his driving duties
while I took photos. The route back into the heart of the city took us on
twisting, winding route that overlooked the City of Avalon and the plush
hillside homes that clung to the sloping canyon walls. We also witnessed the
burned areas that literally came right up to the edge of the road.
After we had returned the golf cart, we decided to have a light lunch at a
place called Luau Larry's. I had the clam chowder and a half sandwich
that was pretty good but still left a little room for a "Big Olafs". After all, I feel that after all that sightseeing,
I deserved a little treat and besides, it was a good excuse to scan many of the
sunbathers on the nearby beach and on the boats that dominated the harbor.
After all that exercise, we returned to the hotel for some more loafing on the
patio with the required "hangar flying" and just plain
relaxing. By Sunday afternoon, the weekend crowds had departed and the lack of
crowded conditions out on the street, were almost
eerie.
For dinner that evening, we walked to the south on Crescent Street to a place
called "The Pancake Cottage". The name might suggest that
having breakfast would be more appropriate but we had a rather pleasant meal as
we were served by a couple of folks who were dedicated to our group. After a
little more strolling along the beach front, it was back to the hotel for more
patio lounging and good ole conversation. We also coordinated our meet up time
in the morning for the shuttle ride to the airport.
Monday
Monday morning was pretty much like Sunday morning with cool temperatures that
were just right for enjoying some hot coffee and bagels on the patio. Some of
the other folks opted for a more formal breakfast at a nearby eatery. At about
0900 all of us gathered our gear and headed to the rendevous
location where all of the shuttles and tour vans pick-up their loads. Since it
was Monday morning the number of folks returning to the airport was
considerably less and our group was short one person. Lance Thomas
elected to stay until Wednesday as he wanted to take the glass bottom boat tour
and one of the inland nature tours.
At the airport, we quickly loaded our gear into our aircraft and completed our
preflight inspections. One more trip to the "facilities" was required
and the flight back to the valley was a tad over two hours. Our route home was
a "back-track" of the route on Saturday without the stop in Blythe.
When we landed at the Deer Valley Airport, the early afternoon
temperatures were already over 110 degrees. I remarked to my wife that I
believed that we had made a terrible mistake. Such is summertime flying in
To summarize, we had a wonderful weekend with some really great people to a
place that we have been to in almost 20-years. What more could one ask for?
The Blythe/Catalina Group
What's Next?
Our June Breakfast Club event will see us heading to the northeast to Holbrook
and the World famous Denny's Restaurant on old Route 66. In July,
we will be keeping it close with a trip to Globe and the Apache Gold
Casino. That's all for now but remember, fly safe.
Click on the Catalina link to view
photos of this fly-in.