For the past two years we have gone to Catalina in January, just after the holidays. Luckily for us this year, Kayden had an extra week of- Project Week. Knowing we’d be out of town, we did her project the week before we were supposed to do it! The project actually coincided with Catalina, actually! She created a town as an original occupant. It was fun!

This year we did SO MANY COOL things!! We explored, we toured, we went under water, we ate ice cream, we saw movies, we got way too competitive at the local arcade, we sat with the captain, and we had just an amazing time together!!

Here are some of our highlights!

Day 1: Explore the island

Day 2: Tour the island in a golf cart. 3 hours of zooming up and down the mountain, hiking, checking out the botanical garden/memorial for Wrigley, climbing, posing, laughing… we did it all!

We also took an under water tour. This time of year it is pretty empty on the island as most people are headed back to work/school. We knew it was quiet, but we did NOT know we’d be getting our very own tour. There was no one else on the boat and we got some pretty cool views with a personalized tour!

Day 3: We took a ‘behind the scenes tour’ of the Casino. We’ve never actually been to the Casino, but I guess I always kind of just knew that it wasn’t an actual casino. I thought maybe at one time it was, but that maybe now it was some sort of museum of sorts. Turns out the word ‘casino’ means a place of gathering for Italians. So it was never in fact a casino! It’s always been a place for parties/dancing and performances. So many iconic people graced the stages of the casino. I didn’t recognize most of the names, but I did recognize one- Marilyn Monroe!! So cool to stand on the same stage that she did once in time!

Such a fun, fun trip!! I hope we make it an annual tradition. We love island time!! We did as we pleased, when we pleased, how we pleased, and all had so much fun… together!!