Today's Port stop was Catalina Island (Avalon). This is a place where I'd like to visit again, stay a couple of days, and chill for a while. But I won't get this chance on any cruise anytime soon.
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I had arranged to meet my new friend around 9:30 am in the buffet for breakfast. And again, we kept talking until it was past lunch time. Well, I found an excuse around 1:00 pm to go to the tender boats and take a ride to Avalon.
Avalon is the main town on Catalina Island. The tourist section is picturesque, and a great place to chill for a few hours. The area near the dock is filled with tourist based shops and restaurants, yet it felt like a place where people actually lived - several people were walking with their dogs in the area near the dock.
One of the stores I went into was a former bank building. The current tenant has turned the former vault into a place where local artisans' work is displayed. Further down the stretch is a ice cream and candy store, where I bought some candy for RQS and some ice cream for myself. Once done with the ice cream, I called RQS for a while and caught up on things. And then, it was back to the ship before dinner.
Changing into a fresh dress, I went downstairs for dinner - finally at a shared table in the main dining room. There was a motivational speaker from New Zealand at the table, a couple from Las Vegas, and some other people who I didn't get the chance to talk to that much. Most of my conversations were with the woman next to me (from Las Vegas), her husband, a male nurse across from me, and the motivational speaker. Somehow, I seemed to click with everyone at the table, as my idea of skills every child should learn (Baseball, Poker and Chess) was taken well. And the motivational speaker found what I had to say about America's political divisions (as well as the rest of the world) and the failures of democracies to deliver value to all citizens to be very interesting. (I can't reconstruct that conversation in any detail anymore.) Although we were all seated by 6:30 pm, we didn't get our main courses until 8:00 pm. None of us were happy about this. But it did allow for the many great conversational threads we were sharing while we waited.
Once done with dinner, I walked over to the "Inch of Gold" stand and bought 2 x 23" necklace chains (from which I plan to attach pendants), getting 2 "free" bracelet chains as part of the deal. This took longer than expected, as I missed the opening numbers of Tommy McPhee in the ship's theater. This Scottish singer did numbers from Neil Sedaka, Elton John, Barry Manilow and others. He has a good voice. But it is easy to see how he'd be performing on cruise ships with small audiences instead of areas with large audiences - he didn't have charisma, nor did he have any material of his own. In short, I'd sit in the audience if he performed on a cruise ship I was on, but I wouldn't pay to see him live.
Leaving the theater, I checked when the chains would be ready (the last night of the cruise), and had a drink before going to bed....
