Catalina Island

A few weekends ago, I went with a group of friends over to Catalina Island for a nice little get away. They all bought their ferry rides via Groupon.com, and luckily someone dropped out last minute that allowed me to buy it from them!

My Expectations for the Ferry Ride: Short ferry ride across the Pacific Ocean in which I would bask in the sun.
What Happened: It took every last ounce of me to not throw up from being seasick, in which I stood on the top deck in the wind with no jacket. I know I get car sick easily, but I thought this was different... nope.

 [Thad, Regie, Brandon, me, Jared, Kelly]

My Expectation of the Weather: A warm island breeze.
What Happened: Rain.

Everything else exceeded my expectation: Friends, Fun, Food, Football...

After the aweful ferry ride (which everyone barely survived), we gathered our stuff and headed to Jessi's house on Catalina (thanks for letting us stay there Mr. & Mrs. Wright).

 [Our Catalina Abode]

Before the rain came in, we were able to get a short hike in. The boys continued on up the hill, while us girls headed to the beach to play an intense game of Yahtzee (in which I totally lost).

 [The Girls: me, Kelly, Kristen, Jessi, Monica]

I fell asleep on the beach and woke up by myself with a small wedding taking place 10 meters away from me.  And when I say small wedding, I mean just the bride, groom and preacher. I just thought I should mention that the couple was from Oregon :)
The guys in our group LOVE football, so we spent the remainder of the evening at a tavern watching the LSU vs. Alabama game, playing darts (my first time ever and I hit the bullseye at least twice). We ended the night by playing 3D Pictionary with play dough.

The next day I spent some quite time down at the beach, and after about ten minutes, it started raining. It reminded me of the Oregon Coast, and I sat there for about thirty minutes longer. Then, I remembered I only had one sweatshirt with me and ran home to sit in front of the heater the rest of the morning. We were able to squeeze in one more hike before lunch and then headed to the dock for the ferry ride back (after overdosing on Dramamine).

[Jessi, Regie, Jared, Kelly, Kristen, Thad, John, me, Brandon]

 [The Boys: Brandon, Jared, Thad, Regie, John]

I am so thankful to have the opportunity to spend quality time with friends and to check another item off my bucket list!