Island’s abundant charm keeps trip afloat

Twenty-six miles across the sea

Santa Catalina is a-waitin’ for me

Santa Catalina, the island of romance, romance, romance, romance...

I’d work for anyone, even the Navy

Who would float me to my island dream.

-- The Four Preps, 1958

Santa CATALINA still lures stressed-out Southern Californians in droves, but the price of romance has risen since this song surfed the hit charts. It takes more than a sailor’s salary to swing a summer weekend on this 70-square-mile oasis of ocean sports, marinas, Art Deco splendor and quaint seaside shops. Room rates of $200 and up are common.

On a recent weekend this month I was set on finding affordable lodging for myself and my partner, Wesla. So I cruised the Internet and settled on the Catalina Beach House (actually a block or two up a steep hill from the sands), which got mostly good reviews in postings by guests. Wesla booked a queen room with a kitchenette and jet tub for $125 a night.

It was not our island dream.

First the good: The owner was outgoing and helpful. She even gave us a lift to a restaurant the next day. There was a free shuttle from the boat pier to the door. The hotel is historic. It was converted from a houseboat owned by Capt. Joseph McAfee, who landed in Avalon in 1912 and ran the island’s first flying-fish tour boat.

Now the bad: We’d been warned the room was tiny. It was.

“My bathroom in Manhattan was bigger than this one,” said Wesla, recalling her days as a struggling young artist. It was musty. The bath towels were more akin to hand towels. On the patio outside our room, the upholstery on the porch swing hung in tatters, and on the barbecue sat a glob of fat.

It’s a testimony to the indestructible charm of this resort island that we had a fine time anyway.

I also looked at rooms in a few other places in Avalon, which offered summer weekend rates of $165 or less. These seemed nice enough, but we didn’t stay at them: El Terado Terrace (sun patio, mini-suites), Hotel Catalina (airy, harbor view, spa in courtyard), Hotel Vincentes (lovely courtyard) and the Seacrest Inn (busy street, some charming rooms).

Rich in history

We arrived in Avalon’s pretty harbor at 11 a.m. on a Saturday after an hourlong crossing on a Catalina Express catamaran from Long Beach. After checking into our hotel, we headed to lunch at the Blue Parrot on the city’s seaside Crescent Walk.

Surrounded by tiki-inspired rattan decor, with papier-mache tropical birds looking over our shoulders, we downed blackened catfish and mahi-mahi in a garlic-butter wine sauce. The ambience was more exciting than the food, but the price was perfect: less than $25, with tip, for two.

Afterward, we took the 50-minute Avalon Scenic bus tour with Discovery Tours -- worth the price for its harbor overlooks and insights into this pint-size city, which has about 3,400 residents, a two-cell jail, no courts (a visiting judge hears cases on Fridays) and no postal carriers. Residents pick up their mail at the post office.

We attended a lecture on seaplanes at the Catalina Casino, the unique Moorish-style masterpiece that marked its 75th anniversary this weekend. The circular building doesn’t host gambling but it does shelter the island’s only movie theater, with fine Art Deco murals; a history museum; and a 180-foot-diameter ballroom where dancers swayed to big band music in the 1930s and ‘40s. Its portico sports exquisite Art Deco mosaics.

For a tiny place, Catalina has a lot of history. Home to Native Americans for thousands of years, it was occupied briefly by Union soldiers in 1864 and began its life as a resort in the 1880s. For three decades, William Wrigley Jr., the chewing-gum magnate who controlled the company that ran the island, trained his Chicago Cubs here each spring.

We took in some of that history the next day, taking a cab up to lunch at the lofty Inn on Mt. Ada, Wrigley’s former home and now a bed-and-breakfast where nightly summer rates start at $360.

For $25 per person, plus tip, we enjoyed a modest deli-style lunch, with the best bean salad I’ve ever had, all the champagne we wanted, the run of the elegant lobby for a couple of hours and a million-dollar marina view. (Reservations required.)

Our other indulgence was dinner at the Catalina Country Club Restaurant in the former Cubs clubhouse, where we shared French onion and green apple au gratin soup, wild salmon Napoleon, Dungeness crab cakes and a baked apple dumpling with praline sauce. It was as good as it sounds.

I can’t say the same of the nighttime version of Discovery Tours’ glass-bottom boat tour. Our ticket-taker warned us that we wouldn’t see many fish but held out hope we’d see lobsters and other creatures. We saw only acres of kelp and a flash of sea lion.

Do you ever see lobsters? I pressed our captain.

“Yes, we do, ma’am,” he replied. “Every night in the brochures.”

Truth be told, the best fun in Avalon is free: strolling the shop-lined seaside promenade, watching gaggles of sunbathers, swimmers and kayakers at Descanso Beach and, at night, peeking in on karaoke singers at the exuberant El Galleon Restaurant, which opens onto the sidewalk.

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