The Catalina Crew

OK, so the paparazzi aren’t exactly breaking down our door, but a few of you have wanted to see the photos of Jared in the Triathlon. So, here they are. If you are faint of heart you may want to avert your eyes lest you be blinded by the splendor of what you are about to see!

In the staging area before the race.

I’m in the middle of the pack. (yellow shoulder)

Out of the water - Dead Tired,
And wondering how I am going to manage the next 10 miles!

Halfway through the third hill-climb!
Time for some GU!

One mile left to go and feeling great!

The BEST part of the race -
Crossing the finish line with Jacob!

Enjoying the afterglow.

What a fun day! I can’t wait for the chance to run another triathlon. It is definitely something that everyone should try to do. Every time I finish an event like this I am amazed at how great it feels and how I don’t want it to be over. Wahoo!

OK, so I am finally getting around to it!

We had an awesome Halloween. It was really fun to have the old-fashioned neighborhood Halloween experience again. With all of the “Trunk-or-Treat” events that people are using lately instead of traditional “Trick-or-Treating” I have really missed seeing kids running around en-masse with friends and family, socializing and making a neighborhood a neighborhood. Avalon is one of those all too rare communities where urban fear has not yet gotten a foothold.

We started out of course by getting and carving our pumpkins. Jacob’s school sponsored a “Pumpkin Patch” where the kids could pick out their own pumpkins instead of going to the super market. Jacob chose a trio of good ones and we set to work making them look great. Jacob designed and helped cut his into a “Silly face.”

Jacob took a while and had several different ideas on what to be for Halloween before settling on cowboy. On Halloween evening, the city had a costume parade down Crescent street with all of the school kids participating. The community TV station filmed the parade and Jacob made the broadcast.

Jacob was a little unnerved by Dad’s costume and realistic looking scars and asked him to take the wig off. After the parade, we went over to Luau Larry’s for the traditional Wednesday $2 cheeseburgers and then hit the streets to gather loot.

By the end of the evening Jacob had filled his pumpkin basket to beyond capacity and Mom & Dad had met several new neighbors. Jacob did not want to stop but eventually we had to call it quits and head back home in time for bed.

Jacob with his friend Cory

Well, it is official! I am now a Triathlete!

The Catalina Triathlon was today, and I was lucky enough to be counted among the finishers! It was a great experience and totally different from any other race event I have been in. Very cool.

My store, Del Sol, was one of the local sponsors for the event and I had been toying around with the idea of competing for a few weeks but never really committed to it. (Sue had started talking about wanting to do a Triathlon after we did the Carlsbad Marathon and got the initial spark planted in my mind.) Anyway, about 9:00 last night, we were coming home from the supermarket and Sue said “Hey, what if you ran the triathlon tomorrow?” I waffled a little bit and decided that “What the heck, I will give it a try.” So, without any training or preparation, and less than 12 hours later, I found myself at the starting line for the Catalina Triathlon! To make a long story short, the swim was tough, the bike ride went smoothly, and the run started hard but ended great. I didn’t push myself super hard because I didn’t want to bonk and my main goal was just to finish and have fun doing it. My time ended up being 1:53 and change, but my ego and permagrin are beyond compare! I can’t wait to do another one!

Before the triathlon began, I took a quick warm-up swim in the bay. When I got out of the water, Jacob came running up to me shouting “Daddy, Daddy! Did you win the race?”

Sue and Jacob were there for the whole race from start to finish. They watched the swim portion from the green pier and then hit the streets for the cycling leg and waited near the finish for the run. Whenever he saw me, Jacob would greet me with a loud shout of “Hi Daddy!” The icing on the cake for the day was when Jacob met me about 50 yards before the end and ran with me across the finish line!

-Pics coming soon!

One of the fun things about Sue working at the Catalina Island Museum is all the neat tidbits that she learns about the island and Avalon’s history. Anyone who has been to Catalina will recall hearing the beautiful ringing of the bells coming from the tower on the hill north of town. Few people realize how and why the bell tower (or more properly, the chime tower) came to be.

Not far from where this tower stands, sits the house of the great novelist Zane Grey. Zane moved to Catalina in the 1920’s and it was from his home here that he penned many of his novels and brought the “western” genre into popularity in the U.S. and worldwide. It was not long however before he crossed words with Ada Wrigley, the wife of chewing gum magnate William Wrigley, Jr. who owned about 90% of the island. Ada Wrigley could not stand Zane Grey and despised him such that she had her husband construct this bell tower only a few hundred yards from the Zane Grey Pueblo. Ada instructed that the chimes should be set to ring every 15 minutes throughout the day so as to annoy Zane and continually interrupt his writing.

The Zane Grey Pueblo still stands on the hillside near the bell tower and is now a 16 room bed and breakfast. However, it is in danger of being demolished for construction of new condos or other development. The Zane Grey West Society is working to preserve it, but is unable to afford the $17 million price tag. The chimes however, still ring every 15 minutes.