Monday, October 21, 2002 P.M.

Sitting in the Zane Grey Pueblo in the Call of the Canyon Room overlooking Avalon Harbor and the Casino.

We did get a pretty early start this morning. Our own personal roosters, I mean ravens, gave us a wake-up call at 7:30 a.m. Instead of Paradise Cove, Steve named our campsite, Pair of Eyes Cove.

We got packed up relatively quickly and were on our way by 9:15 a.m. We saw a couple of sea lions swim by before we were barely out of bed and that set the tone for the day. Although the weather was kind of blah, with overcast skies, we saw quite a few sea lions and even saw a bald eagle when we stopped for lunch at Willow Cove.

Our going at first was quite pleasant. We both really enjoyed being out so early. The wind started to pick up and I felt like I was expending every bit of energy fighting the current. We got to Long's Point and felt like we still had a really long way to go. But once we stopped at Willow Cove and had something to eat, the rest of the trip went really quickly. I was quite surprised when I came around what I thought was just another rock and the Casino came into view.

We did take time fairly early to go into a cave that Randy & Ron had pointed out to Steve. It was very cool, kinda scary going in but well worth it. It was big too, with enough room for both Steve and me, in our kayaks and able to turn around.

After checking in here and getting showers, we walked into Avalon. We both really like all the cute little houses and all the great tile work. We shopped a bit, Steve lost me when he went to have a beer and we had a great dinner at Armstrong's, sitting right on the water. We walked over to the Casino to check it out but it was all locked up.

We've got big plans for tomorrow. We're going to get up and be at Joe's at 6 a.m. for breakfast, then come back here to check out. We're going to go to the museum and art gallery at the Casino at 10 a.m. and check in for our 11:20 a.m. helicopter flight at 10:50 a.m. Then we want to stop at the Getty on the way back to Chris and Jeff's.