I am going to Catalina again
I wrote last year about what a surreal place Catalina island is. It's an island off the coast of the LA metro region which is simultaneously an eye-wateringly expensive resort, a nature conservancy, and a weird little company town with deranged economic and labor conditions.
Also, most cars are fully banned there, and the population gets around on little golf carts. You can see my photos of the golf carts here. I think these were some of the best posts I wrote last year.
I am going back again for a day trip this week - I told some folks in my family how weird the place is, and I guess that got them interested, and now I'm taking them there. We'll see how it goes!!
I still recommend Catalina Island as an eye-opening, bizarre place to visit if you're in the LA area. I think if you visit the place, you should be actively interested in the economic conditions that allow it to exist, and you should be interested enough to read some of the history of the place, and of the Channel Islands off the coast of California generally. Over the course of researching my first trip there and visiting the place myself, I became increasingly convinced that it is a perfect weird microcosm of so many of America's strange outcomes for capital, ecotourism, unregulated wealth, etc.
America is full of untouched natural space, but the business of packaging up the fantasy of natural space for consumption by visitors is fascinating. On this trip I am going to see some of that natural space from a completely different angle. I hope I have anything to report back other than "wow, it's still fuckin weird there!!"