Two ladies were having a lively conversation with a man whose smiles were as warm as the island. Suddenly they turned to us and said, “Freddie is the best tour guide on Catalina, but you’d better prepare yourselves for a thrill ride”!

Recommended as a "must see" by our friends Dawn and Joe, Mother and I decided to spend the last day of our Los Angeles adventure on the beautiful island of Santa Catalina, 20 miles out to sea. We departed early in the morning from Long Beach, California on the speedy Catalina Express.

We could see the mountains of Catalina rise up from the Pacific Ocean long before we arrived. As we moved closer, the beauty of the bay of Avalon began to unfold. Boats dotted the harbor and tenders slowly brought passengers from a cruise ship to enjoy the village. Houses clung to the edges of the hills and quaint little shops lined the shore leading to the picturesque Casino, a round-domed building that is historically important to the Island’s past. We were welcomed by warm sunshine and a gentle breeze.

Our first order of the day was to learn some history and travel into the rugged interior of the island.  We had purchased tickets from the Santa Catalina Island Discovery Tours for the Inland Motor Tour. And that’s where we met Freddie.

We boarded a vehicle that resembled a school bus, but instead of a place for a driver, the front was a raised platform that hooked into the back of a small tractor-trailer cab. That platform contained a few seats described as the "thrill section". After we boarded, Freddie jumped onto the bus with explosive energy and a personality that immediately endeared him to the passengers. “My name is Freddie and I'll be your guide and driver today.” He explained that since he would be in the truck cab and couldn't hear us, there was a button that we could push in case of emergency. “That button detaches the trailer and I can leave all my troubles behind!” Then he gave three short, guttural laughs that soon became his trademark and set us into fits of laughter throughout the tour.

Freddie and Sarah seemed to have stepped right out of a romance novel as the tales of their meeting and survival on the island unfolded. While playing bass in a rock band, Freddie swept Sarah off her feet with his musical talents. They escaped their mundane lives to this romantic getaway of Santa Catalina and lived for a time on a tiny 24-foot sailboat. They worked menial jobs until Sarah unearthed a dormant desire to work with horses and Freddie found release for his performance skills by entertaining the tourists. They now live in a cozy little bungalow at El Rancho Escondido and savor each moment of their lives with delight.

Catalina Island was the perfect ending to a fabulous holiday. As we immersed ourselves into the slow pace of this tranquil island, we conjured up images of Milton (my husband) and me living on a 50-foot sailboat in the bay of Little Harbor. And mother, not wanting to live on the boat, dreamed of living in a hut on the beach.

Freddie, sequestered in the truck cab with only a microphone to relay information through speakers piped into our bus, became a fast-talking one-man show. Since he couldn't hear us, he asked his own questions and answered them as well. He used several voices to distinguish his characters, often sang to us, but always ended his ramblings with 3 short, guttural laughs.

The road across the mountain soon turned to dust, but Freddie had advised us to keep our windows up. We were fortunate to see two of the 200 free-roaming buffalo on the island. Typically throughout the trip Freddie had a comical explanation for everything. As one of the buffalo raised its tail, Freddie said, “You must be very careful when confronting a buffalo. When you see them put their head down and their tail up, they could be charging – or discharging!”

Next we came to El Rancho Escondido, a ranch owned by the Wrigley family. In the early 1900’s, William Wrigley, Jr., owner of Wrigley's chewing gum and the Chicago Cubs, raised Arabian horses on the island. We stopped for a tour of the ranch and some refreshments. As a testament to the smallness of the island, our tour guide was none other than Freddie’s wife, Sarah.