Island Life Near Los Angeles – What It’s Really Like

(Jonny whistles)
(gentle rhythmic music)
(waves splashing)
Morning, guys!
Here in Catalina Island,
22 miles off the coast
of Southern California.
Roughly 4,000 people live out here.
William Wrigley Jr., from Wrigley’s gum,
bought it back in 1919 to
create a play land for all.
Heard it’s quite cool. Looks amazing.
Actually, it looks super impressive.
So let’s go check it out.
Take care.
– Have a good day, guys.
– Most Americans don’t
know about Catalina Island.
I’ve never been here myself.
And I’d say the majority
of people in Los Angeles
don’t even know about here.
And so, William Wrigley Jr.
was a self-made millionaire.
His goal was to turn Catalina
Island as a vacation land
for everyday Americans,
not just the elite.
And so, hey, that still
holds true to some degree.
‘Cause you can take that
boat out just for the day
and go back.
And what is that? $40. Okay, 80 bucks.
Not super cheap but not too bad.
And the really cool
thing about Catalina is
roughly 90% of the land is undeveloped.
I’ve been told there are
bison up here, coyotes, deer,
all sorts of wildlife.
So there are two towns. This
is the biggest one, Avalon.
That’s pretty much it.
It’s mostly just protected land out here.
And you can see the houses just
going up into the hillside,
some cool little features like that.
See a lot of golf carts.
I read online it’s 15
to 20 years, I believe,
a wait list to get the permit
to have a car on the island.
So I don’t think we’ll see many cars.
(engine rumbling)
And just a turn down of the dial
from most of Southern California,
at least urban Southern
California, Greater Los Angeles.
I mean, this is a much slower pace.
And I get it,
people coming out here
to get away from it all.
It is a tourist place for sure,
but it doesn’t feel overdone.
Like, things look really cool here.
And this is called a casino out here
and I read it never had gaming,
so they use the word casino in
its original Italian meaning,
which is basically a social
club, a place of gathering.
(ship horn blaring)
William Wrigley Jr. did
it right. Look at this!
Beautiful mural here.
Look at that flow.
What a cool theater! True Art Deco!
This is an architectural playground.
The gold, the blue, the
shapes, the texture.
Look at that mural.
– [Actor] South America,
Russia and Australia,
which was unmatched in US history
in terms of art, sports, music.
(bright jazz music)
– [Peter] Looks like they’re not open yet,
but look at this beauty.
Massive bar here.
Big band’s on the stage.
Couples, friends, families having drinks,
all with the ocean behind.
You guys roller skate in here now?
– Yeah!
Roller skates, it’s $10 for an hour.
– [Peter] $10 to roller skate?
– Yeah!
– [Peter] That sounds so awesome.
– It’s pretty fun.
(relaxing jazz music)
– Gotta say, if there’s one
time period to go back into,
the Roaring ’20s would be amazing,
when this stuff was just taking off.
All this beautiful architecture,
all these great social events, the music.
Now, it’s easy to romanticize things
when you’re not from the time period.
It was much harder in many ways,
but seemed like a lot of fun.
Like, this would’ve been a lot of fun.
And it still is! It still is.
But that time period is definitely gone.
(waves lapping)
Looks like a big place for diving here.
When I have days like today
in so many of the videos
I make in places I go,
it just totally uproots the whole,
“America’s all at each other.
There’s so much chaos.”
And so many of the stories
we get are just click bait,
quick reels.
Are there problems? Are
there things happening?
Of course, that’s always happening.
But there’s also a lot
of this which, look,
doesn’t have as much dopamine
or sugar rush element involved.
But I always wanna balance
it out as best as I can
to show a lot of
America’s just ticking on,
doing all right, and
enjoying the sunshine.
(bells chiming)
(crowd chattering)
– I just came in for
breakfast and a Bloody Mary.
– [Peter] Nice.
– Oh, is that you sitting
out there between Seal Rocks
and the lighthouse?
– Yep!
– I saw you there yesterday.
– Yeah.
– [Peter] So you got the
bucket credit card system?
– Yep!
– [Peter] Nice!
(bucket clangs)
Do you live here?
– 29 years!
– [Peter] 29 years?
– Yeah!
– [Peter] What’s it like?
– It’s the best!
It’s peaceful. No problems,
no gangsters, no nothing.
No problems.
– It’s so crazy that this
is in the same county
as Los Angeles.
– Yeah.
– Isn’t it like two different universes?
– Yep! Yep!
Sleep in the beach and
you’re gonna have everything.
Go sleep in LA,
you lucky if you gonna
have your socks. (laughs)
– [Peter] So no crime
out here or very little?
– No crime at all.
I mean, sometimes, you know,
the fights, bar fights, whatever.
But other than that everything’s good.
– [Peter] What’s your name?
– Ruben.
– [Peter] Ruben? Peter!
Do you know Jonny? Jonny Q?
– Yeah, I know Jonny Q!
– [Peter] I’ll be
meeting up with him soon.
We’re gonna go rip around.
– He’s a badass dude!
– [Peter] He is? Cool.
– Yeah!
I wanna see myself later on. (laughs)
– [Peter] You’re on! Take care, brother.
– Hey, you too!
– Beef-sticked up. Ready to rock.
– [Peter] You’re beef-sticked
up? Ready to rock?
– We’re going in the car.
– [Peter] So Jonny, you grew up here?
– Yep! Went to kindergarten here.
– [Peter] Are there many of
you guys that grew up here?
– Yeah, I got a bunch of good
friends that still live here
and want to come and visit.
This is what your car looks
like when you live here.
That’s just from going out there today,
showing my friends the bison.
(Peter laughs)
– [Peter] So you’re one of the
few people with a car here?
– [Jonny] Yeah! I waited
25 years to get my own.
I got it 25 years to the day.
– [Peter] So the island’s pretty big.
I was actually surprised coming in.
– [Jonny] Yeah, it is.
– [Peter] It’s like…
– 21 miles long, 8 miles
wide at the widest point,
half mile wide at the narrowest point.
76 square miles.
– [Child] Deer! Deer!
– [Peter] Deer!
– Oh, yeah. We got deer
just crossing the road.
Do you wanna see this little guy?
Nobody behind me.
– [Peter] There we go. Little guy.
(Jonny smacking lips)
So Wrigley family owned most
of the island, then it went in-
– They still own the island.
– [Peter] They still own it?
– It’s like in a trust
and they donated it to
the Catalina Conservancy
to not to pay the property
tax as well as, you know,
they’re maintaining the island,
the stewardship of the island.
In which, I’ll take you up and show you.
– Oh, killer!
– All right?
– Nice!
– But these are like the mean
streets of Avalon right here,
okay?
– [Peter] Super hard to get housing here?
– Yeah, luckily I bought
my house 12 years ago.
– [Child] Dad, Dad, Dad!
– [Jonny] Letting you
out right here, okay?
– [Child] Okay. Bye.
– [Peter] See you, buddy.
– [Child] See you.
– I’ll call you guys in an hour.
Don’t get caught doing anything.
– [Child] I won’t!
(door slams)
– Love you!
– [Peter] So here you can
just let your kids go wild?
– Yeah, he’s gonna go play.
He’s got a friend in town and
they’re gonna go tear it up.
– [Peter] That’s awesome, man.
– There’s, like, a little
city park. It’s cool.
They got all kinds of activities
going on in the summer.
We got our city hall on the left.
– [Peter] Nice fire station!
– This is our fire station.
The guys are awesome that work
for here. They’re all bros.
You got the hospital over here.
Got the school up the road from there.
Kindness.
– Hey! What up, J?
– Kill them with kindness?
What’s up, brothers?
Who won? Him again?
– [Golfer] Yeah!
– Of course!
This is Sand Trap,
great little restaurant.
That’s Peewee right there. That’s my bro.
– [Peter] Peewee?
– Yeah, he’s a long time
local. One of my best friends.
– [Peter] Do you feel totally
detached from the mainland?
– I feel like in my
little bubble over here.
It’s safe and fun and know
everybody and care for everybody.
– [Peter] So these were
just back in the day
employee housing for the operation, right?
– Yep! It’s mostly ran by
Island Company back in the day.
A lot of Mexican heritage.
You had all the hard workers come
and that’s why a lot of original
friends that are still here
for decades and generations.
‘Cause their families
were brought here to work
and they stayed and run this town now.
– [Peter] What are you
doing here on the island?
– I work at a restaurant,
Steve’s Steakhouse.
– [Peter] Good steak?
– Amazing! You got fresh seafood.
Steakhouse and seafood
right on the front street.
I have to work, 3:30.
I’ll invite you in tonight.
– [Peter] Oh, thanks, man. Appreciate it!
What is this?
– [Jonny] It’s called the Bird Park.
– [Peter] Bird Park?
– [Jonny] Yeah!
Guy used to have all kinds
of exotic birds here.
– [Peter] It’s all Wrigley gum.
Everyone knows Wrigley gum.
– Yeah!
You know Wrigley started
out with making soap
and putting a piece of gum
in the soap every time.
And then people were just buying the soap
and throwing it away and
eating the gum that was in it.
– [Peter] Seriously?
– Yeah!
– [Peter] But the soap, people
would actually use the soap
then eat the gum at the end?
– Yeah! Yeah, they sold bars of soap.
– [Peter] Yeah!
– This is what I heard!
They sold bars of soap
and they had to put a little
piece of gum in there,
one little slice,
and then all of a sudden
people were, like,
buying the soap just to eat the gum.
So then they started making
gum and stopped with the soap.
That’s what I heard.
That’s where they had
Wrigley’s body buried
until we went into war.
They moved him to Chicago.
But that was his original tomb.
He has a botanical garden right here.
– [Peter] So it’s pretty
cool that it’s all protected.
Right? For living here?
– Oh, I love it!
– [Peter] Like, it’s not
all getting developed.
– Yeah, I love that it’s not developed
and it’s pristine out there.
And you get away and you just
disconnect, is what I call it.
– [Peter] She’s waving to you or me?
– [Fan] Hi, Peter!
– [Peter] Oh, hi! How you doing?
– [Fan] We love your show!
– [Peter] Thank you!
Well, you’re in it now. Is that cool?
– You’re in it!
– [Peter] Thank you, guys!
– Hey, enjoy your time on the island!
– [Peter] Dude, what
is your fire situation?
– It’s always a risk.
We got this invasive weed
right here called Genista
that’s like a fuel that
overtook this whole island,
pretty much.
It’s invasive, so it’s
starting on this east end,
it’s moving towards the west end.
That needs to be controlled,
but it’s a factor here.
It’s scary after all
the stuff that you went
and saw yesterday.
– [Peter] Yeah. Palisades.
– Right?
– [Peter] It’s insane!
– What happened to all
my friends in Hawaii
and all that stuff in Lahaina,
how it can go like that.
That’s the…
I think it needs to be
controlled a little bit better,
and that’s why we have fire breaks.
– [Peter] Right up there?
– [Jonny] Yeah, it’s all separated.
– [Peter] Yeah!
– Right?
So you got…
There’s a few of them
and there’s a road that
goes around the top
that just connects them all into town
to slow it down if there was a fire.
That’s something proactive they do.
I actually just saw
county guys this morning
out in the interior going to go check out
where they were gonna work
on some brush clearance
and stuff.
So they’re actually helping us.
– [Peter] Do you guys have police here?
– LAPD.
– Okay!
– So we’re in Los Angeles
County, so we’re LAPD.
– Right!
– And most of them move here
when they’re getting ready
to retire and they’re cool
and they don’t look for problems
unless you give them a problem.
That’s one of the biggest
properties on the island.
They’re descendants of the
Wrigleys, the Offields.
Super cool guys.
– [Peter] So where do the
descendants live currently?
– They have places here.
Most of them live in Newport,
Laguna, Santa Barbara.
They frequent the island regularly.
They’re all really cool to us, so.
– [Peter] They are?
– I grew up with them
when I was younger so-
– [Peter] That’s awesome.
– They moved out before
they moved off the island
and their Dad, Packy Offield was, like,
the CEO of the Island
Company for several years
and he did a lot of great
stuff for the island.
– [Peter] So if they didn’t own this
then this would’ve been developed, right?
– [Jonny] It feels like it.
They definitely kept it to a minimum.
– [Peter] And we’re gonna
get some local access here
through a gate?
– [Jonny] Yeah!
– [Peter] Oh, that’s awesome.
– So they have it on a
vehicle license plate
even though mine’s usually
really dusty, you can’t see it.
– [Peter] Oh, okay! You need a permit.
– [Jonny] Yeah, you pay.
It’s an annual pass.
– [Peter] All right. Sweet!
Bison are dangerous.
– [Jonny] You bet.
– Ticks, poison oak, bison, rattlesnakes.
So it’s a bit madhouse
down there by the water
and then it’s this.
– [Jonny] Then you get this.
– [Peter] Yeah!
– [Jonny] Earlier I was
up here and I was like,
“Geez, I don’t wanna come back to town.”
You know? You wanna keep going.
(door clicks)
– [Peter] Woo! What a place.
What’s your dog’s name?
– [Jonny] Salty.
– [Peter] Salty?
This is like rooftop of
the world type feeling.
– [Jonny] Isn’t it rad?
– [Peter] Yeah!
– Dude, when my kids were little,
I’d just drive up here instead
of sitting there watching TV
while they sleep.
I’d just put them in the car, take a nap.
I’d sit right here and check
out stuff with the binoculars.
Catch up with lizards, blue-belly lizards.
– [Peter] Oh, look at that.
You can see Mount Baldy.
Well, Baldy’s like 10,000 feet I think.
– Yep. And so, that’s right there, right?
So where it goes up right
here, that’s Mount Baldy.
– [Peter] Yep!
– Big Bear’s straight
back behind Saddleback.
– [Peter] Yep! Such a
sick part of the country!
– That’s San Bernardino Mountains.
– [Peter] I mean, you can
go skiing up there, right?
Big Bear’s up there.
– Big Bear’s awesome.
You could see Big Bear.
There were a bunch of dolphin out here
when we came out here earlier.
You could just see a disturbance.
– [Peter] The Banning family owned it,
bringing tourists since 1842.
Stage coach operations.
Logging out here.
Bison poop?
– Yeah, there’s a fresh one.
When they got rid of the pigs here,
they put fences across the
island from water to water.
And then they just hunted
them section by section
and put traps.
And now they’re working on our deer,
trying to get rid of the deer.
They’re letting us have
a couple hunting seasons.
– [Peter] Getting rid of the deer? Why?
– Because they’re invasive to the island.
They’re trying to just
keep the bison here,
the bison for the tourism.
They don’t do anything
wrong like the deer do.
That’s what they say.
But the deer keep down
the grass and all the-
They say they only eat, they
don’t eat the invasive stuff,
they only eat the natural stuff,
so they wanna get rid of them.
But I mean, I grew up
hunting and so much fun.
And it provides for your family,
but they’re proposing to
eradicate them with helicopters.
That’s kinda messed up.
So they leave them.
Everybody was fighting for
it and they’re being cool
and letting locals hunt this year
and not bringing in a
bunch of people to put.
They say the pressure on them
is making them produce more
versus if they don’t
have that much pressure,
they don’t produce as
much babies every year.
– [Peter] So we got our hikers
that are moving between spots.
– Try not to dust them out.
– [Peter] That’s random!
– Yeah.
Bring the kids up here and
you go bass fishing right here
and let them play.
– [Peter] Oh, there we go. Bison!
He seems pretty dangerous.
– [Jonny] Yeah!
– [Peter] Do they do they charge you?
– You’re not gonna get outta the car,
you’re just gonna watch
right here from the car.
But they’re kind of used to the
tourists pulling up on them,
so they’re just mellow.
Hey, guys! How are you guys?
So when they’re this big
and they’re not with the females anymore,
they either had their day, like
they already had the females
and they got chased out
by one that’s bigger,
or they’re not big enough
yet to be with them.
The guy that’s with them
right now fought for them.
– [Peter] So he’s out of the pack?
– [Jonny] He’s out of the pack.
– [Peter] Until death?
– [Jonny] I guess.
Unless, until they feel like
they wanna get another stab at it.
– Okay, so it’s just like chimps.
Hierarchy.
– Hierarchy.
– Alpha. Alpha.
– If there was a male
right now with the females
and he came up, they start
grunting at each other
and they just.
– You see it?
– They don’t go like this. The guy just-
Oh, yeah, I see it a lot.
Not as much anymore as they give them-
Because they gave all
the females birth control
to control the herd.
– Really?
– Yeah! So.
– Was it getting too big or what?
– They were just trying to manage it
and that was their choice of
management, birth control.
– How many on the island now?
Does anyone know?
– I think we’re at 80.
– 80? That’s it?
– When I worked out here
when I was 18, it was like,
we kept it around 300.
– [Peter] Okay!
– [Jonny] Keeping them
around to make the money,
but it’s cool to see.
– [Peter] Yeah! You know
why they were brought over?
– I don’t know.
The total that they brought
when they brought them,
but they brought them for a movie
called, “Vanishing America”
and they just left them
and they became Catalina bison.
You know what the mom said
to the baby when he left?
Bye, son [Bison].
(Peter laughs)
(rhythmic guitar music)
– [Peter] Guys, how’s it going?
– It’s going!
– [Peter] It’s going?
– [Jonny] How’s it
going? You guys doing it?
– Yeah, yeah.
– It’s hot but it’s sick.
– [Peter] You cooking out here?
– Yeah!
– [Peter] Where are you
guys sleeping tonight?
Side of the road?
– We gotta figure it out.
– The little garden one
place, whatever it’s called.
Or little?
– [Jonny] Little Harbor!
Why don’t you get right
there? It’s all downhill.
Right where the airport is.
See that plane just land?
– Oh, yeah.
– Sounds good.
– Yeah, we got like 13
miles left probably.
– No! Like, probably-
– Hey, there’s a shortcut I
can tell you guys right now.
– [Hiker] Nah, it’s good. We’re good.
– Okay, you guys do your thing. Peace out.
– All right. Thank you!
– Later!
I love seeing that.
Not playing video games, going
for a big hike, you know?
– Yeah, that’s cool. They’re
not from here definitely.
Look it! There’s the
highest point we drove.
We’re just driving around it.
– Okay, so there’s one more town, right?
Two harbors?
That’s way more remote than Avalon.
– Way more remote. One
store, one restaurant.
– [Peter] You got buddies in two harbors?
– Yeah.
Every time I go visit them,
my wife has to drive back
’cause I have too much fun with them.
Little huggers, they call them.
– [Peter] Huggers?
– Yeah, they’re burnt for
shots out there. They’re fun.
They just fish and dive and work.
– [Peter] For how remote this is,
the roads are surprisingly
good, I gotta say.
– They’re maintained by
this guy named Mark Sadonia
that has been doing it since he’s a kid.
And literally his dad was
one of my mentors out here,
Herman Sadonia, and he
makes these roads amazing.
He’ll make little diversions off the side
and make little catch ponds
for the animals to have water
for after it rains and it holds
for like month or two, or.
He does a really good
job for the conservancy.
The planes come and land right
over your head right here.
This is the edge of the runway.
So if you sit right here on a Sunday,
they’re nonstop flying over you.
People like to go flying and
come over here for a cookie.
– [Peter] To the airport for a cookie?
– My friends just recently took over
this airport restaurant up here
and people fly in all the
time just to have lunch,
just to do a little flight,
and then grab one of their
famous cookies they have up here.
Called Airport in the Sky,
we’ll go check it out right now.
– [Peter] It’s like a ranch airport.
So nothing commercial comes in, right?
– There’s a DC-3 that lands here
and it’s called Catalina Flying Boats.
For like my restaurant, you
get fresh produce all the time
so they fly it over instead
of shipping it over.
– [Peter] All right!
So most stuff on the island
gets flown in or shipped in?
– Flown in, all like restaurant stuff,
and then you got stuff that’s
barged in, like ground stuff.
Oh, let’s walk in the shade over there.
– What’s up, buddy?
– How are you doing, brother?
– Been busy. How you been?
– I seen you or what? Crazy!
– Yes!
– Were you the one running over there?
– [Friend] You saw me?
– I saw you, yeah, by the local swing.
– [Friend] Yeah, yeah,
that was me. (laughs)
– Wanna check out the little history?
– [Peter] Yeah, let’s do it.
Okay, here we have a map of the island.
Avalon, where we started, we
went up to Wrigley Gardens,
and then somewhere through here.
Okay!
Airport in the Sky.
I guess there’s some
other estates out here.
We’re gonna go back, but
the island continues on.
Little harbor over here.
Eagle’s Nest Lodge.
Lot to explore out here for sure.
7,000 years ago, the Tongva people.
Spanish explorers, 1542 and 1602.
Ranchers and farmers, 1800, 1970s.
Sportsmen, late 1800s. Scientific
collectors, late 1800s.
Chicago Cubs!
So Wrigley had spring training
down here for the Cubs,
1921 to 1951.
Conservancy biologists, 1990s.
Nature lovers for all time.
Oh, what a cool airport!
– [Bystander] Natural!
– Hi!
Open 1959.
Do you want some? Cookie?
(patrons chattering)
Can I give you this?
These are good! Dense.
Yeah?
Nutrient. (laughs)
That’s a good cookie.
Trying to promote their cookies, bro.
I’m terrible at that.
– [Jonny] Airport in the Sky cookies!
– These are good.
– People fly in from all over LA
to come to get their cookies.
Delicious!
– [Patron] Help our clients,
you know, navigate it.
– Oh, yeah!
(car rumbling)
– Ravens!
(Johnny whistles)
They’ll start buzzing us here in a second.
They’re smart.
When they see me in somebody else’s car
or they won’t see me,
but I’ll whistle and then
they’ll come right along.
I’ll just throw a couple of almonds out
or something like that for them.
Stale Cheetos.
(Jonny whistles)
– [Peter] You whistle
and they come flying in?
– Yeah, they’ll fly right in usually.
Here they are there.
They’re coming in now.
I’ll fake them out with this.
– [Peter] Oh, there they are! No way!
– [Jonny] Look!
– [Peter] That’s crazy!
– They look at you right in the eye.
– [Peter] There he is.
– He likes the chomps.
There he goes.
(Johnny whistles)
Take them out the beef jerky
and give them some almonds.
Give them a piece of my KIND bar.
It’s melting.
And then if you just
throw a little chunk out,
he’ll be right behind you to get it.
(upbeat music echoing)
– [Peter] This is the
other Catalina, yeah?
– Yeah, this is what
people think is Catalina.
Just come over here, go to
Descanso, party all day.
That’s what Avalon or Catalina is.
You got to see what a lot of it is.
This place is great to come
out and have a nice afternoon,
but it’s cool to see the whole island
instead of just-
– [Peter] Yeah, yeah!
– Thinking that this is it.
You walk over and see the
harbor right over here.
– [Peter] Okay!
– Come on, Salt. (lips kissing)
♪ Oh, I wanna dance ♪
– [Jonny] This is what happens when
it’s a good weather weekend.
Look at this. This is what it turns into.
Look at the harbor.
– [Peter] These guys are
all coming from Newport,
Long Beach, those areas?
– [Jonny] Yeah, all the
port’s all the way, you know,
from Santa Barbara to San Diego.
– [Peter] Okay! What’s up on
the hill there, way up there?
– That’s Wrigley Mansion.
It’s their mansion where they built.
Wrigley’s room was on the right,
Mrs. Wrigley’s was on the left.
He had a view of where the Cubs’
field used to be down here.
They used to bring them
out for spring training
’cause he owned the Cubs.
– [Peter] Okay, the
field was right in town?
– The field was down here.
– [Peter] Jonny, thanks man.
– You got it, brother.
– [Peter] Appreciate it!
– I’m gonna shower and be at work at 3:30.
– [Peter] Okay. I’m gonna get
a steak at your place later.
– Yeah, come and get a steak.
– [Peter] All right.
– You’re the man, brother.
– [Peter] All right. You’re the man!
– Good day!
– Thank you!
– See you guys later.
(door slams)
– Oh, that was cool.
No way we would’ve gotten that access
way behind the mountain there.
And it’s two different worlds.
My little time here, I feel
the two different worlds.
The tourist, bit of
that old world vibe too.
Love the church bells.
(bells chiming)
And then endless nature.
You guys are tourists here right now?
– We are tourists. Yep.
– We’re touring.
– We’re actually from
the Coachella Valley.
– [Peter] Oh, nice!
– Yeah. And she’s from San
Clemente, just right here.
– [Peter] Okay, cool!
– And we’re on a yacht
with one of our clients,
one of my clients who I built a house for.
– [Peter] Oh, nice!
– Brought us out here and said,
“You guys gotta go out and
do the golf cart tour.”
– [Peter] Nice! Well, thank you.
– Yeah!
– [Peter] For watching!
– Are you touristing today?
– I’m making a video right now.
So I just,
I got in with this local
and we went way back there.
– Yeah?
– Oh, cool! So fun.
– [Peter] Take care.
– Keep doing it!
– [Peter] Thank you!
– Very cool channel.
– [Peter] Thank you!
– Yep!
– So one of my great YouTube
followers here, Natalie,
was the one that connected me with Jonny.
A lot of these videos, I
don’t have people set up.
Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t.
But I wanted to have one
person at least over here
that could get us out into stuff
that most people aren’t gonna see.
(bystanders chattering)
Just wanna show you guys some
of these cool back streets
looking over the harbor,
and the golf cart vibe is pretty cool.
I think that helps big time.
If you had cars up in here,
it’d be pretty tough to get around.
How you doing, sir?
There’s a lot of attention to detail.
This is great.
It’s so busy down there,
but just a few streets up,
it is quiet.
Except for the ravens.
(raven cawing)
(footsteps crunching)
Looks like an old coliseum of
sorts, Catalina Island style.
I don’t know if it was
built as a retaining wall
or this is actually
something back in the day.
Looks like it’s perfectly
set up as a theater of sorts.
(walkers chattering)
Totally different Los Angeles
County out here for sure.
That’s what’s so cool about
counties in the United States.
Take Placer County in California,
that’s Lake Tahoe, that’s Auburn,
you have palm trees to 20 feet
of snow in the same county.
And here you have this.
In Los Angeles, in New York,
you have old mining
towns and Lake Champlain
and then Lake Placid where
the Olympics were twice.
So there’s so much variation,
not just in a state but in a county.
States get labeled easily and
you break it down to a county
and then you can even break
it down within a county,
what the vibe is like,
culture, the politics.
Yeah, super fascinating stuff.
Was talking to a friend on
the phone the other day.
He’s Latvian, but lives in Thailand now,
but lived in the States.
– [Driver] Hey, Peter!
– Yeah. What’s up?
– Yeah, I watch your show
all the time, man. I love it!
– [Peter] Thanks, boss. Appreciate it!
– It’s so funny ’cause
I actually was gonna try
to find an email for you and say,
“Hey, man, you should come to Catalina.”
– [Peter] Well, I’m here.
– Yeah! Roger!
– You’re from here, Roger?
– Well, originally from
Chicago, but I live here.
Been here for-
– Tell us about it.
– Oh, sure!
– What’s going on, Roger?
– Well, it’s a crazy little community.
– Is it?
– Lots of challenges,
but lots of great stuff.
– Is it?
– It’s a real great community.
I mean, everybody knows everybody.
– Right!
– Which is a good thing and a bad thing.
– A bad thing?
– Yeah.
– There’s a saying on the island,
“You don’t lose your girlfriend,
you just lose your turn.”
– [Peter] Yeah. That’s in
mountain towns and island towns.
– Yeah! Oh you heard that, huh?
– [Peter] Oh, all the time!
– Oh, cool.
– [Peter] Yeah!
– You know, it’s funny
because there’s so many
Southern Californians that say,
“Well, this is my first time here.
I grew up in Southern California.”
– [Peter] Yeah!
– Always heard about it and
I was the same kind of way.
You know, I lived in South Bay for a while
and always knew about it but never came.
– [Peter] Yeah. You
like it better out here?
– Yeah, yeah.
– [Peter] Nice.
– Look, you know, there’s no stoplights.
I got a golf cart, you know?
All right, Peter!
– [Peter] Yeah. Appreciate it, Roger.
– All right, I’ll watch you later!
– Take care!
(engine rumbling)
Flavorful place.
Yeah, what was I saying?
Oh, just the diversity of the country.
So a buddy from Latvia lives in Thailand,
lived in the US for a bit,
but only in big city part of the country.
From outside of the country,
it becomes easier to just
label America as this or that.
And even for us Americans
inside the country,
it becomes easy to label
this region as like this
or this region as like that.
And the reality is it goes
so granular and so deep
that you can constantly
discover new things here.
And as my wife says, “It’s a
build your own bowl country.
Select your protein, your
legumes, your vegetables.
Do you want cheese? How
about some dressing?”
And what she means by that is,
“You know, pick your
geography, pick your climate,
pick your culture.”
And there are so many options
for building your bowl
in the United States.
And I’ve lived in a few
countries in the world
and they’re always regional
differences, that’s for sure.
I think with the US, with
the wide expanse of it,
it just stretches so far.
We have everything from
the Amish to the Chicanas,
to the Siberian Yupik.
All are American and living
out how they wanna live,
and I think it’s such a cool thing.
When you come to a place
like Catalina Island
and you can see a totally
different way of living.
And, yes, there is a connective
tissue in the United States
that brings it all together,
but you really can be who you wanna be,
live the lifestyle you wanna live.
You wanna be out in the woods,
you wanna grow your own food,
you wanna live in a city, an island,
mountains, the ocean, it’s all available.
It’s a beautiful thing.
And I just wanna bring
that to our attention.
Oh, look at this street. That is so cool!
You know, most of everything
online about the US
is so negative these days.
And, yeah, there are problems,
there are pain points,
plenty of issues,
but there’s plenty of great stuff too.
And don’t forget that. I try to show both.
This video is more about a nice, soft,
gentle look at a cool part of the country.
This is your dad’s decoration?
– [Local] Yes, my dad!
– [Peter] Cool!
– Yes, so, which is cool ’cause it has…
It’s just a palm, you know?
And it’s so excited because
most of the people like you,
they stop by, take pictures.
– [Peter] Yeah!
– So they get that great idea
that they could do something
with the palm on their houses
or whatever they live at.
– [Peter] Do you love living here?
– Yes! I grew up on the island.
– [Peter] Okay! Cool!
– Basically, this is my life.
When I grew up on the
island, it was kind of fun.
You get to be free, you know?
You’re free, you could
do anything you want.
We used to go swimming, snorkeling.
Our air is so clean and fresh
and we don’t have any gangs.
We don’t have.
We only have eight homeless,
but they’re really not homeless.
– [Peter] Eight home? Like one?
– Eight of them.
– [Peter] Eight?
– Mm-hmm! But they’re okay.
They’re okay. They live
in their own world.
They do whatever they need to do,
but they don’t mess up with anybody.
Totally different life
than the big cities.
I got married here, I got my kids here,
they all grow up here.
– [Peter] Oh!
– Two live off the island, but
I still have the other two.
– [Peter] Do you think the two
that moved off come back, or?
– No! No, they don’t wanna come back.
– [Peter] They wanna be in the cities?
– They come down and visit.
– [Peter] Okay!
– But to move to the island? No!
And honestly, I don’t
want them to come back.
– [Peter] Why not?
– Because there’s nothing here for them.
And now with my grandkids,
there’s nothing here for them.
As far as of everything.
Like, over there they have more, like,
even if you come from over there,
like let’s say you get boring to be,
you wanna get your day off
and just go somewhere else,
explore something else, you know?
And most of the people
that will live here,
most of the people, when
we go to, let’s say,
Long Beach or anywhere else,
then you have to rent the car
if you don’t own your own car.
– [Peter] Right! Right!
– So, and then you have to rush,
go for the day and try to come back,
unless you’re gonna stay in a hotel.
So my kids and it’s good. I respect.
– [Peter] Yeah!
– They don’t wanna come
back to the island.
– [Peter] Yep!
– Every Sunday they have like
a soccer game with the kids.
They go down and they go
to their mother-in-law,
they go to the swimming pool,
they have barbecues, they
have more opportunities.
Like, they just went to Sea
World a couple days ago.
– [Peter] Okay!
– So it’s that type of difference.
– [Peter] So it’s gotta
be a bit of a challenge,
I would think, as a parent.
Like, you love the
simplicity and the safety.
– Yes!
– [Peter] But there are the
options and the opportunities.
– Yes, tough challenge. Yes, very tough.
– [Peter] Okay! You got a cute house!
– Yeah, this is my parents basically.
This is where they live.
My dad has his altar right there.
He grows his own little plants.
He has a little garden right there.
– [Peter] So these you think
were made for the soldiers?
– Yes! At war time.
– [Peter] They were training
here before World War I, right?
– Yeah, I believe so.
Because these ones are more
than a hundred years old.
– [Peter] Right!
– These houses. That’s it!
– [Peter] Yeah, so pre-World War II?
– For example, the house, this one,
is like an attic on the bottom,
but it kind of moved one time
that we got like a little earthquake,
kind of moved a little bit,
so my dad had to lift it up.
Because like all this is original.
Like this, my dad replaced this, but.
– [Peter] Everything’s original, yeah.
– Everything’s original. Yeah!
You could see the ceiling,
how it is, the old style.
– [Peter] Is this your car?
– Yep, that’s mine. That’s my old car!
– It’s a classic.
(beachgoers chattering)
All right, here’s where Jonny works.
He said, “Come by for an excellent steak.”
Steve’s Steakhouse.
(patrons chattering)
– Hey, Steve?
– [Peter] You clean up
well. You clean up well.
– I mean, come in here.
You ready to meet a fourth generation?
Fourth generation?
– [Peter] Peter Santenello!
– Nice to meet you, Peter. Steve Bray.
How you doing, man?
– [Peter] Fourth generation?
– [Jonny] You wanna talk to a legend?
– [Peter] Wow!
– [Jonny] I learned from him.
– So do your ancestors have
stories all the way back
to the beginning of the
Wrigley family here, right?
– Yeah, actually, my ancestors
were before the Wrigleys.
They came in the late 1800s.
– [Peter] Okay.
– And the Wrigleys didn’t even
buy the island until 1900.
– [Peter] So before it was
ranching? It was timber?
What was it?
– It was a small town.
There was ranching and there was mining.
You know, there was
pioneers out here, right?
– [Peter] Just pioneers?
– Yeah, trying to make a buck.
And then they were
trying to make something
out of this town, you know?
And make it a site to be visited.
– [Peter] Yep!
– Which they tried, the
Banning brothers and that.
And they sort of lost a
significant amount of money
in the fire, in the 1915 fire.
I don’t think they recovered from it.
– [Peter] 1915 fire?
– Yeah!
– [Peter] Just torched the place?
– All the front street.
– [Peter] Okay. Okay.
– Yeah.
– [Peter] Wow!
– And then, so, yeah,
Wrigley came here in 1919
and bought the island.
– [Peter] Okay, you said
there are two types of people
that run restaurants.
– Yeah!
The first person that comes
up on a Saturday night,
sees the restaurant is
jam-packed and says,
“Hey, I want one!
I have some money in my
pocket and I wanna buy that.”
So he buys the restaurant
and then basically just waits at home
and waits till the restaurant closes.
And then they bring the blue bag up
and they count the money
on how much they made.
And then there’s a
restaurant owner like me
where I come in at six
o’clock in the morning,
I cut the fish, I cut the meat,
I do the desserts.
I do as much as I can in the
back to help the kitchen out
and right that.
And then I go home, take
a nap and right that.
And then at nighttime, I work it.
I work that restaurant,
upstairs, on the beach.
Whatever I could do to
help all these people.
Actually, this is my
first marriage, you know?
And then my beautiful wife is my second
’cause I have to spend
a lot of time in here.
(patrons chattering)
Okay. Did you have a
filet mignon, medium rare?
– [Peter] There we go, Steve. Nice!
– [Steve] Broccolini.
– [Peter] Sliced up!
– There’s Bearnaise sauce.
Fresh sourdough bread,
steaming hot for you.
There you go, my man.
Enjoy!
– Served by the boss.
Scored right there, brother.
– No, no! I scored by meeting up with you.
(Jonny laughs)
All right, here we have
the filet at Steve’s.
(patrons chattering)
Little Bearnaise sauce.
Very good. Tender!
Very tender. Cooked it to medium rare.
Mushrooms, onions on top.
(patrons chattering)
Hmm! Very good.
This is tough to beat. This is amazing.
See the casino out there?
It is such a cool festive vibe here.
(beachgoers chattering)
(engine roaring)
(birds chirping)
Missionaries, they go everywhere.
What’s up, you guys?
– Hey, how’s it going?
– [Peter] Hey, how’s it going out here?
– Doing good! Doing good.
– [Peter] Making a video on the island.
How’s missionary work going out here?
– Oh, it’s going amazing. Yeah.
– [Peter] Are people liking it?
– Yeah, most definitely.
– [Peter] Really?
– I think I’ve seen your channel before.
– Yeah! I met some of you
guys out in West Virginia.
– Yeah! I love your YouTube channel.
– Out in the Hinterlands. I loved it.
Elder and El?
Well!
– Yeah!
– [Peter] I did this
before. What is Elder Reis?
How does that work again?
– So elder means, like, missionary.
So it pretty much just
means we’re teaching,
we’re spreading the Word.
– [Peter] Okay. Where do you guys live?
– I’m from Utah originally.
– So, yeah, I’m originally from Texas.
– [Peter] Okay!
– Yeah!
– [Peter] So how is it
going out here overall?
– Good! Oh, we love it
here though actually.
It’s a very unique area,
’cause it’s like 3,000 people
that live here and stuff.
We have to contact everyone.
– [Peter] Do you guys just come
out for the day and go home?
Or do you stay here?
– We live here actually.
– Yeah, we do.
– [Peter] Oh! Okay!
How many Mormons here, would you say?
– We have a record of 40
members that live here,
but only one is active in constant church.
– [Peter] Only one is active?
– Yeah. His name’s Chuck
Liddell. But, yeah.
– [Peter] Shout-out to Chuck Liddell.
– Shout-out to Chuck right there.
(group chuckles)
– [Peter] But you guys
would go to church, right?
– Yeah!
– Us?
Yeah, we hold the church service.
We have a bank right here and we hold it.
– Yeah. (chuckles)
– [Peter] So wait!
Chuck goes and you two
go. And who else goes?
– Whoever comes in.
– [Peter] Okay! Okay.
– Whoever we invite.
– [Peter] All right, cool.
So where else have you been
in the world doing this?
– Doing this, I’ve only
been in California.
So most of the time we’re only
assigned to, like, a state
or, like, an area.
– [Peter] Okay, so you haven’t had
the challenges of being deep
in the hoods of Rio de Janeiro
or something?
– No! But in the hoods of Compton, yeah.
– [Peter] Yeah?
– I have!
– [Peter] Okay, so how does it
compare here versus Compton?
– Oh, it’s a big difference. It’s big.
– [Peter] How people receive you?
– Um…
Both ways!
I think in Compton,
like, it’s humble people.
There’s very humble people there.
And so well received because
many are Christians there.
– [Peter] Okay.
– Many people, you know, seek, you know,
more guidance in their life
and they seek more of that.
– [Peter] What’s been
the hardest experience?
– Ooh, the hardest?
– [Peter] A slammed
door in the face, maybe?
– That happens every day.
(Peter laughs)
I think the hardest is when
I think whenever people come up to you
and tell you, “It’s no
good” or, “You can’t do it,”
or, “You can’t do what you’re doing.”
– [Peter] Okay!
– And I think that’s the main thing, but.
– You know what I think teaches
you guys a valuable lesson
outside of the religion?
– Yeah?
– Getting the slammed
door in the face every day
and, like, brushing it off
and moving on is a great skill in life.
– It’s true.
– True.
– Yeah!
– It builds character.
– [Peter] Yeah!
And you don’t think, you
don’t take things personally.
– It’s true.
– Yeah.
– You don’t.
– That’s good scale to have.
– Well, that’s awesome. Yeah.
– [Peter] Guys, take care.
– You too. Take care!
(waves lapping)
(crowd chattering)
– Thank you, guys!
– So you get a little bit of that?
– Lots of that! Lots of drinking.
– [Peter] I thought I
was wrapping up, Eric,
and then I saw you at the grocery store.
– We saw, yeah. The whole force is out!
What happened?
(group chattering)
What happened there,
girls? Fighting or what?
– Yeah, they were fighting earlier.
– Oh, no!
Okay.
– [Peter] So you get some of that?
Some drunk fights out here?
– Lots of drunk fights out here.
People come here to let loose
and then the sun gets to them.
– So safe though for the most part?
– Oh, very safe.
The place is beautiful!
– [Peter] You guys still have
some commercial fishing out here?
– Lots of commercial fishing. Yeah!
He’s from San Pedro but,
oh, our boat’s down here.
Hi, guys.
– Hey!
– [Peter] All right! A little boat cruise.
– Before Peter has to get in the boat!
Let me get a good one there.
I’ll pull up for ya.
– This is great.
I just was in the grocery
store, Eric reached out,
said, “Know the content.”
So, Eric, you grew up here?
– Yeah, more or less.
Here and San Diego.
Carlsbad area.
There’s a couple squid boats here.
They light up right
here and squid come up.
Look at the shore boat.
The poor guy’s at work!
That was me 20 minutes ago.
– [Peter] What is the shore
boat? What are you doing?
– Just back and forth to the boats.
– [Peter] So that’s your job?
Going out to these yachts,
these bigger boats?
– All these, yeah.
Or not all of these but a lot of them.
– [Peter] What’s it cost
to dock a boat here?
– Smaller ones is 40, 50 bucks.
The way, way big one is probably 100, 129.
– [Peter] I can stand up, yeah?
– You can stand up.
But one of these, like let’s
say you wanted to buy 142,
it’s gonna be $250,000, right?
For one of those.
– [Peter] This is 250?
– No, no, just the buoy.
– [Peter] Oh, if you wanna
buy one of the buoys?
Okay!
– You gotta pay your property
tax, everything, but.
– [Peter] You pay property tax on buoys?
– Yeah!
– Oh, wow!
– That is crazy, yeah.
– [Peter] So some of these
people have bought their buoy?
– A lot of these. Pretty
much all of them now.
– [Peter] And so they just sell them
like real estate, right?
Like a home?
– Yeah!
– So these people are just
coming out from the mainland,
partying for the day, fishing?
– A couple days or…
– You just sleep out here?
– Yeah, you could even
come for a couple hours
and then just head home.
We got day trippers.
– Balance.
So what do you love about living out here?
– Oh, it’s beautiful out here.
– [Peter] Yeah?
– Yeah!
You’re not sitting in traffic on the way.
You know where this, that, the other.
You saw the traffic in the golf park.
Nuts! (laughs)
And it’s safe. Got the kids, you know?
– [Peter] Other than what we just saw.
– Oh, that’s nothing!
– [Peter] That’s a bar fight.
– Yeah! It’s him and his buddies fighting.
You know, they’ll be fine later on.
It’s a beautiful casino.
– [Peter] Isn’t it?
– [Eric] Place of gathering though.
The largest ballroom I think
in the world, up there.
– [Peter] Yeah. Went
in there this morning.
– [Eric] Beautiful, huh?
– [Peter] So cool!
– Yeah! They built that.
They pulled barges up back in the ’20s,
and there’s a one year of
continuous pour of concrete.
They built that in one year.
– [Peter] Look at this.
Stepping on his back.
– [Eric] Joey!
Joey requires a lot of lacquer.
– [Peter] You know, oh,
that’s a beautiful boat.
That is beautiful!
– [Eric] Old Stevens.
– [Peter] That’s a nice boat.
– Hi!
– [Peter] Stevens, is that
like a Chris crab or something?
– More or less. Back in the day type boat.
– [Peter] What do you think the
value of a boat like that is
in that condition, which looks great?
– Depends on what he has.
I don’t know about that
one. Probably a lot.
But like, let’s see a normal one.
Like that blue one coming up.
That’s probably a million, five.
– [Peter] That one back there?
– Yeah. This one’s probably three or four.
– [Peter] Three million? Four million?
– Yeah. Oh, easy.
Yeah, they got motors, the
electronic, everything.
There’s a lot of stuff that goes to that.
– [Peter] This one’s
beautiful. Look at this.
– [Eric] I know!
Look at it! The lines are beautiful.
– [Peter] The lines are stunning.
Sort of matched the casino
a little bit, that style.
– The casino kind of looks like the forum,
but chop the top of it off.
– [Peter] He’s fishing?
– [Eric] He’s fishing, yeah!
– [Peter] It’s still working
out here for fishing?
– Still working, yeah.
Making it work. Keeping the lights on.
Nobody’s getting rich on it.
But, you know, if you wanna put-
The good thing about commercial fishing is
you don’t cut your corners.
If you’re cheating, you’re
only cheating yourself.
It’s cool when you do that
and into life and everything
and it all works out.
You half-ass it together and everything,
you’re not gonna catch fish,
you’re not gonna make money,
in the wrong business, so.
Or your boat’s gonna sink or you know?
A lot of bad-
– [Peter] You can’t half-ass it?
– Don’t half-ass it, yeah.
If you’re gonna half-ass
it, go sit down at wherever.
Wherever else you wanna work. (laughs)
– [Peter] So your buddy
will take the fish in?
– Sell them to Caleb or whoever else.
– [Peter] Sell them here?
– Ah-huh!
– [Peter] To one of the restaurants?
– To one of the restaurants, yeah.
– [Peter] Steve’s getting fresh fish.
– Yeah. Oh, yeah.
– [Peter] Okay. I just ate there.
– Oh! It’s good, huh?
– [Peter] Nice guy.
– Very nice guy! I grew up with his kids.
– [Peter] His kids, five generations here.
– Yeah! And then they had kids too.
– [Peter] Pre-Wrigley family!
– Yeah! Long time.
I owned this boat before COVID.
COVID killed that mother.
– [Peter] Why? Fishing went down or what?
– Everything went down.
I had to trim the fat.
I tried to get too fancy. (laughs)
She was fun though.
She’s no slab though, she makes it.
– [Peter] Yeah!
– She’s got her fish and game number.
She earns a living.
– [Peter] And that’s my boat.
– [Eric] That’s your boat?
Look at the blue heron! Pretty, that.
– [Peter] Oh, that’s
a way to shut it down.
What a great day!
– [Eric] Yeah.
– [Peter] Sun’s going down.
Thanks for that little cruise.
I didn’t get the water perspective today,
so you made it happen.
– Yeah!
I got that. I got it!
Peter, you’re a good man, brother.
– You’re a good man. Thank you, Eric.
– Anytime, you come see
me on the shore boat.
– I appreciate it!
– Come back here!
– I appreciate it!
– And we’ll go, when you have more time,
we’ll go down the coast
and we’ll dick around.
– [Peter] That would be sick.
– Maybe go fishing a little bit.
– [Peter] I would love that.
– Yeah! Come back.
– [Peter] Take care!
– You got the inland Jonny Q’s festival
and then we’ll go out on the coast.
Love it.
– [Peter] Later!
– Nice to meet you, brother!
– [Peter] You too!
– All right. Later, big guy!
– Really a nice vibe here, I gotta say.
I gotta say.
My last takeaway is: You
never know until you go.
I know I’ve said that many a times,
but this is Los Angeles County
and I bet 99.9 out of 100
would say, “No, it’s not!”
And yes, it is.
So that’s the wild,
interesting world we live in.
Catalina Island! Beautiful place.
Check it out.
Until the next one.
(relaxing upbeat music)
(relaxing upbeat music continues)