{"id":1113,"date":"2013-01-14T06:00:34","date_gmt":"2013-01-14T14:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morningnewsinverse.com\/?p=1113"},"modified":"2013-01-14T06:27:51","modified_gmt":"2013-01-14T14:27:51","slug":"catalina-hamilton-cove-glenmore-plaza-hotel-and-the-other-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=1113","title":{"rendered":"Catalina: Hamilton Cove, Glenmore Plaza Hotel and the \u2018Other Side\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Bob Sparrow<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>Twenty-thirteen portends to be an unusual year for me, perhaps even paranormal, what with all the \u2018other side\u2019 things that helped usher in a year with a 13 in it.\u00a0 No, I\u2019m not superstitious, but like Michael Scott<\/strong>, I am a little <\/i>\u2018stitious\u2019.\u00a0 While most New Year\u2019s<\/strong> days I\u2019ve watched the sun set into the Pacific Ocean somewhere along the \u2018left coast\u2019<\/strong>, this year I welcomed in the new year on the \u2018other side\u2019 watching the sun coming up<\/i> over the Pacific from Hamilton Cove<\/strong> on Catalina Island \u2013 truly a unique experience.\u00a0 OK, truth is there haven\u2019t been too many years when I\u2019ve even seen the sun on New Year\u2019s Day, but that\u2019s another story.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve never been there, Hamilton Cove looks like it belongs on the \u2018other side\u2019 of the Atlantic, perhaps on a Greek island coastline<\/strong> or hanging somewhere off the Amalfi Coast in Italy<\/strong>. \u00a0I suppose if you have been there, it still looks that way, but as if getting away from it all in Catalina wasn\u2019t enough, several of us wanted to get away from the people who wanted to get away from it all \u2013 to the \u2018other side\u2019 of Catalina.\u00a0 I\u00a0discovered that Catalina is a little like the moon, in that most people only see one side, although I can tell you now from experience, that the \u2018other side\u2019 of Catalina is not dark . . . \"photo<\/a>unless you go at night, then it\u2019s really dark.\u00a0 Like the moon, it\u2019s not easy to get to the \u2018other side\u2019 of Catalina, you have to have a pass that gets you through the gate on the road to the\u00a0‘other side’ that goes through\u00a0the infamous \u2018Airport in the Sky\u2019<\/strong>, Catalina\u2019s private airport where planes don\u2019t really take off from the runway, the runway simply drops out from under them after several thousand feet and, presto, they\u2019re airborne.<\/p>\n

\"glenmore<\/a>We were fortunate to be in the company of one Michael Amoroso<\/strong>, whose family has lived on the island for over twenty years and owns and operate the Glenmore Plaza Hotel<\/strong>, <\/i>\u2018the second oldest continuously operating hotel in California\u2019, so says Michael\u2019s brother, Jimmy, who manages the hotel.\u00a0 I thought it odd that a hotel in this relatively remote location would have such a distinction so I asked Jimmy Jr., Jimmy\u2019s son who works at the hotel, \u201cWhose #1?\u201d\u00a0 He replied like someone who\u2019d studied hotel history his entire life, \u201cThe Hotel\u00a0del Coronado<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 I decided to see what Google had to say on the matter:<\/p>\n