Tourist Searches in Vain for the 26-Mile-Long Bridge to Avalon

Summer is here, the silly season for tourists who wish to visit Santa Catalina Island but haven’t quite done all their research.

“We once had someone on the mainland call from a cellphone in their car,” said Gwen Kleist of the island’s Chamber of Commerce. “They were saying they couldn’t find the bridge.”

Mysterious Catalina (cont.): Some tourists who reach the island still aren’t sure where they are.

“One person asked me, ‘Is this really an island?’ ” said Juan Chavolla, a waiter at the Landing Bar and Grill. “And people have asked me, ‘Do you accept dollars?’ They’ll say, ‘Where can I get some pesos? This is part of Mexico, right?’ ”

The island’s famous buffalo, first shipped over for a movie, inspire interesting theories. “Someone will ask, ‘How did they get here? Did they swim over?’ ” Chavolla said.

Other local attractions breed confusion too.

“I was asked if the jeep tour goes through the kelp forest,” Kleist said.

She resisted replying that only amphibious vehicles could navigate a kelp forest.

It’s time for summer school ... : But some institutions could use a little tutoring themselves, points out Susan Wolfson of Redondo Beach (see accompanying).

Guide to adventurous dining: Chris Kahle came across a shop that, judging by its placement in the SBC Yellow Pages, literally serves hot dogs (see accompanying).

Wide-screen indeed: Art and Marilyn Russell saw a marquee for a movie that really lives up to its name (see photo).

Second opinion: “My wife got in the car the other day to do the weekly shopping,” reported Benjamin Myers of Riverside. “She thought she was having a dizzy spell and decided to make an appointment with her doctor when she got back from shopping. On her return, a neighbor asked if she felt the earthquake in Yucaipa. End of the dizzy spell problem.”

miscelLAny: While Anaheim bids for a pro football franchise, it recently lost another team -- the Anaheim Storm of the National Lacrosse League.

The Storm, who suspended operations, turned out to be more of a drizzle on the O.C. athletic scene.

The team’s owners? Who Knew Sports and Entertainment.

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A. 90012, and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.