As the sun signals a new day over Catalina Island, energetic little Rosie Cadman takes a brisk walk from her home to the end of the pier. It's a quarter of a mile trek the 77-year-old dynamo makes every morning from March to November. It's so early when she arrives for work; the boats in the harbor haven't even begun to stir. Earl and Rosie's fish market has been a mainstay on Catalina's Green Pleasure Pier since 1967.

People come here for a lot more than the fish and chips, they come here for Rosie. And for good reason, everyone she meets becomes a fast friend.

I have a lot of wonderful friends. Some I don't even know their names. But they come and hug me," Rosie said. She came to Catalina with her late husband, Earl, on their honeymoon in 1946. And so began a great love affair between the two, as well as a love affair with picturesque Catalina Island. "It's the charisma, the charm of the island that hits you. There's something about it. When it hits you it never leaves you. You love it forever."

Santa Catalina Island is a little bit of paradise 22 miles off the Southern Coast of California. Its major town, Avalon, has been a pleasure resort since the turn of the century. In 1919 chewing gum magnate, William Wrigley, bought the island. That marked the real start of Catalina's development as a world playground. And one place visitors flock to is that little fish market on the end of the "Pleasure Pier."

Thirty-five years ago Rosie and her fisherman husband were asked by city officials to take over the historic place after the previous owners closed it. Rosie developed her own tasty tarter sauce recipe and her fish is hand-dipped daily in her fresh breading.

Everything at Rosie's tastes good because it's made with love. Rosie's is open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Closed mid November to "Easter. Phone 310-510-0197.