The episode kicked off like many Laguna Beach installments with the girls all eagerly gossiping about what the big plans are and who will be showing up with who. Lo, sounding like the blonde spawn of Beaker, announced she would not be attending a trip to Catalina Island because her dad decided to assert some parental responsibility. Psssh. This led to a typical frown volley between LC and Lo before settling into a casual anti-Kristin discussion.

As for Kristin, she was partaking in some predictably staged banter with Roz from Frasier. Oh wait, that's just her friend Alex. The two commented about Christina and how she was going to miss the Catalina trip to sing at the Crystal Cathedral. Considering that our previous exposure to Christina's singing was an atonal (and yes, cringe-worthy) audition for Rent in NYC, I feared the structural integrity of the Crystal Cathedral might be in serious danger. Nevertheless, it's a decent opportunity for a young girl to screetch publicly, and as Kristin noted, the cathedral has been visited by "some President." As Jeopardy music played in our heads, we watched as Kristin tried to remember which one of those silly Presidents visited the Catherdral before remembering that it was - oh yeah - Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ah, the youth of America. Sigh.

Over on some seaside cliff, Stephen and his sidekick (whose nicely plucked eyebrows should raise some, er, eyebrows) discussed whether or not a yacht would be transporting them to Catalina. Now I'm not one of these populists that begrudges every rich kid raised with yachts, but seriously, I really wanted to punch them in the face.

Luckily for them, a yacht did fetch all the kids, who were served a lovely continental breakfast consisting of croissants, fruit, and danish. You know, all the typical food they'll be getting at college. When the kids finally made it to the camp site, they assembled their tents to the tune of Green Day's "American Idiot" - one of the rare sly moves on the producers' part. LC called up Lo who was excited to be heading out with Mike - whoever that is - for sushi. There was some general banter about sushi this, camping that, but I didn't really pay attention, lest I had to listen to the windshield wiper sound that was Lo's voice. Later at the campsite, some park rangers came by to say "Hope you have fun, yada yada yada rattle snakes might sneak up on you, yada yada yada, watch out for bears, yada yada yada, yes bears, yada yada yada." Morgan, the pudgy girl whose face always looks like she just walked in on two people making out, stared bug-eyed at the ranger. I wasn't surprised to see her all-encompassing fear. No offense to her, but if this little crew suddenly turned Lord of the Flies, I think we know who'd be first to have her head crushed by a boulder...