I haven’t posted since Saturday, so I have some catching up to do. Late Friday night, Donna’s brother, Mark and his wife Miriam arrived. They were traveling home to Philadelphia from a vacation in Maui and spent the weekend here.
On Saturday morning, Donna went for a bicycle ride while I posted to the blog. When Donna returned and showered, we drove the rental car to the Hotel Del Coronado on Coronado Island. Like many of the islands around San Diego, Coronado is not a true island. It’s an isthmus joined to the mainland by a strip called the Silver Strand. The Hotel Del Coronado is usually referred to as the “Hotel Del” by the locals and I’ll use that shortened name.
The Hotel Del is an iconic San Diego landmark. It opened in 1888 and was the playground of the rich and famous. In the 1920s, many of Hollywood’s stars would relax there. People like Clark Gable, Douglas Fairbanks, Errol Flynn and Mae West were regulars. The hotel is designated as a California Landmark and was designated a US Historical Landmark in 1977. The wooden Victorian resort is the second largest wooden structure in the United States.
On the last day of November, we had fantastic weather. The temperature was 70 degrees on Coronado Island. The traffic was fairly heavy and parking on the street at the Hotel Del wasn’t going to happen. I parked in a public parking garage across the street for $20. Miriam texted Donna and said they had snagged a cabana at the back of the Sun Deck Grill. We walked over there and found them.
Hotel Del Coronado entrance
Shortly after we arrived, Sheila, Connor, Tom and Linda joined us. We sat on the deck and had a cocktail. Mark treated all of us to lunch. We lingered over a second cocktail and talked for nearly three hours. The time flies while catching up with family. One topic of discussion was the weight Mark has taken off. He has lost 26 pounds since August and is making a real effort to continue his weight loss. Congrats to Mark, keep it up!
Sheila, Linda, Mark and Donna
While we were visiting, I asked Donna if she remembered to lock her bike after her morning ride. The look on her face told me all I needed to know. The bike was sitting in front of our site unlocked. She tried to phone our neighbor, Mona, to see if she could secure the bike, but wasn’t able to reach her. The group was planning to ice skate on the outdoor rink behind the Hotel Del, but we decided to go back to the RV park and lock up Donna’s bike. Replacing her carbon fiber framed Trek is not in the budget.
Ice skating outdoors in 70 degree weather with the beach and Pacific Ocean as a backdrop – how cool is that
Miriam rode with us back to the RV park. We secured Donna’s bike and relaxed for awhile. We timed our departure from the park to meet the rest of the group back at Sheila’s house in Point Loma. Sheila grilled local caught tuna for dinner. It was grilled to perfection and so good!
On Sunday morning, we said our goodbyes to Bud and Mona. Their stay at Mission Bay RV Resort has come to an end. They’re going back to their real life and sticks and bricks houses. For us, this is real life and we hope they’ll come back and spend some time with us on the weekends. We couldn’t stay and visit much, we had a time schedule to keep.
Donna and I took the rental car to Coronado Island where we picked up Mark and Miriam. From there we went to Sheila’s house where Tom and Linda had already arrived from their hotel on Shelter Island. The boys (Tom, Mark and I) were heading out to the Chargers game! Tom bought the tickets a couple of months ago and treated Mark and me to the game. Hmm…Mark bought lunch at the Hotel Del, Tom bought Charger tickets and me, I’m beginning to feel like a freeloader.
Sheila drove the three of us to the trolley station at Fashion Valley Mall. The San Diego trolley is a public transportation system. It links Old Town and Mission Valley with east county and points south through downtown all the way to the Mexican border. The trolleys are clean and well-run.
I bought tickets for us to go to the stadium and back. The Chargers home field is located in the eastern portion of Mission Valley. When I was growing up, it was called San Diego Stadium. Then, after local sportswriter, Jack Murphy passed away, it became Jack Murphy stadium. Now it’s called Qualcomm Stadium. I can’t stand the corporate names on stadiums and arenas, but I guess it’s just the economic reality of the times.
View from our seats at the Chargers game
We had excellent seats near the field and sat in the sun. The micro-climate weather in eastern Mission Valley is usually warmer than the coast. Sunday was no exception – the temperature had to be 80 degrees there. The Chargers offense moved the ball down the field, but fumbled and turned it over at inopportune times. It’s hard to win when you turn the ball over three times, and they didn’t. Oh well, it was a fine day anyway.
We rode the trolley to Old Town after the game and met everyone at Guadalajara Cafe. We had an excellent dinner and a couple margaritas. Then we drove out to Garrison Street in Ocean Beach. A couple of blocks on this street go all out on Christmas lights and decorations. I think it’s a little over the top, but it was fun to walk around and look at the houses. The pictures are posted at the bottom of this post. From there we drove Mark and Miriam back to Coronado Island and called it a day.
Yesterday was mostly a rest and recovery day from all of the weekend’s activities for me. I’m not used to the fast pace and keeping schedules! I returned the rental car to Enterprise on Garnet Avenue and walked a couple of miles home. Last night, UPS delivered my new tool box and tools. Today I’ll have to figure out how to take 100-plus pounds of tools from our site over to the trailer.
