Though I grew up in Southern California and had visited San Diego a few times, I had never been to the Hotel del Coronado, the famous Victorian hotel whose history included stays by royalty, presidents, and Hollywood stars. This vacation, we drove across the bridge to North Island and headed for the town of Coronado.
The Del opened in 1888. You can read about its development and construction by clicking the link. It was one of many grand hotels built to attract people to Southern California during the land boom. Today, most of those are gone; the Del currently is the second largest wooden construction in the United States. When it opened, it was the largest resort hotel in the world.
Hotel del Coronado when it first opened.
It still attracts a wealthy clientele. The hotel has been updated in the past decades and the resort now has “cottages” and towers of rooms besides the original building. Its restaurants and shops are open to the public. We rode from the beach level to the lobby one level above in an old-fashioned elevator with a gate that closed across the opening and operated by a uniformed attendant.
We almost parked in their lot, but discovered it would be prohibitively expensive, something like $20-$30 for the first two hours, then $10 each additional hour. We were able to find metered street parking a few blocks away. Unless you choose to dine there, 2 hours is plenty of time to see the public areas.
Dining terrace facing the beach
Private beach; Point Loma in the distance
Arrival area for guests
Dragon tree that appeared in Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe
Newer towers in the background
I don’t know how the rooms are furnished; the lobby was dark and uninteresting
Something the guys in our group were especially interested in seeing was the USS Midway Museum which is docked adjacent to the downtown area of San Diego. We ate lunch first at Anthony’s, a seafood restaurant, not far from the carrier. My adventurous spouse had squid sandwich. We had waited until the noonday rush was over, and we were rewarded with a bayside table.
The USS Midway was commissioned in 1945, the largest ship in the world at that time. It was too big to fit thru the Panama Canal. It saw extensive service in the Viet Nam War and was the flagship of the Persian Gulf War air operations in 1991. It was decommissioned in 1992 and kept in San Diego. It was overhauled to become a museum and opened in 2004.
Hanger deck
Anchor chain
Part of below-hanger-deck display
The audio tour had you go down to the engine room. That wasn’t too bad, but climbing all of those steps back up to the hanger deck was a lot of work, especially as there was little ventilation and it was a hot day. It felt good to get a soft drink and sit a bit before tackling the flight deck.
There was an elevator to the flight deck and I took it. Truthfully, after having toured other aircraft carriers in other places, this wasn’t on my have-to-see list. I walked around, but didn’t read much about the aircraft. I spent more time looking at the surrounding scenery. In 2015 there will be a theater with a movie about the battle of Midway. Learn more about the ship on its museum page.
The sailor statue is just like one we have in a special exhibit in Warsaw, Indiana, except at least 10 times bigger. That’s the bridge to Coronado.
We were all pretty tired after walking throughout the USS Midway. We drove around little Italy looking for a restaurant, but parking is scarce. We finally ended up about 1/2 way back to our hotel, stopping at the Corvette Diner. This is probably a great place for kids, but maybe a little too-high-energy for 4 very pooped retired people. Yet, the music was from our eras. Too loud to converse. When the waitress arrived at our table, the first thing she did was throw a handful of drinking straws up into the air over our table. There was a DJ in one of the other rooms, and she announced the upcoming song. The waitresses in our room stopped taking orders and proceeded to sing and dance to a rock n’ roll song. A birthday group of elementary and pre-teen kids in the corner danced along. They also took the red straws and connected them into wands and hair crowns and whatever they could come up with.
The food was pretty good, and the music would have been fun if half the decibels. The manager commented as he breezed through our room that we were the quietest group in the place. As we headed toward the parking lot, we discovered a sprinkler system across the road had come on, and somebody in a jovial mood had redirected one of the sprinkler heads across the sidewalk. Fortunately, a teen in a group that was leaving right ahead of us, went over and stood on the head and redirected the water.
Certainly, a memorable dining experience.
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