Hotel del Coronado - the beach

Friday October 2, 2009

Too bad it wasn't a sparkling day like it was when we first saw this beach on Tuesday. It was so bright and inviting then. The trolley driver told us this beach is rated #4 in the US... the first three being in Hawaii (2) and Florida (1).

The Beach Village rooms are more expensive, I think, than the main hotel rooms of the Hotel del Coronado. They probably go in the $600-$1400 a night range.

Hotel del Coronado - inside

Friday October 2, 2009

I made a point of visiting the Crown Room to see the lights which were designed, oddly enough, by Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum. But our guide book says that the original crown chandeliers have been replaced! The room features the second largest unsupported domed ceiling in the United States.

The hotel lobby was constructed of Illinois oak and Honduran mahogany. This chandelier is in the lobby.

There were several stores in the hotel. In a candy shop Glenn found some old-time 'chicken bones'. Remember them? We wish we'd bought more than one bag.

Hotel del Coronado - history

Friday October 2, 2009

It seems odd that La Jolla is part of San Diego, while the city of Coronado, which is much closer, is its own entity.

The history of Coronado's development is interesting. Here is just a bit of it from the net:

Coronado remained a barren peninsula and its chief population was jack rabbits until the island was purchased in 1885 by Elisha S. Babcock, Jr. and Hampton L. Storey. They rowed over to the island from San Diego to hunt rabbits and decided it would be an ideal setting for a luxurious resort hotel. With the railroad scheduled to reach San Diego, they believed Easterners looking for a more moderate climate would flock to the new hotel. The Hotel del Coronado opened in 1888 and shortly afterwards was sold to John D. Spreckels, the 'Sugar King.' The hotel is a designated National Historical Landmark.

Another important part of Coronado's history, both past and present, is aviation and the military. In 1911, Glenn Curtis opened an aviation camp in what is today the Naval Air Station North Island. During World War I, the Spreckels family sold it to the Navy for $5 million. In 1927 Col. Charles Lindbergh took off on the first leg of his journey to St. Louis, New York and Paris from North Island. Today, North Island homeports two aircraft carriers, making the military the top employer in the community.

When it opened in 1888, the million dollar Hotel del Coronado was the largest all-wood building in the country. Workers had been brought in from San Francisco, hundreds of thousands of feet of wood were shipped in, and about two million red shingles were used.

Inside were some historic displays. Charles Lindbergh was honored at the hotel after his trans-Atlantic flight in 1927. Many famous people visited 'the Del' including Charlie Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart, Thomas Edison, Babe Ruth, Brad Pitt and Madonna. The hotel seemed popular with writers. Since an old copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was in a display case, maybe Mark Twain was one of them. But the author most connected to this hotel was L. Frank Baum who wintered there regularly.

This is an interesting use of the discarded hotel menus.

The hotel's biggest claim to fame though, must be for its appearance in the movie 'Some Like It Hot.' (An amusing Marilyn Munroe quote: "If you're gonna be two-faced at least make one of them pretty.")

Hotel del Coronado

Friday, October 2, 2009

On the trolley I won a wooden token for correctly answering the question the driver asked - what is the most popular fruit in America? This was as we drove by the fruit import facility we'd seen on the trolley tour before... so I knew the answer was bananas (even though technically they're not fruit).

We crossed the bridge and headed straight to the Hotel del Coronado.

I was quite excited to be at this place I'd seen so many years ago in postcards.

DRAGON TREE

A sign here reads: "Native to the Canary Islands, this unusual tree was planted at The Del prior to the turn of the century where it thrives in our temperate southern California coastal climate.

The Dragon Tree was used as a backdrop in the Marilyn Monroe movie Some Like It Hot, which was filmed at The Del in 1958."

A trolley tour

Tuesday September 29, 2009

We couldn't do the Old Town Trolley Tour with luggage and there doesn't seem to be anywhere handy at the dock to store it. Glenn got the brilliant idea to try the train station just a couple of blocks away. We hoped they would accept our bags as we would be travelling with them a few days later. They would, for $3 a bag but they took both our bags for that price. By this time it felt like 80° F so we took a kabuki cab.

The train station is quite an attractive building and I meant to take a picture of it later but forgot. You can see a picture of it here. The sign says Santa Fe just to make things a little confusing.

Time marched on and we missed a trolley by seconds. This is down by the cruise ship dock and since there are many tour operators in this spot there are also lots of tourists, kind of like at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf only not nearly as tacky.

This picture of a trolley was taken on Coronado. They run about every half hour and make 11 stops. One can jump on off and on at any stop or take the whole tour which takes about 2 hours, I think. At about $30 a ticket it seems expensive but the tours are great fun. The drivers are full of interesting information and they put on recordings in timely spots throughout the tour. For instance, an Arnold Swarchenegger voice made the safety announcement. Our first driver guide had a funny way of talking that made me think of Gilligan's Island. If you keep your receipt, you can ride the trolley on another day for only $18 ea.

This building's claim to fame was that it was where the bar scene in Top Gun was filmed.

Views of downtown San Diego.

You hear a lot about the Gaslamp Quarter, but it didn't particularly fascinate me. Just as well since we couldn't fit everything into four days.

There was a stop and a small mall at the waterfront. We drove by a large industrial yard where bananas are brought in. I believe they said most of the bananas in the country come through here.

Hold onto your hats! The trolley sounds like a tank as it blasts over the Coronado Bridge and it seems out of place with the rest of the traffic. Jaunty music is played during this madcap ride. Somebody mentioned that San Diego can have a curved bridge because it doesn't freeze or snow there, which is something that hadn't occurred to me.

We get a glimpse of the Hotel Del Coronado and the beautiful beach there. More on this later because we'll be back in a few days. The trolley makes two stops on this island which isn't really an island, then it's back across the bridge.

Wonderful Balboa Park. I love this place and could spend days here. We'll be coming back tomorrow on zoo day.

On we go through Little Italy. There were lots of banners of people including one of Frank Sinatra. Don't know who this tennis player is.

The farthest point out is Old Town. This touristy spot looks like a town out of the old west with a Mexican influence. I'd hoped to get back here but it didn't work out.

Even though this end of the city is closer to La Jolla, we had to take the trolley back to the cruise ship area to retrieve our luggage from the train station.

At home I had looked into booking a shuttle to La Jolla, but $60 didn't seem very cheap. People had advised to rent a car, saying that taxis are very expensive, but I didn't want to start my holiday driving in downtown San Diego. We decided to take our chances with a cab. $38.