Hotel del Coronado

Photo courtesy of Hotel del Coronado

Jill's Journal: A handful of special hotels around the world are destinations unto themselves. The Hotel del Coronado on Coronado Island in San Diego Bay is one of them. Yesterday I shared where Rob and I got married, but when we got engaged, “The Del” was actually the first Southern California spot I thought of for our wedding (after no one else was as gung ho on a Bora Bora beach wedding as I was!). I remember contacting The Del those 15+ years ago and immediately knowing I’d have to find a “Plan B.” The prices were exorbitant then and I’m sure are even more so now. These days, prices for their wedding packages aren’t listed online, but their spectacular wedding meal menus are…I guess it’s one of those things where if you have to ask, you can’t afford it. :)

But oh! This place. I’d never set foot on the premises before, but I desperately wanted to see the iconic hotel in person and we made the trip across the bay to Coronado. While most of our “field trips” are based on the girls, this one was all for me.

We found Coronado to be an upscale beach destination/resort town. It doesn’t seem to have the friendly, laid-back charm so many little beach towns have; it has more of a Rodeo Drive-meets-the-ocean feel. But the hotel! Oh, the hotel. It was in love at first sight for me. Those red turrets against that pristine white wood with the blue sky and the surf crashing in the background…just divine. No wonder it was named one of America’s most beautiful beach resorts and was at one time ranked one of the world’s top 10 resorts.

Now a National Historical Landmark, the Hotel del Coronado was built in 1888. As the first hotel in the world to feature electric lighting, Thomas Edison personally inspected the final electrical installation.

No fewer than 16 of the last 22 U.S. presidents have stayed at The Del, plus a ridiculous amount of royalty and celebrities and big-time sports figures like Babe Ruth and Reggie White. It’s been the backdrop for a number of movies and t.v. shows, most famously Marilyn Monroe’s Some Like It Hot. L. Frank Baum wrote much of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at The Del and it is said he based the Emerald City on it. Florida’s famous Grand Floridian Hotel is also based on the Hotel del Coronado.

The land you can see across the bay from the hotel’s 31 acres of gorgeous beachfront is the Point Loma peninsula, site of the Cabrillo National Monument.

This is such a beautiful place and my snapshots don’t even begin to do it justice. If Rob and I ever get a night away without the kids (how many years away will that be?), I think this would do perfectly. I can dream, right?

Photo courtesy of Hotel del Coronado

Cabrillo National Monument on Point Loma

Jill's Journal: On September 28, 1542, California was born. Or so they say. It does mark the day, 50 years after Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, that the first European set foot on what is now the West Coast of the United States. That European was Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. Exploring on behalf of New Spain, he sailed into what is now San Diego Bay with his three ships and hardly could have known he earned San Diego the moniker, “Birthplace of California.” Although present-day San Diego, which he named “San Miguel,” was his first stop, he actually navigated much of the California coast, going at least as far north as the mouth of the Russian River (about 60 miles north of San Francisco Bay).

Cabrillo would be dead a little more than three months after sailing into San Diego Bay, but history has not forgotten him. There are tributes to Cabrillo, ranging from roads to schools bearing his name, all up and down the California coast.

It is believed that when Cabrillo docked his ship and set foot in San Diego, he was actually on Point Loma, a peninsula which separates San Diego Bay from the Pacific Ocean. He spent six days on land. Standing at the monument, one gets a fantastic view of the bay and the city.

Walking farther up the point, one can see Baja California – yes, Mexico! – in the distance. The border town of Tijuana is an easy trip from San Diego, but I think the rampant crime it’s known for at the moment will keep us on this side of the border with three little girls. However, if anyone wants to send a plane to bring us farther south to Cabo or just about anywhere beyond the border, we’re game! :)

Near the monument is the Old Point Loma Lighthouse. It makes for a nice walk and the bonus is that the lighthouse contains a little museum, showing how the lightkeepers and their families lived.

The lighthouse was built in 1854 and was among the first handful of lighthouses built on the Pacific coast. It ceased operations in 1891 because at 422 feet above sea level, fog and low clouds often hid its light. A new lighthouse in a better/lower location took over, but Old Point Loma went back into service briefly as a Navy signal tower during World War II.

Just outside the gates to the Cabrillo National Monument is Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. Beautiful.