West Coast And Hawaii Adventure Oct/Nov 17 - Day 2: San Diego - Coronado Island

[meandmyboy]

Saturday 28th October 2017: Day 2 - San Diego - Coronado Island

Link to Trip Report Index

Our first full day in San Diego dawned nice and early thanks to good old jet lag! Actually it wasn't too bad as we'd arrived at the hotel pretty late and we were both tired so went to bed pretty much straight away for Jacob and me a bit later - I tried to stay up as long as I could but in the end I had to give in to tiredness.

I'd just dropped off to sleep when I was rudely awoken by the phone in the room ringing. It was hotel security letting me know that I'd parked in a disabled bay and that if I didn't have a permit I'd have to move my vehicle. Fortunately I was able to appeal to his better side by explaining I had just arrived from the UK and was tired and hadn't spotted the sign and that I promised to move it first thing in the morning because I was currently in my pyjamas and had taken out my contact lenses! So back to bed I went.

Jacob woke a few times during the night but I told him he had to try his best to keep going back to sleep until it was 6am. We eventually gave up around about 5.15am and got up. With a nice relaxing start to the day we headed out for an early breakfast at Fig Tree Cafe in nearby Point Loma. It was easy to find thanks to the sat nav and simple to park on the road right next to it.

The cafe was pretty quiet when we arrived at about 7.30am but started to fill up once it turned 8. I had the house granola with strawberry yogurt and a chai tea. Both of which were delicious. Jacob had the kids pancakes and bacon with an apple juice. They even made his pancakes into a Mickey head which was an exciting treat! The cafe also had free wifi so I was able to check in with my Dad on Skype to let him know we'd arrived safely.

Because it was still quite early I decided to head back to the hotel for a bit while I firmed up some plans for the day. Originally I'd planned to go to Coronado Island for the day but during breakfast I'd thought about taking Jacob to the USS Midway museum instead. I thought he might enjoy it more. I put the idea to him but actually he wasn't keen, so I decided to stick with my original plan. After scoping out parking options online at the hotel we set off again.

Coronado Island is across the bay from the downtown area of San Diego and you get there via a long and very high bridge. It was quite daunting driving over it. The traffic moves much faster than they're supposed to and the lanes feel quite narrow. I was taking it steady in the right hand lane but still found it quite stressful. I also really wanted to look out at the view but didn't dare take my eyes off the road! Fortunately soon enough we were over the bridge and in Coronado. The sat nav took us to the Coronado Plaza underground parking structure, which is directly across the road from the Hotel Del Coronado. Perfect! It was $15 for 2 hours parking I think, although it ended up being $27 because we stayed longer than that.

After parking we walked up out of the underground area and crossed the road to the Hotel Del Coronado. It is a beautiful building and feels really familiar as obviously Disney has used it to inspire their own hotel at Disneyworld.

We walked round the rear of the hotel and through the grounds out to the beachfront. Wow, that is one beautiful stretch of beach - no wonder they chose to build a resort here - it's just stunning. We saw an amazing sand castle that someone had built and got to see the preparations for a beach wedding that was about to take place as we wandered along the beachfront walk.

We headed along behind the hotel admiring the amazing flowers that looked like bird's heads! Forgot to take a picture - sorry! And eventually found our way to the bike rental place. I had planned to hire a two seater bike (adult bike with a pull along kids bike behind it) but when Jacob saw the Surrey bikes he insisted that we get one of those instead.

Now I'm sure those are great fun to ride in when there are a few adults sharing - like the four women I saw all riding together - but when it's just one adult and a child who can't reach the pedals let along help pedal it's bloody hard work! Despite this we set off back along the boardwalk in the direction we'd just walked. We had to pause and wait as we managed to time it exactly for when the bride was coming out of the Hotel Del Coronado and crossing down to the beach, but soon we were on our way again.

As we reached the end of the boardwalk we had to join the main road, full of regular traffic. This was a little scary at first, especially when it came to crossing junctions because it was hard to get up any sort of speed, but I did get used to it after a while. My plan had been to cycle to the north of the island and visit Centennial Park which is where the picture of the San Diego skyline was taken that's been my laptop's desktop background for the past 8 months as I brought this trip into reality. But one quarter of the way there I was ready to give up! It was just so hard pedalling the Surrey bike by myself and I was exhausted already.

I decided I would keep going until I reach the bridge so I could at least see the view across the water so I pushed onwards. By the time we got there we were so close to Centennial Park I decided to carry on. Finally we made it there and I got to take our picture in the spot I'd been visualising standing in for the past 8 months.

But soon the excitement of achieving this moment started to wear off as I realised I now had to get us back to the bike rental place on the other side of the island!

I decided to carry on in the direction we were going and make a complete circuit of the island, as at least it would feel a bit more interesting than backtracking the way we'd just come. Although this meant cycling on mostly residential streets, the traffic on this route was fairly light. Plus many of the houses were decorated for Halloween which made for a fun game of spotting the best decorations.

I have to say I absolutely loved Coronado Island - the houses are beautiful and I could really see myself living there. It had a lovely feel to the place and didn't feel as busy or built up as the main city. I checked out the real estate prices when I got back to the hotel that night and think I'd need at least $2m for the sort of place I wanted so I better start saving now!

After what felt like an eternity we FINALLY made it back to the beachfront and returned the Surrey bike. Hurrah! Despite being well over our 1 hour rental time we were not charged any extra, so that was a bonus. We made our way back along the beachfront walk and into the village area/main shopping street. My legs were like jelly from all the cycling and kept on giving way underneath me which was rather embarrassing!

Having felt like I had definitely earned my lunch we headed to Village Pizzeria and ordered a pretty large pepperoni pizza to share between us. It was delicious but I'm afraid our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomaches and we hardly made a dent in it. Also, I wanted to make sure I left room for an ice cream from Moo Creamery as it was what had kept me going on the long cycle ride home - my reward!

We took our leftover pizza with us in a box and walked down the road to the ice cream place. Jacob decided he didn't want any so I ordered just for myself and chose a double tub with a scoop of cheesecake flavour and a scoop of cinnamon flavour. Both were absolutely fantastic! I ended up sharing my bowl with Jacob but it was just as well because I couldn't stop eating it even though I felt full and sick - it was just so delicious!

We sat outside in the sunshine to eat our ice cream while we admired the statue of a big cow and Elvis outside Moo Creamery. Rather random and I had to try and explain to Jacob who on earth Elvis was!

Once we had finished the last of the ice cream we made our way back to the car, stopping briefly to buy some bottles of water from Subway, and then drove back to the hotel. The drive back across the bridge was equally scary as the drive there.

Back at the hotel Jacob was eager to go check out the pool and practice his swimming. He's not the most confident swimmer so I'd brought with me a swim vest (which admittedly is really a bit too small for him) and some arm bands, but he chose to go with the vest today. After banging on about swimming all day the minute his feet went in the water he was complaining it was too cold and he'd changed his mind! However it takes a lot to get me into a swimming costume nowadays and here I was in one and in a not-very-warm swimming pool waiting for my son to get a move on and join me. I was not letting him get away with wimping out on me.

Eventually he took the plunge and we spent the next 20-30 minutes or so playing in the pool as it gradually got cooler and cooler. Jacob enjoyed himself but I was fairly miserable by now and wanted to get out before the sun went away completely, so we got out and dried off on a lounger sitting in the last of the day's sunlight.

We were too tired (and bedraggled from swimming) to go out anywhere for dinner, so we just at some of the leftover pizza from lunchtime and then I settled Jacob down for an earlyish night, while I tried to stay awake as long as possible by watching Bridget Jones Baby on Netflix on my iPad. I did manage to make it until the end before crashing out for the night.

[Melbatb]

Whoops about the car 🚙 !

The beach sounds lovely - a good relaxing way to start the day!

[marypoppins38]

We were at Coronado Island the day before! We lay on the beach all day just by the Hotel del. It was so stunning and we had a really relaxing day. We caught the ferry over from the Marina by the Marriott (where we were staying) so didn't have to brave the bridge again. We went over it on the Trolley Bus tour and I had to shut my eyes. No way could i have driven over it so to me you are a complete hero!

[dozy]

sounds fab

[Tweety1]

Fab day...
How do you rate the hotel(I have been looking at this one amongst others?)
About t read day 3

[meandmyboy]

Originally Posted by marypoppins38

We were at Coronado Island the day before! We lay on the beach all day just by the Hotel del. It was so stunning and we had a really relaxing day. We caught the ferry over from the Marina by the Marriott (where we were staying) so didn't have to brave the bridge again. We went over it on the Trolley Bus tour and I had to shut my eyes. No way could i have driven over it so to me you are a complete hero!

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We went over it again on another day on the Trolley Bus tour and I felt in some ways that was worse because we were right next to the wall and due to the height we could see right over the side and down into the water. I was terrified!

[meandmyboy]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

Whoops about the car 🚙 !

The beach sounds lovely - a good relaxing way to start the day!

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Thank you! Yes was really silly of me with the car - but then I went and did it again when I picked up our next car rental - doh!

[meandmyboy]

Originally Posted by dozy

sounds fab

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Thanks for reading!

[meandmyboy]

Originally Posted by Tweety1

Fab day...
How do you rate the hotel(I have been looking at this one amongst others?)
About t read day 3

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I liked it! The room was nice, clean, and a good size including a decent bathroom. Nothing to fault with it really. The pool was nice too.

We were on the ground floor right at the end of the building, next to the concert area. They actually had a music event on the Sunday night and I was worried because I thought it would keep us up, but in fact other than it being busier in the car park than normal, it wasn't too bad, and the music finished about 10.30pm I believe (I was asleep before then!). I did have to shut the door to outside (from the corridor) because there were a lot of people just milling about outside the concert area and talking loudly.

But I would recommend the hotel, and the location was good, especially if you have a car. Very easy to get around to the various places.

[Tweety1]

Originally Posted by meandmyboy

I liked it! The room was nice, clean, and a good size including a decent bathroom. Nothing to fault with it really. The pool was nice too.

We were on the ground floor right at the end of the building, next to the concert area. They actually had a music event on the Sunday night and I was worried because I thought it would keep us up, but in fact other than it being busier in the car park than normal, it wasn't too bad, and the music finished about 10.30pm I believe (I was asleep before then!). I did have to shut the door to outside (from the corridor) because there were a lot of people just milling about outside the concert area and talking loudly.

But I would recommend the hotel, and the location was good, especially if you have a car. Very easy to get around to the various places.

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Thank you... the only thing that puts me off is if they have a concert and there is nowhere to park!
Have an amazing trip