Day 7 - Shadow Mountain Church and More Tea!

My husband and I have great respect for Dr. David Jeremiah's ministry.  We receive his daily devotions and watch his Shadow Mountain church services, but they don't replace our  local church attendance. As soon as we decided San Diego was going to be part of our trip, my hubby called his church [in nearby El Cajon] to make sure he would be back home and in his pulpit on Palm Sunday. [He had been on a trip to the Holy Land just prior to our arrival.]  

When we pulled into the huge parking lot we were asked if we were first time visitors because there's special parking for guests closer to all the buildings.  I couldn't resist taking a photo of the reserved parking sign to send to my son who pastors the church we attend.  I kiddingly told him to make sure we have reserved parking spaces for first time visitors when our building/parking lot is completed.  [We're no where near the size of Shadow Mountain so a first time visitor won't have to be concerned about all the prime spaces being taken.  ;-)]

My friend, Lorna, and her husband, Dave, attend the second service so we met up with them in the main foyer just before the service started at 10:45 a.m.  We sat in the balcony, which is where they like to sit.  The music, as always, was outstanding.  Lorna and Dave used to sing in the choir and that's how they met.

Dr. Jeremiah began a new sermon series that morning titled "Everything You Need" from II Peter 1:3-5.  Hopefully we'll be able to follow the rest of the series from home.

We didn't attempt to meet Dr. Jeremiah after service was dismissed. We were too busy chatting with Lorna and Dave and taking pictures.  We'll try to meet him on our next visit. Although my hubby was a good sport about visiting all the tearooms with me and said he enjoyed them, attending Shadow Mountain was the big highlight of the trip for him.

~ Lorna and Dave ~

Shadow Mountain's main campus is large and beautiful with a K-12 grade school and a seminary.  They have several satellite churches too.

After we said our goodbyes to Lorna and Dave we headed off to downtown San Diego where we had 2:30 p.m. reservations for Afternoon Tea at the Westgate Hotel.  I wanted one hotel Afternoon Tea on the trip.  My first choice was the Fairmont Grand Del Mar, but they were booked before we ever left home, so we'll have to catch them next time.  As it turned out, the Westgate was lovely.

Beautiful Lobby decorated in my favorite color!

When no one was looking I couldn't resist peeking to see who manufactured the china.

Villeroy & Boch / Germany

Their tea purveyor is White Lion.  Jerry ordered Organic Earl Grey and I got Ginger Peach [both black teas].  I had never heard of White Lion before so did a Google search - they have a business address in Scottsdale, AZ and it appears they're primarily associated with servicing the hospitality industry.

If there was anything they could have improved on it would have been decanting the tea before bringing it to our table. The first cup was delicious, but the second cup had over steeped and was bitter.  To help remedy the situation our server added more hot water to the pot.  They didn't have any warmers or cozies either, so the pot cooled down rather quickly.

This was our sixth and final tea of the trip and I enjoyed every one!

Savories:  House Smoked Salmon topped with  Quail Egg and Bowfin Caviar; Baja Prawn on Cucumber with Watercress Pesto; Chicken & Egg Salad with Tarragon Remoulade; Humboldt Fog Goat Cheese & Truffle Honey, Fiscalini Cheese Savory Muffin.

Golden Raisin & Sugar Cane Scone with Jam and Summer Berries topped with Vanilla Whipped Cream.

A harpist played beautiful music during our tea time.

Desserts: Fruit Tarts; French Macarons; Cheese Cake; Banana Cupcake; and Chocolate Cake.  [I still haven't got on the scale since returning home.  I'm afraid to!]

After our tea we got back in our rental car and took Hwy. 1 Coastal Route destined for Long Beach where we had reservations to spend the night on the Queen Mary. 

It was a beautiful scenic route - another house built high up on a mountain top.

Dana Point was so beautiful we had to stop and take a few pictures.

More mountain top homes.

It was still daylight when we drove into the area where the Queen Mary is permanently docked.  Since it's very unlikely I'll ever sail across the pond on the Queen Mary II, I really wanted to see this ship.  Tomorrow's post...

Day 6 Continued - Coronado Island

As we were leaving Heritage Park area, I couldn't resist another picture of houses built on a mountain top.  

Then we were off to Coronado Island and traveling across San Diego Bay on the Coronado Bridge.  What a bridge it is - 2.1 miles long.

Two things I immediately noticed about this bridge - [1] hanging signs periodically spaced urging potential suicide jumpers to call a hotline for help and [2] bird spikes protruding from the outside edge of the bridge to deter climbing or standing on the wall.  

The bridge is second only to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco for suicides.  As of February of this year there have been 420 deaths from jumpers plummeting 200 ft. into the water since the bridge opened in 1969.  Yikes!

The view of the Bay from the bridge was beautiful, but I was glad when we got on dry land!

Chicano Park at the foot of the bridge on Coronado Island.

The main reason for going to the island was to see Hotel del Coronado which opened in 1888.  At that time, it was the largest resort hotel in the world.  USA Today listed it as one of the 10 ten top resorts in the world, and it has a Four Diamond rating from the American Automobile Association.  

Located at 1500 Orange Avenue, its architectural style is Victorian Queen Anne.  It's listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and is a U.S. National Historic Landmark.

Under Hilton management, the beachfront resort has 757 rooms. Currently, rates begin at $325 a night and climb upward.  It was bustling with guests the day we were there.  That's three or four Afternoon Tea outings for my hubby and me, so I was content with the Hampton Inn in San Diego [which is also a Hilton].  ;-)

It was a fun experience to go inside and look around, and I enjoyed reading about its history online.  

~ Jerry ~

~ Gorgeous Lobby and Gift Shops ~

Several Presidents, royalty and celebrities have stayed at Hotel del Coronado, and it's been featured in numerous movies [1958, Some Like it Hot with Marilyn Monroe is one] as well as many books.

The 'Crown Room' is the hotel's masterpiece. Its wooden ceiling was installed with pegs and glue. Not a single nail was used.  We took a peek inside but it wasn't set up for brunch yet. Notice the crown shaped chandeliers.  They have a Christmas Tea, but don't serve Afternoon Tea on a regular basis.

The sign below is about President Richard Nixon hosting the first State Dinner held outside the White House at Hotel del Coronado [in the Crown Room] for Mexico's President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz on September 3, 1970.

The hotel is a wooden structure, and I took the photo below from an inner courtyard. It reminded me a little of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island only much larger.  Hotel del Coronado does have a Michigan connection:  In November 1892, Kate Morgan, a young woman in her mid-twenties from Detroit, checked into the hotel alone.  Sometime during the night she shot herself in the head. It's said her spirit still occupies her former guest room!

A picture of the hotel hanging in the lobby.

A Norfolk Island Pine and it's still standing 115 years later, taller than ever! Electric Christmas lights were a rarity in 1904.  

After looking around the inside, we went out to the beach accessed from the hotel.

The man below in the center of the photo had just completed a sand sculpture.  We had hoped to watch the sunset from the beach, but we would have had to wait a couple of hours.  Instead we Face Timed our granddaughter, Izzy, and left the hotel.

We walked down to the bay marina from the hotel, and we must have been giving off Michigan vibes, because a lady jogging stopped to ask if we'd like her to take our picture. She was a southeastern Michigan resident before moving to Coronado Island - from the deep freeze to paradise!  ;-)  

There's a lot of nice shops and restaurants on Orange Avenue.  We even saw a 'Motown' Ice Cream shop to remind us of home.

We had dinner at La Salsa Mexican Grill, then made our journey back across the Coronado Bridge to our hotel.  Coronado island is beautiful and I'm glad we got to see it.  Very clean, with lovely homes of varied architectural styles.  One thing we noticed in San Diego was that neighborhoods varied greatly - you'd see a lovely new large home built right next door to a small, older, sometimes un-kept home.  There's not many large yards, and houses are built very close to each other.  It was very interesting to observe.

Tomorrow day #7...