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...