Coronado, CA, 1/21/2016

Friday, January 22, 2016

Coronado, CA, 1/21/2016

After arriving in San Diego yesterday, we were anxious to visit beautiful Coronado. An affluent resort city with a population of about 25,000 (almost half are U.S. Navy personnel), the median cost of a single family home is $1.84M (per Forbes in 2010). The town was incorporated in 1890. Elisha Babcock, Hampton Story and Jack Grendike purchased a large tract of land where they built the Hotel del Coronado in 1888. It became a major resort location then and remains one today.

We spent most of the day on Coronado starting with a stop at the Coronado Dog Beach located next to the U.S. Naval Air Station North Island. Free parking is available along the road here. Dogs are permitted to be off-leash in the designated area (200-209 Ocean Blvd, Coronado, CA).

Needless to say, Sadie loved it! A water station is conveniently located to provide water for the dogs and wash them off (and us too!)

There is a fence on the beach to mark the border of the off-limits property of the Navy. We saw lots of aircraft in the area while we were there as the approach to the airfield is nearby. The beach here is gorgeous.

We walked along the shoreline for about a mile to the Hotel del Coronado and the well-known Coronado Beach (rated as one of the top 5 best beaches in the U.S. by many sources).

Along the way we saw enjoyed fabulous homes and beautiful flowers...here are just a few.

This adorable tiny library was next to the sidewalk. Visitors are invited to take and/or leave a book. So cute! And what a great idea. There are many access points to the beach along the sidewalk.

The sidewalk continues through the Hotel del Coronado property. Today it is a 757-room resort hotel with beachfront accommodations with every luxury amenity you can imagine. There are lots of different accommodations including the beachfront villas.

We plan to have lunch at the Sun Deck Grill (shown in the 4th photo below) that overlooks the beach when Amanda (our daughter) is here in early February.

Website: www.hoteldel.com

After walking back to where our car was parked near Dog Beach, we drove south through the city of Coronado to the Scenic Drive along the "Strand." This is the narrow strip of land with the bay on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. The Naval Amphibious Base training center for the elite SEALs (Sea Air and Land Teams) and SWCC (Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewmen) is located in this area.

Our next stop was McP's Irish Pub, the well-known popular bar for Navy SEALs. We found a metered parking space near McP's. Old Town Trolley Tours has one of its two stops directly in front of McP's.

We had cocktails and a snack outside at the dog-friendly patio.

There is lots of SEAL memorabilia around the pub, both inside and out, that we really enjoyed seeing. Kudos to the awesome Navy SEALs. They are phenomenal!