September 13, 2006

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  It’s been a while since I’ve actually taken a vacation, and taken some photos of someplace other than the immediate area around my home in Southern California. My girlfriend Liz and I had planned on going up the coast, staying in either San Francisco or Monterey, and we had to quash those plans for the time being when she broke her leg. Now her leg is healing nicely, and we spent the weekend after Labor Day in San Diego, where we visited the world famous San Diego Zoo, Coronado Island, and Balboa Park. These are all new photos, and today’s post was taken on Friday, Sept. 8th on Coronado Island, with a peek in the last photo of the iconic California Tower at Balboa Park.

  
  

  

  
  

  San Diego is situated around Mission Bay and is right on the ocean, about a hundred miles south of the L.A.area, where I live.  The city is a lot “cleaner” than Los Angeles, because of the sea breezes which wipe most of the smog away. Here is a view from the north shore of Coronado Island, showing the south end of the San Diego skyline. The weather was beautiful for our trip. Thankfully, even gas prices dropped a bit, so that the drive wasn’t terribly expensive. We stayed at the Holiday Inn north of downtown on the Hotel Circle for two nights.

  
  

  

  
  

  I’m always looking for interesting shots where-ever I go, and I thought this one came out magnificently. I’m stooping pretty low on a rock bank near the ocean on the north shore of Coronado Island. I followed the seagull as he walked around until I got this shot with a Naval aircraft carrier in the distance at the other side of the bay. Another bird is looking the other way below my friend the seagull.

  
  

  

  
  

  I shot dozens of photos on Coronado, getting quite a few shots of the city skyline. Here is a boat crossing in front of the southern part of the skyline, shot between some foliage planted in a small park by the beach. The last time I was in San Diego was about 20 years ago, and the skyline has grown considerably since then.

  
  

  

  
  

  On the southern shore of Coronado Island is the Hotel Del Coronado, a famous structure that served as the location for the old movie “Some Like It Hot” filmed in the 50s, with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon. The hotel is shown here from the back end, by the beach. It was a beautiful day, and this is around “magic time” when the sun is just dipping down on the horizon, around 6 p.m. You can see the sun glinting on one of the ballroom’s windows. Liz and I spent a couple of hours walking along the beach and had a snack in one of the hotel’s eateries.

  
  

  

  
  

  This is looking south from the same spot as I photographed the hotel above. Click on any of these photos to get a full size view in another browser window. The sun doesn’t set over the ocean in San Diego, but over the jetty of land, but the view is stupendous. There is a rock bank on which I’m standing.

  
  

  

  
  

  Still on the same spot, I snapped this photo from the rock bank toward the condominiums ringing the bay on the south side of Coronado next to the Hotel del Coronado. One of the women at my workplace used to manage some of these condominiums. I liked the contrast of the buildings rising from the rocks.

  
  

  

  
  

  This is a view of the back end of the Hotel del Coronado’s ballroom from the deck over the pool area. The Hotel del Coronado was built in 1887 and is the largest and oldest free standing wooden building in the United States. The umbrellas and  canopies are dark green.

  
  

  

  
  

  I got this shot of the ballroom tower in the background with the Sun Deck Bar in the foreground. The swimming pool is between these two buildings, on the lower level.

  
  

  

  
  

  This is the front of the Hotel del Coronado. I spent a lot of time getting shots of this iconic building, which instantly identifies Coronado in San Diego. The sun is setting, so shots of the front of the building at this time of day are somewhat darker. There were a lot of people checking in to the immediate right, but I was able to get this shot of the architecture without any guests in the way.

  
  

  

  
  

  To get to Coronado Island, you travel across the Coronado Bridge, which is quite long and loops around the bay. Here is a shot of the bridge from the south. The span to the left goes to Coronado Island, and the bridge links the island with the downtown area of San Diego.

  
  

  

  
  

  All of the above photos were taken on Friday evening on Coronado Island. Liz and I walked around and snapped photos. The next day we went to the zoo, and took lots of photos of animals, including panda bears, which will show up in a future Photopost. We also toured many of the museums in Balboa Park on Sunday, when this shot of the Museum of Man and the California Bell Tower, which plays Westminster Chimes every 15 minutes, were taken. I also took lots of video footage of our trip, and will set some of the video images to music for a VideoBlog in a few days. We only stayed Friday through Sunday, but had a wonderful time, ate in some great restaurants, including the Prado in Balboa Park, and hope to pay a visit to San Diego sometime again soon. Hope you like the photos, which, along with dozens of others, will soon be part of another folder in my Webshots Gallery.

  
  

   

  
  

   

  • 8:03 am
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