Adventure #2: Coronado Island, California

Adventure #2: Coronado Island, California

Book:  Our California 

I am a sucker for all things beachy. Sand, waves, breezes.  I even dig the beach year round...I like the coziness of walking on the sand while wrapped in a sweater.  But, after this past "blizzard every Monday" winter, I am ready to take my beach with a humungous side of warmth.  So, southern California, here we come!

Hello, beautiful California succulent friend!

The last time we were all out this way was in the summer of 2012.  We loved where we stayed, so we picked the same spots as last time, but slid in a visit to Legoland.  So, our plans were to be gone for a week, doing some hopping around all over Southern California.

Our first stop was Coronado Island in San Diego.  This little island is so pretty - and only just slightly north of Mexico (yes, we thought of going; no, our rental car company was not cool with that idea).  We stayed at the Hotel Del Coronado.  This hotel is one old lady - it was built in 1888 and has some beautiful architecture and a crazy history.  L. Frank Baum wrote most of "The Wizard of Oz" there!  The white and red colors are so pretty and so classic - you really can feel swept back in time a few years.  Just don't look at the fro-yo shop across the street!  If you look closely, you can see a falcon resting on the falconer's pole...strange, yes - but I'll explain shortly.

The folks here are super kid friendly.  They gave the boys these little backpacks filled with maps and other exploration gear.  The hotel has a big scavenger hunt set up for the kids.  My guys are the perfect age for that sort of adventure, so they were super into it, hunting all over the hotel for the secret spots. Hank uncovered one of the clues under this marker for the world's first outdoor lighted Christmas tree.

We pretty much had all of our meals outside on this trip, with succulent friends nearby.  I love these little guys! Hank and Max liked them, too - cacti without a ton of danger of getting pricked. So rubbery and colorful!

Since I live in the city and we don't have an outdoor space, eating outside is always a nice treat.  I'll take my omelet with a view of the Pacific Ocean, please!  By the second day, the boys were even cool with an ant crawling across the table.  

Ok, cool with an ant, not so cool with the seagull from hell.  We were having a lovely, breezy dinner on a patio by the beach.  Earlier in the day, we saw something very cool - a dude with a falcon on his arm.  Apparently, just having this guy hanging around scares away the seagulls from the restaurants by the beach.  Well, the falcon and his keeper were obviously off duty, because this giant seagull swooped down and stole our neighbor's pizza.  I mean, ripped off a slice and flew off.  Cool.  To Hank.  Not so much, to Max.  This seagull must of had a taste for blood (or more pizza), because he swooped in behind Max and stationed himself behind my curly little fella, completely freaking him out, squawking loudly in Max's ear. 

Is it wrong I took this picture?  Possibly.  You can see Rich's hand attempting to shoo that sucker away.  Don't worry about Maxie.  Seconds later when that evil seagull fluttered off, Max was smiles.  

Evil seagull.

Hank was really into this seagull.  We all were!  It doesn't take a lot to get the Shertenliebs excited, apparently. Thankfully we were done and let the seagull dig in to our leftovers. I'm not kidding!  Look at that seagull's mouth!!!

Besides the "great seagull incident of 2015", the Hotel Del Coronado had a bunch of stuff to do - the pool, the beach, surf lessons. I highly recommend this hotel for families - they really have thought of everything and all of the staff were super nice to my boys and when they were running bonkers around the lobby. 

Hank took a surf lesson and I joined him, even though the lesson kicked my butt.  Literally.  As in the surf board swung around, hit my rear and there I went...face first into the ocean and swallowing a gallon a salt water. That stuff can really burn your throat. Especially when you have crazy cancer throat (a whole other story for another time).

Hank is a much better surfer than me.  Well, just about everyone on this planet is a better surfer than me. 

And wouldn't you know it, there was a big yoga convention at the hotel...complete with chia seed samples and alfalfa juice shots. So California.

You don't see this everyday.  Well, maybe you do.  We don't.  That's some gal twirling on a rope, yoga style. Namaste. 

There is also this great sand sculpture guy who builds a new castle every day.  He's been doing this for twenty years.  Still haven't figured out if that's a good or a bad thing. I'm leaning towards good.  There are lots of worse jobs one could have, for sure. 

Although Coronado Island seems very vacation-y, it's not tourist-y. Lots of folks live here full time.  I guess you could twist my arm and I could live here on this lovely island year round where it is always 72 degrees. We found an awesome playground a few blocks from our hotel - it had a bunch of climbing structures that were new to my boys, even though we've been to hundreds of playgrounds.  Plus it's kinda cool to play on a structure with palm trees nearby. There was also a sweet little Spanish mission style church across from the park.

Crazy twirly playground spinner!

Coronado Island is a great family spot - really, the only creepy thing we saw was an "earthquake" button in the elevator.  Hello?  What does that do?  Thankfully it went unpressed and the vacation was earthquake-free!  Of course, I had to Google "earthquake elevator button".  If pressed, the elevator goes to the next floor and opens up.  Fun. 

Oh, I think I failed to mention something very rad.  Coronado Island is training ground for Navy Seals.  So, you just might get lucky and see them training on the beach!

To go along with our Coronado Island/California adventure, we found this book, "Our California", by Pam Munoz Ryan.  I really fell in love with the artwork; all of the bold colors were so beautiful! The book really does a great job of spotlighting all of California's varied landscapes - the beaches, deserts, mountains - the different cities and various cultures.  Hank and Max really got into it and thought it was neat that a state can be so different.  

Our next adventure - the second part of the California trip.  

Theme park central - Legoland and Disneyland!

xoxo

Mary