Socal Wanderings

I visited Southern California earlier this month. Spent two days and nights in Coronado, my longest visit since I lived there off and on while in the Navy from 1973-1977. Coronado is still very nice...it's every bit as pleasant as when I lived there. It's in a unique setting. It's just a small city...about 23 thousand, up from 20K when I was there...but it's only a mile from downtown San Diego, just across the bay. The kicker is that the only way to get to Diego from Coronado is over the bridge...otherwise you have to drive 30 miles or so around San Diego Bay. This geography gives Coronado a large degree of isolation considering its proximity to the big city. You're right next to a city of over a million people, yet you're in a small town that's quiet except briefly at the rush hours of adjacent North Island Naval Air Station. My ship was usually moored at North Island when I was on it in the 1970s.

This is a typical street scene in Coronado...lush tropical vegetation everywhere. In the background is the San Diego skyline. But there's a mile of water between this 'hood and the highrises. When I lived in Coronado in the '70s, the bridge over the bay had a toll of 60 cents each way...close to 3 bucks in today's dollars. This isolated Coronado from Diego even more than it is today.


This is the USS Nimitz, moored at North Island at Pier Lima (if I recall correctly). This is where my ship, the USS Chicago, was usually moored. It was a heavy cruiser, long since decommissioned. Scrapped in 1992...made into razor blades? The Nimitz is a venerable vessel herself, commissioned in 1975...when I was in the fleet.

Coronado is a great walking town. It's all very nice, and flat...it's about a mile square. As in Portland, the old sidewalks have contractor logos, adding an element of interest. Here The Foot is posing next to an old logo that was nicely preserved when the sidewalk was rebuilt. Trivia...this sidewalk was built in the same month that saw the beginning of World War I.

This is an interesting metal sculpture The Conster and I saw in San Diego. We took the ferry over from Coronado one day. Like much else about this trip, there was an element of nostalgia for me. On my first visit to San Diego, in 1961, the only way from downtown to Coronado was by ferry...the bridge wasn't completed until 1969. While I lived in Coronado in the '70s, there was no ferry. Now a passenger ferry has been revived, and it offers a pleasant bay cruise between downtown San Diego and the eastern end of Coronado.


Here the Lizards and The Foot are chillin' at the Hotel Del Coronado, a continuous bastion of luxury since 1888.