Having visited the busy Pacific Beach in the north, explored the large and wondrous San Diego Zoo and wandered the atmospheric streets of the Gaslamp district downtown, we decided to catch a glimpse of San Diego’s southern reaches from the city of Coronado and Coronado Beach.

Arild on the buss to the city of Coronado.

To get to the beach we once again took to the busses and a 25 minute drive across the San Diego-Coronado Bridge to the luxurious beach front Hotel Del Coronado, a beautiful 1880’s Victorian all-wooden building and national Historic landmark!

Arriving at our destination we took a moment to appreciate the hotel’s spire encrusted and straight-lined classy architecture before moving on to the beach, not even 200 yards away.

Adam in front of the classy Hotel del Coronado.

Walking up to the final reaches of the pavement we were met with lush vegetated bluffs of sand and a stretch of beach to rival the very best (see first picture). In fact, we were so enthralled that we decided to strike a pose or two! Surely life couldn’t be any better?

The first thing we had to do was—of course—the obligatory sunbathing. As one might be inclined to understand, when you are two pale men of the cold north, sunbathing becomes a bit more of a necessity than it otherwise would be.

Arild basking in the sunshine. Warning, looking at this picture may cause a severe case of snowblindness.

Satisfied and sunburned but still hungry for more, we jumped in to the sea and the relatively large waves which were eagerly rushing in to greet us. Through the entire session, we were awash with salt water and copious amounts of seaweed, but for amateur biologist such as ourselves, slimy green things are simply a matter of course and most of the time greeted with hearty laughs and a keen interest.

Adam provides the seaweed with a snug nesting place.

Adam and Arild and the Hotel del Coronado as seen from the Coronado Beach.

So, the beach was awesome, but our day wasn’t done yet, and just as planned, we made our way up to the north side of Coronado to the ferry crossing. Wow, what is there to say? The site has beautiful architecture and a beautiful view of downtown San Diego from across the harbor. This called for a toast!

Adam and Arild with San Diego in the background.

Sunset as seen from the north side of Coronado.

Arild expresses his loyalty and devotion to San Diego.

Fortunately for us, there were several conglomerations of restaurants right next to the waterfront, so we decided to sit down for dinner at one particular Italian pizzeria, which immediately caught our eye. After a meal of excellent pasta—and several beverages—we headed out to the docks to catch our ferry ride back to San Diego.

Arild at the Italian pizzeria enjoying his brew.

By now it had already gotten dark and the cityscape shone brightly in front of us. Unfortunately, this caused us a few problems in the picture-taking department, as neither of us were content with the night settings on any of our three cameras, nor did we have the skill to wield our cameras steadily enough on the rolling sea. The results were many blurry, underexposed or flash-molested images of us having a very good time, though we have to admit that some of the pictures turned out to be fairly artistic.

This picture was done on purpose. Yup. Fairly artistic.

The day had been a good one in our minds as we had managed to see a good deal of suburban California with its Spanish architecture and clean, palm-studded sidewalks. A trip to Coronado Beach and a ferry trip across the harbor is something we definitely see as a must for anyone else traveling to San Diego in the future!

This was also our last night at the Hostelling International, Downtown San Diego. The morning after, we would move into the Horton Grand Hotel as it was the day before the big day of the “Music of Battlestar Galactica” concert! Check in to see what interesting things we did in preparation for the big event!

Semper Vigilans!