It Must Be Spring
I know it is spring when my to-do list is longer than my weekend. That being said, I’m WAY behind on blogging. It’s already been six weeks since I was in San Diego! I had so much fun there, despite the fact that I was there for work. Attending a conference is great. You meet up with colleagues from around the country, you sit in on really informative presentations and discussions, and come away with a lot of great stuff. And there is a loooooong break for lunch, and then we are done before five, so every single second I could be outside, I was! Even on the first couple of days when it was rainy. This is southern California. Outside is a requirement!
I walked my feet off for at least 45 minutes every day. Doesn’t sound like much, but I was moving…if you stand still, the buskers are all over you trying to get you to buy their stuff. the funniest ones, to me, were the pedi-cabs. They were determined that this fat girl shouldn’t be walking. Nay…I was walking!
I took a ton of pictures, of course. I have learned to enjoy these trips. Yes, I learn a lot and sit in on sessions from beginning to end, but lunch time and evening? My time! I did manage to make it to the beach on the final day, as things were wrapped up early. There is no such thing as a bad day on the beach. And I came back with a nice tan on my arms and legs. Bonus!
Storms and rain came and went the day I landed and the next day. Between those storms, there were spectacular skies.
This trip meant I got to stay at a Hyatt. Unless I win the lottery, a Hyatt is not on my list of places I can afford. It was a bit like staying at the Grand Budapest Hotel from the movie…many layers of personnel to make sure everything was perfect. There were the men outside opening car doors on cabs and valet parking the cars, then inside were the bellhops, and the concierges, and the front desk staff. Many times I encountered security guards roaming the hallways – wearing dark suits and looking like any other businessman. The lobby is spectacular and my camera was not good enough to get a picture of it all.
The hotel is 34 stories high and no matter what room you stay in, you have a view of the bay and Coronado Island.
I could walk out of the hotel and across a parking lot, through Seaport Village, and to the edge of the bay. Standing and staring out at the water was something I could have done all day long.
And don’t even get me started on the sunsets.
Panorama of the Bay and one of the seaside restaurants on stilts.
San Diego is like a giant botanical garden, in may ways. Plants that I can only grow indoors are planted outdoors as shrubbery, or just around a sign.
Cyclamin – also called the “Sweetheart Plant”
Mother-in-Law Tongue
This plant looks vicious, but the thorns are actually very soft and not sharp at all.
Strange trees. They don’t look like they have enough leaves to keep living, but they ran the whole length of the bay and looked perfectly healthy.
Hedges growing along a restaurant on the bay.
The Convention Center was just a block away. I walked past it several times on my lunchtime jaunts.
Fishing boats in the bay. If I was up early, and I usually was, I’d see them coming back in from having fished all night. There was a fish market right across from the hotel.
Busker demonstrating kites in the little park on the bay.
One afternoon at the end of the sessions, I high-tailed it to the Midway Museum and did the tour. Very spooky to be below decks, yet informative overall. The ship is massive.
The San Diego Naval Station was directly across the bay from the hotel. Ships of all sizes came and went on a regular basis day and night.
It is always breezy on the bay, so sailboats abounded.
Small stingray in the water. I had heard that there were a lot of them, but this is the only one I saw. There were sea lions, as well, and I saw several, but they move very fast and I was never able to get a picture. Someone reported seeing dolphins in the bay, as well, but I never saw any.
San Diego is full of artwork. This traveling exhibit, called Sound of Silence, was within walking distance of the hotel.
Lots of interesting boats in the bay. The Star of India (I thought it was a pirate ship but I was mistaken!)
A submarine…not anywhere near the naval base…
California is in a drought, although it was plenty wet when I was there. Most buildings had rain barrels of one sort or another. Oddly, it is illegal to have rain barrels in the state of Colorado. Note the wet pavement around the rain barrel. It had rained the night before.
My first SWAG from the conference – google headphones!
There was plenty of delicious food – that I didn’t have to pay for. That’s a nice perk about business travel!
Then there was the beach. I took the ferry over to Coronado Island, then took the bus to the other side of the island to the beach below the Coronado Hotel.
You can’t see it well in this picture, but the sand in the sun and under the water looks like gold flakes.
Waves on the beach. The water was cool but not impossible and people were out in it.
Of course I had my toes in the water. Who wouldn’t? I was searching madly for shells, and I did find a few, but only found one sand dollar. When I was there three years ago, I found so many sand dollars I could barely bring them back.
The Hotel del Coronado is one of the oldest hotels in the country. It has a very long history and is one of those places that when you step into it, you feel the history, and know you are WAY out of your league with your middle class job and your worn out flip flops. It was a perfect sunny day with no clouds, and the Coronado shined like a jewel. Someday, I do want to stay there, just to say that I did it. How elegant it would be!
Hotel del Coronado from the beach.
