Los Angeles (105) to San Diego & San Diego (106-112)

Our drive to San Diego, whilst frustrating due to the spray from other traffic and constant rain, was an easy day. It should have been a 2 hour trip but due to the rain and traffic, we drove slowly and it took us almost 2½ hours.

The campground in San Diego is in a great location, very close to their own beach, launching ramp, small marina and had many amenities such as a children’s games room, grocery store, coffee shop and snack bar. But it came with a price, the most we’ve paid for our entire trip at $500/week. As such, we just booked for the week and scheduled ourselves to leave on the 27th.

The calm after 4 days of storm-note the
lack of palm fronds in the distance &
the rubbish washed up on the beach

We didn’t realise then, but San Diego was about to set a record for rain fall. It rained, and rained and rained for the first 4 days and they broke an 80 year old record, receiving more rain in those 4 days than they’d normally expect in 6 months. Along with the rain was wind. It always seemed to blow harder at night when everything was dark and made it all the more foreboding.

I had parked the Sierra beside some trees that would break the wind coming from the bay, but lay there thinking of how silly that decision might have been if the rain also weakened the root ball underneath the tree. I had pictures of the trees toppling over us and that fear kept me up for a number of hours, going outside at constant intervals to check the trees. The worst we ended up with was a number of small branches and a huge amount of leaves.

Eventually on the 23rd the rain started to ease and I’m sure we caught a glimpse of blue sky – time at last for us to play tourists and head in to look at San Diego and in particular, the Hotel Del Coronado. My sister Kaye had told us about this place and we’re very happy she did.

The history of this completely wooden structure is one worth re-telling. In the mid-1880s, the San Diego region was in the midst of one of its first real estate booms. At that time, it was common for a developer to build a grand hotel as a draw for what would otherwise be a barren landscape. The Hollywood Hotel in Hollywood, California, the Del Monte in Monterey, and the Hotel Redondo in Redondo Beach California were similar grand hotels built as development enticements during this era.

On December 19, 1885, Elisha Babcock, a retired railroad executive from Indiana, Hampton Story, of the Story and Clark Piano Company of Chicago and Jacob Gruendike, president of the First National Bank of San Diego bought all of Coronado and North Island for $110,000. The men hired architect James Reid, a native of New Brunswick, Canada, his younger brother Merritt Reid, and his brother Watson Reid who helped supervise the 2,000 laborers. Labor was provided largely by Chinese immigrants from San Francisco and Oakland.

Construction of the hotel began in March 1887 "on a sand spit populated by jack rabbits and coyotes". Among numerous problems to overcome if the hotel were ever to be built, was the absence of lumber and labor in the San Diego area. The lumber problem was solved with contracts for exclusive rights to all raw lumber production of the Dolbeer & Carson Lumber Company of Eureka, California, which was one of the west's largest. Planing mills were built on site to finish raw lumber shipped directly from the Dolbeer & Carson lumber yards, located on the shores of Humboldt Bay.

 

Reid's plans were being revised constantly and added to. To deal with fire hazards, a freshwater pipeline was run under San Diego Bay. Water tanks and gravity flow sprinklers were installed. Reid installed the world's first oil furnace in the new hotel. Electric lighting in a hotel was also a world first. The electric wires were installed inside the gas lines, so if the "new-fangled" electricity didn't work, they could always pipe illuminating gas into the rooms. Thomas Edison inspected the final electrical installation and returned in 1904 to oversee the nation's first illuminated outdoor Christmas tree, which was placed on the hotel's lawn. 



An ice skating rink

The Crown Room was Reid's masterpiece. Its wooden ceiling was installed with pegs and glue. Not a single nail was used.


When the hotel opened for business in February 1888, 1,440 San Diegans traveled across the bay. News reports of the new grand hotel were wired across the county, but just as the hotel was nearing completion, the Southern California land boom had turned bust. Babcock and Story needed additional funds at a time when many people were deserting San Diego. Babcock turned to sugar magnate John D. Spreckels who loaned them $100,000 to finish the hotel. By 1890 Spreckels bought out both Babcock and Story. The Spreckels family retained ownership of the hotel until 1948.

The original grounds had many amenities, including an Olympic-sized salt water pool, tennis courts, and a yacht club with architecture resembling the hotel's grand tower. A Japanese tea garden, an ostrich farm, billiards, bowling alleys, hunting expeditions, and deep sea fishing were some of the many features offered to its guests.


On April 7, 1920 Edward, Prince of Wales, was honored with a grand banquet in the Crown Room. There has been speculation that it was at this event that he first met his future wife Wallis Spencer, later known as Wallis Simpson, who lived in Coronado at the time. However, most historians believe they did not meet at that time, and both Edward and Wallis wrote in their memoirs that they met much later.

The popularity of the hotel was established before the 1920s. It already had hosted Presidents Harrison, McKinley, Taft, and Wilson. By the 1920s Hollywood's stars and starlets discovered that "the Del" was the "in place" to stay. Many celebrities made their way south to party during the era of Prohibition and used the Hotel Del as their personal playground. Tom Mix, Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin and Ramon Navarro were a few of the many actors who stayed at the hotel during weekend getaways.

During World War II, many West Coast resorts and hotels were taken over by the U.S. government for use as housing and hospitals. The Hotel Del Coronado housed many pilots who were being trained at nearby North Island Naval Air Station on a contract basis, but it was never commandeered. Then-general manager Steven Royce convinced the Navy to abstain from taking over the hotel because most of the additional rooms were being used to house the families of officers. He pointed out that "the fathers, mothers and wives were given priority to the rooms because it may be the last time they will see their sons and husbands." Ultimately the Navy agreed, and the hotel never was appropriated.

The hotel was designated as a "wartime casualty station". It began a victory garden program, planting vegetables on all spare grounds around the hotel.

Barney Goodman purchased the hotel from the Spreckels in 1948. From the end of World War II until 1960, the hotel began to age. While still outwardly beautiful, neglect was evident. In 1960, local millionaire John Alessio purchased the hotel and spent $2 million on refurbishment and redecorating. Alessio sold the hotel to M. Larry Lawrence in 1963.



Lawrence's initial plan was to develop the land around the hotel and ultimately, to demolish it. Lawrence later changed his mind. During his tenure, Lawrence invested $150 million to refurbish and expand much of the hotel. He doubled its capacity to 700 rooms. He added the Grande Hall Convention Center and two seven-story Ocean Towers just south of the hotel. The Lawrence family sold the hotel to the Travelers Group in 1996 after the death of Lawrence. The Travelers Group completed a $55 million upgrade of the hotel in 2001.

While retaining its classic Victorian looks, the hotel continues to upgrade its facilities. In 2003, Travelers sold the property to current owners CNL Hospitality Properties Inc. and KSL Recreation Corp (CNL/KSL). The current ownership group completed a $10 million upgrade of 381 rooms in June, 2005. In July 2005, the hotel obtained approval to construct up to 37 limited-term occupancy cottages and villas on the property. They also received approval to add up to 205 additional rooms.

A rather long-winded and detailed history but one I found very interesting, particularly with the experiment of that new fangled stuff called electricity and having Thomas Edison carry out the final electrical inspection. And haven’t the owners spent some money in restoration!



Following our visit to The Del, we drove into the city and I walked around a shopping centre with the girls while Grace had a relaxing time in a health Spa as part of her Christmas present. San Diego CBD is not all that big, and despite the large number of cars and people about doing last-minute Christmas shopping, it was easy to find our way around as the city blocks are in rectangles.

We met Grace at the Spa when she finished and headed off to a vintage car museum. Perhaps a peculiar choice of venue, but the girls said they’d like to see the old vehicles as well. There were quite a few wonderful old cars and carriages on display and the man who owned the museum said he doesn’t like to renovate anything at all unless it was absolutely necessary. That made the vehicles all the more fascinating as most were in very, very good condition.



As we walked to the museum, we noticed a barber shop about 2 doors down and as my photos show, I was in desperate need of a haircut. Once we finished at the museum, we went to the barber shop door and tried to open it. It felt locked so we started to walk away only to be called back to say they were still open and he asked if I’d like a haircut. I said yes, so walked back into this very large shop full of gay, African Americans and I felt most out of place as I was the only person with fair skin...and straight.

Having already committed myself for the cut, I followed this lovely, large chap to his chair and sat down. He asked me what sort or cut I’d like and I thought a trim would be good, not too much off, just take the long curls. He started chatting with his neighbour and I was ignored for almost 15 minutes – I wasn’t game to say a word. After remembering I was there, he asked me again and snip, snip, cut he went. I’ve never had a haircut before where I sat with my back to the mirror, and thus was unable to see how my falling locks were progressing.

Shortly after, he produced a mirror so that I could see that I now looked like an American marine with short back and sides, very short back and sides and sort of clumpy layers of hair as well. The sign outside said the haircuts were $10, he asked for $15 and I gave him $20 and disappeared into the night, rapidly. Oh well, there’s only a week difference between a good haircut and a bad one – or so I used to think. At the time of writing this blog (about 3 weeks later), my hair is still short on the sides and back and the clumpy layers are becoming larger, clumpy layers. 

Early Christmas morning



Christmas Eve found us wrapping a few presents and doing last minute chores. Due to the time difference, we made quite a number of calls to Australia to wish Nona, Colin & Quinn, Kieran and Brenda (Nona’s parents who were with them) Lisa, Gordon & Mitch, Kaye and Anne (my sisters) and families, Kath & Arthur and family, Dianne & Bob (my apologies if we spoke to someone else as well, please remind me and I’ll add you to the list) a Merry Xmas and called Viktoria and family in Sweden for Christmas Eve as is now our annual custom.



And then, Christmas Day and perhaps the less I dwell and say about that, the better. It started off well and we spoke to all our family in Canada to wish Kristy and David, Lauren, Dave & Seth, Peter & Cindy (Lauren’s parents) a Merry Xmas, followed by a small amount (limited to one present due to the room constraints) of gift giving and receiving; then the day went downhill from there. I think the pent-up frustration of being cooped inside the Sierra for days and days on end finally took its toll, just a pity it was on Christmas Day. By very late evening everyone was almost better and a little conversation began, so we planned to go to Legoland on Boxing Day, about 30 minutes north of San Diego.



Legoland was lots of fun and was certainly the remedy we needed to recover from yesterday. We spent the entire day there and left well after sunset. This was our last day in San Diego and the surrounding area and because of the rain, we hadn’t seen much at all. We would love to re-visit, explore further and take time to relax outdoors as the city is small enough to be very personal, yet it doesn’t have the hustle and bustle feel of a large city and is only a couple of hours south of LA.

Tomorrow we leave for Temecula, only a short distance north east, to meet with a couple of authors.