San Diego ~ Beach, Coronado, & Old Town

I am so far behind in posting photos of our time here in San Diego. As most of you know, we all have a life behind our blogs. Far far away in miles, but oh-so-close in heart and attention, are major issues currently happening with Rich's family in Milwaukee and with Mom. We continue to enjoy this area while holding close to updates by phone and computer...how did we communicate before all of these electronic media?

Thursday we drove along the area called Silver Strand and stopped at the beach of the same name. I'm the one who leaves shoes in the car and heads for the water. As I walked toward the ocean, I started noticing the unique patterns in the undisturbed sand. And then I saw them...millions of glittering specks of gold in the sand. I wish you could have seen it. I had to yell at my companions to get them to gingerly traverse the sand in their shoes...yuck, yuck...but they thought it was worth seeing. Here are a very few photos.

Why yes, that is a big wave coming in behind me!
Why yes, I did get very wet!
Why yes, it was worth every cold drop of it!
So glad you asked!

We continued our drive up the Strand to the Hotel del Coronado. Rich and I were fortunate enough to stay here when we lived in California so it is a special place for us.

Beach dunes at Hotel del Coronado

Plants on the beach dunes

Dr. Seuss' Turtle Tower sculpture was one of several of his sculptures on display at the Hotel.

While there, we enjoyed a delicious lunch on the deck overlooking the beach after which we drove up to the Padre Junipero Serra Museum, which is the sight of the first of the California Missions, to find that it is only open on weekends. The cross was raised and this sight was dedicated as a mission on July 16, 1769.

This gunfight was one of the first things we saw after parking our cars in Old Town San Diego.

And then we spied a penny-smashing machine. The kids and I have collected smashed pennies from many of the places we have visited. They make such great souvenirs and I had made a couple of them at San Diego Zoo on Wednesday. This is the first photo of one though. Handing the camera to Rich while I smashed my penny may have been a mistake, but I'll post this photo anyway because the kids will get a kick out of it!

Old Town has lots of original buildings and most of them are now storefronts selling all kinds of tchotckes, which I've gotten pretty good at avoiding since retiring! Rich, Deanne, & Bill walking around the Plaza.

In the photo below, Rich is standing under an enormous olive tree.

This area is called Fiesta de Reyes and we spent time here relaxing in those chairs around the firepit. This is also where I took all the photos of the plants you see in the collage at the beginning of this post. You didn't think I'd close without telling you about that photo did you?

The sunset as we came home from Old Town, was breathtaking in its beauty so I'll close with this...

Lovin' Life ~~ Through It All

P.S. What do you all think of my new camera so far?