Coronado

Today was an exciting day. After three long weeks, daddy was coming home. So, the girls had to get all dressed up.

I think Lisa looks a little like Morticia Adams in this photo.

Joli readies herself by adjusting her princess crown.

But we weren't sure quite when he'd be back in town. So we decided to wander around Coronado Island until he called to be picked up.

It was sunny but windy midday. So we sat on a glassed in patio on the top floor of a fancy restaurant for lunch. The restaurant was fancy but the food and the employees were very nice. I wish I could say the same about some of the other customers who were a bit snooty. Gee, my purse doesn't cost as much as a car payment. Sorry 'bout that.

After lunch we went to see the Del Coronado Hotel. I've driven by it dozens of times, walked along the beach behind it at least half a dozen times. But I've never gone on the grounds. I never realized how large the building and the grounds were until we wandered through them. Don't you love the reflections in the giant octagonal wing. I don't know if there's really eight sides. But more than four.

Hotel Del Coronado is famous for a number of reasons. it's a grand old hotel from the early days of the 1900's. It's had many famous customers - from Mark Twain to the current president of the U.S. It also has it's own ghost. And it was used in a number of movies, most memorable in Some Like it Hot with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe.

It reminded me a lot of the Winchester Mystery House, with all the wings and angles and turrets. Only a lot more white paint. This was a little patio that inside the middle of the hotel and three sides were lined with those lovely lacy balconies.

This chandelier was about as big as my car. It was in the center of the main entry. The flower display underneath the chandelier was almost as large, a small floral forest.

A beautiful old building. Can't you see a ghostly lady walking along those balconies?

This photo is memorable mainly because the man who so kindly took it was from Macedonia. We couldn't say exactly where Macedonia was but he said he'd accept my "sort of between Europe and the Middle East" as "close".

After we were done acting like tourists at the hotel, we went window shopping. Joli liked the butterflies in the window of a paper shop.

But the most exciting part of the day was ......

DADDY'S HOME!!!!! (Think she could get any closer?)