We had a great day enjoying Coronado Beach today.
It is a beautiful morning outside as I start writing this, already warm at 55, and the forecast shows it’ll get to 82 today. Yay!
We had our usual routine this morning. Bia was done mid to late morning, and today we made sure once she was done that she went outside so she would not distract Bella. Bia decided she’d go to the pool, so she did that for some time, then came back and stayed outside a bit, reading then using her phone. Bella had a good attitude towards getting things done, and went through her list little by little. She got all the easy stuff done, then said she was done. I checked and she was missing a few questions in her Science work, and some activities from ELA, so we sat down and reviewed what she needed to do. She was not too happy, but got going and did it. She was all done right around lunch, and is all caught up for the week. Once both girls were done, we got them to clean up their little work areas and baskets and we put away the school materials and computers for the weekend.
Carol helped the girls with school, and worked on lunch and snacks for the day. She is now making stuff for the girls and I, and something different for herself, so there’s more work involved. She made Mac and Cheese and chicken wings for us. The wings (and legs) were AWESOME! First, she boils the wings with seasoned water, then she air fries to crisp, and it turns out amazing.
I had a call in the morning, helped the girls, worked on another reservation, and spent a few hours working on website stuff for work. It was pretty frustrating as I spent a ton of time to get little accomplished, just troubleshooting. When I was all done, I decided to inspect the roof since it was such a nice day, and I wanted to see how bad it looked with all the bird poop up there. I went up and walked around up there, and feel there are a few spots where the surface is soft, usually near the connection points, but I think it’s been like that since I bought it, and cannot tell if it’s gotten worse or not. The vinyl has some air in there, again where the joints are, and forming a line in pretty much every joint, and almost all the way left to right. That line of air has been there since the beginning, and I can’t tell if it’s gotten bigger, but I think it may have a little. I usually take pictures, so I’ll have to compare at some point. I didn’t think it looked dramatically different yet, but I definitely need to keep an eye on this.
We then ate lunch, which was yummy. Bia and Bella read their books before and during lunch, so they are done for the week. After lunch, we cleaned things up, got our stuff ready to go and loaded, and went to Coronado Beach.
Our campground is pretty well located I think, so our drive to Coronado Beach only took 10-15 minutes. As we got close to the beach, we could see it was busier than any other beaches we had been to so far during the trip. Likely because this is the warmest day we’ve had at the beach, it hit 84 at some point, and that Coronado Beach is really nice. It’s clean, there’s lots of soft sand, and lots of beach.
Plus, there are military bases nearby, so we had Fighter Jets, and Helicopters and such landing and taking off here, and they came often enough, which is quite a cool experience. We had a few jets fly right over us as they were landing at the end of the beach. And at times we’d hear the loud roaring coming from that end, but not see anything for a few seconds, then boom…. Jet in the air almost instantly. Super cool.
We drove to the beach front and it was pretty full, so I wanted to drive around and find parking somewhat close, so we decided to let Carol and the girls out so they could get a spot at the beach, and I’d find parking. I turned around and stopped the truck in front of a house’s parking entrance to let them out. While we were unloading, two girls approached and opened the car that was right there by that driveway, and they were leaving… YES! I pulled back enough for them to leave, and there was our parking spot, right in front of the beach, and the hotel. Nice!
We got our stuff and went towards the beach to find a spot by the sand, and somewhat in front of the hotel, so we could use their amenities if needed. Even though there were more people than in other places, there was still plenty of room and we just picked a spot with the nice soft sand. Oh, and as we walked in, there was a sign showing “No Dogs Allowed on Beach”… dang… we had Maggie along. Carol just kind of hid Maggie in a bag, and then when we found our spot, left Maggie under a made up Canopy (towel between two bags).
As we settled, the girls were playing right away, and Maggie was sleeping. Hahahah.. I went to the hotel to find out if we could use the restrooms. The hotel is very nice and we were super close, so I just went towards the little market they have by the restaurants, then followed the sign to the restrooms, and that was it. No issues. So, that’s the best beach restroom ever! Hahahaha all automated, granite, and super clean. On the way out I got a beer from the market… holy shit that was expensive! A tall can was $12. Ouch.
On my way out of the hotel, I went to the beach front right there and there was a guy building a sand castle, it was looking pretty cool already, so I made sure to tell everyone so they could see it if they went there. The girls played with sand for a long time. Carol and I just enjoyed the sun for a while, then Carol joined the girls doing sand stuff. Carol was doing a sand Octopus, and Bella was making a castle. I had a bet with Bella that I could make a better castle. She took 20 minutes to do a nice one, and I took 5 to do a crappy one. hahahahaha…. She won! Her castle turned out pretty cool, with all kinds of decorations and such. She was a bit upset that it cracked and broke but I told her it looked like ruins in Rome 🙂
Bia wanted to use the restroom so I took her. She loved the restroom there and how it was all automated. All you had to do was wave your hand, and the door opened, water came out, soap, towels… hahahah…. I took the opportunity to get another beer, and one for Carol too, and it was still expensive hahahaha… if we go back, I’m bringing my own. I showed the castle to Bia and she loved it, so she put $1 in the tip jar, that’s all the change I had.
Carol eventually decided to go in the water, and Bia went with her. Bella didn’t want to go, so she stayed with me working on more sand castle stuff. Carol and Bia didn’t take too long to come back, the weather was very nice, but the water was very cold. When they were all done with their sand work, and Carol and I were done with our beers, we played some frisbee. Bia didn’t want to play, so she just sat with Maggie and played with sand.
Carol, Bella and I played frisbee for a while, as the sun was setting. I had to pause here and there to take pictures, the sunset here is amazing.
We are certainly going to miss watching the west coast sunset. Bella is getting better at frisbee, she was catching a few times and had a few good throws. After getting hit in the face in San Mateo, she had not felt like playing much until today, but today she had a lot of fun.
Just as we were done playing, a lady walked up to me with a piece of paper in her hand. She said she had taken some pictures of us playing as she felt it was such a “sweet family moment”, and wanted to offer them to us, at no charge. Her cell number was in the paper with her first name, Erin. I thought, ok, that’s different, but nice. We exchanged messages later, and she sent 9 pictures, that were pretty AWESOME. Wow. It turns out Erin Harrington is a photographer in San Diego, and was kind enough to see these moments, snap the pictures, and share with us. Thank you very much Erin! You rock! If you need pictures taken and you’re in San Diego, look her up, as you can see from her pics here, she’s great.
Well, overall, we loved Coronado Beach, and it’s definitely on the top of our list, and needless to say, we took a lot of pictures. We have a free day tomorrow, so just do whatever we want, so Carol and the girls already said they want to go back.
As it was getting dark, we left and drove back. When we were back, I had planned to get the fire going, so I went to the front desk to put the order in, and also get a box I received. We bought a heated water hose for when we get to Flagstaff, as it will be in the 20s overnight there, so we need to make sure we can keep our water from freezing. Anyway, I ordered the firewood and went back. The girls were showering and Carol working on dinner. The girls came back in their jammies, and didn’t want to stay outside, so we moved the campfire to tomorrow.
We had dinner, all got ready, cleaned the trailer and watched Kobra Kai until about 11pm. Hahahahah… Bella ended up sleeping in my bed, so I had to sleep in hers for the night. There are so many stuffies and pillows in there… there’s not much room left for me. Ahahaha… but, I was a bit tired and so it didn’t take too long to sleep.
Coronado Beach is such a beautiful place, we enjoyed it very much.