| To the west of San Diego lies a long spit of land known as
Coronado Island. It provides the shelter which makes San Diego such a fine port and
home of the US Pacific Fleet. It is quite narrow with sand dunes and military
housing complexes all the way up from the Mexican border. This is a silver
sand beach facing the Pacific and looking north east. |  |
 | The town
of Coronado lies at the north end of the spur just opposite San Diego. It is
most famous for this hotel which was built early in the 1900s and has been visited
by many celebrities and US presidents. The Marilyn Monroe film 'Some like it
hot' was filmed here. |
| The gardens are beautifully landscaped and you can wander round
both these and the small shopping complex within the hotel (full of shops
selling things you can't afford). |  |
 | The view of the
Pacific Ocean from the hotel is idyllic and the sun is almost always shining.
Bear in mind we are half way through November and the temperature is in the
90's. |
| Coronado is linked to San Diego by a bridge which has won many
awards. It has to be so high to allow the warships to pass underneath and is
curved to minimise the gradient for the vehicles. |  |
 | From the bridge you
can look down along the spur of land towards Mexico a mere 12 miles away. |
| On the mainland side is the port and shipyards with the
naval facilities to the southern end. There is also some shipbuilding here
with several major tankers being built in the yards. |  |
 | This is a slightly
more distant view of the naval base looking down towards Chula Vista where
we were camped.. |
| Looking north you have the skyline of San Diego laid out in front
of you. It is California's second largest city. |  |
 | A view of the
shipyard with two huge tankers under construction. |
| As we drive back to Chula Vista we pass the other side of the
naval port and can just see the masts of the warships and the sandbar that
is the southern end of Coronado Island. |  |
|