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A Late September Weekend at Coronado

·San Diego, California·#photography#autumn#San Diego#architecture#daily-life#coronado
A white hotel with red roofs, palm trees, green lawns, and a red umbrella under a blue sky.

A late September weekend at the Hotel del Coronado, across the bay from downtown San Diego. The whole thing is wood — a Victorian beach resort from 1888 that somehow never burned down, now a National Historic Landmark. When it opened it was the largest resort hotel anywhere and the first with electricity, which is a strange thing to think about while standing on a lawn surrounded by 757 rooms of white balconies.

Most of the morning went to the garden courtyard inside the wings. There's a big silk floss tree in there, blooming pink, and it had shed enough petals to cover the grass under the tree ferns. Petals still coming down while we walked through.

Then out to the beach. From the sand the hotel looks like its postcards — red turrets over white siding, the tower with a flag on top. This is where they filmed Some Like It Hot, and from that angle it hasn't changed much since. Tide was out and the flat wet sand ran a long way before the water started.

A large white building with red roofs overlooks a green lawn, palm trees, and people under a red umbrella.Lush garden with ferns, palm-like plants, red flowers, and a lawn covered in pink petals, with a white building behind.A large tree with vibrant pink flowers stands in front of a white building with balconies under a clear blue sky.A wide sandy beach stretches towards a grand white hotel complex with red roofs and palm trees under a blue sky.

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