Some Like It Hot

Today was a perfect day for weather. The sun shone, it was warm, it was lovely.
We chose, for this our first day trip in San Diego, to visit Coronado.
We did so for several reasons. It is an exclusive little almost island across the bay from San Diego. It has the most amazing beach. It has a main street that looks like Rodeo Drive in Beverley Hills.
And it has the Hotel Del Coronada. Possibly one of the most amazing hotels in the world, along with Raffles in Singapore, the Dorchester in Hyde Park and the Fairmont in San Francisco. It is a hotel of a certain age, built in the 1880's and comes with a history that reflects, and has even shaped, the history of California and the USA. It sits right on the edge of the Pacific Ocean and spreads untidily along the shore, with it's red roofs and white balconied facade rising above the many pools, bars, restaurants gardens and sun decks. The restaurants are of course expensive (although we may have a story on that one next week!!).
Ultimately though for us it's claim on our vacation time is because it is the hotel that Billy Wilder chose to shoot many scenes from his film 'Some Like It Hot'.
To get to Coronado we drove across the Coronado Bay Bridge. Built in 1969 it was until 2008 the longest box girder bridge in the world, built high enough for the tallest of tall navy ships to pass underneath. We drove up and over it and as we dropped down the far side we could see Coronado laid out before us, big houses, wide avenues and palm trees. We cruised down the Main Street past all those expensive shops and turned along the beach front road, stopped a couple of times to take in the sunshine and the views, wandered down to a lifeguard tower and watched some surfers take on the long Pacific rollers that were coming in. We then worked our way back to towards the Hotel Del, as it is known locally. We found a nice parking pace down by the beach and wandered along the beach sidewalk which passed between the beach and the hotel. We then explored the hotel itself, stopping for a coffee in one of their beachfront bars, very nice. Continuing through the hotel we wandered round the shopping area and the lobby, all was dark stained wood paneling, which made it dark, but kept a cool feel. We went into the ball room, which is circular and opens out onto the beach front. Everywhere outside there are manicured gardens with views of the sea.
We could see how the hotel had changed in the 50 odd years since Some Like It Hot was filmed, the front entrance had been lawned, but now is a car park and gardens, but the beach where Marlyn Monroe played beach ball was still the same and I took a picture of the hotel from the same spot. It was very interesting, but you have to remember that we are easily pleased.
After visiting the hotel we finished our day by driving South along the long sand spit that links Coronado to the mainland, returning to our trailer having enjoyed our day immensely.