A Coronado Sunday

After a week of rain, chilly temps and high winds I wasn't sure what I would awaken to on Sunday morning. Hmm, I don't hear anything out there. So I step outside and check out the morning. There's a puddle on the stoop of my door and lots of flowers torn from their stems and strewn about the courtyard, but it's not raining. What is that sound? So familiar but almost surreal. Oh, it's the pounding surf! I'm drawn toward the sound of waves breaking against the shore. I jump on my bike and head in the direction of the beach.

It's a hazy morning, but not as chilly as the low-lying fog would lead you to believe. I take off my shoes and step into the wet, clingy sand. As I curl my toes around the sand beneath my feet with each step, I smile to myself as I think how much my sister doesn't like this kind of sand. Monica and I are kindred spirits when it comes to climate; both connoisseurs of beaches and tropical locales! Unlike the sand of Hawaii that is more like miniature pebbles that gently roll off your skin, this sand is similar to Louisiana's Grand Isle. Dusty, small bits of sediment that cling to your feet even when it's dry. I don't mind it one bit however, as I stride with joyful steps toward the water.

You can tell a storm has just rolled through. Not just because of the pounding surf crashing angrily in counter-rhythm, but because there are large clumps of seaweed all along the beach. I call it seaweed for lack of a better term. It doesn't look like any ocean vegetation I've seen before, but then again I've not been exposed to west coast plant life before. I don't know if it's kelp or what, but the fleshy bulbs tangled in the green vines are so perfectly round I stopped at the first few bunches to see if they were man made or from nature. I poke at one with my toe not sure what to expect. Hmm, pretty solid. I see a specimen busted open further down the beach and realize that the membrane of this thing is a good quarter inch thick! There are quite a few people walking the beach, but none seem to be as fascinated with the plant life as I am!

I keep strolling north along the waterline until I reach a fence that says "No trespassing, US Government property." Wow, I must be at NAS North Island. It doesn't look like a typical military installation perimeter barrier. In fact, it has really cool artwork hanging from it so as not to detract from the beach atmosphere! How very cute! As I stand along the fence feeling a bit nostalgic for my Navy days, I hear the distinct sound of T-56 turboprop engines coming in for a landing. I turn towards the ocean and see a P-3 gracefully floating towards the NAS runway for a landing (did I just use the words "graceful" and "P-3" in the same sentence?!). Then it hits me; the red sunset picture hanging on the wall of my apt. was taken about 15 years ago right on NAS North Island's flight line while I was on a detachment out here. Funny how life seems to bring us back to familiar places.

After about an hour or so of strolling the beach, I end up back at the Hotel del Coronado and decide that the weather still looks favorable for a bike ride. I jump on my bike and start cruising towards the bridge. I roll past the golf course which is full of early morning golfers and ride under the Coronado Bay Bridge. I stop just on the other side of it and park my bike to take some pics. With it's graceful curvature, the bridge sweeps a little over 2 miles across the bay connecting Coronado Island to San Diego. Built in 1967, the bridge has a vertical clearance of 200 feet allowing even the tallest of ships passage beneath. From the time it opened until 2002, westbound traffic heading towards Coronado had to pay a $1 toll. Wow, wish all toll roads and bridges would acknowledge when it's paid itself off and stop charging a toll!

I love riding over the bridge. In the mornings, I get a great view of the rising sun over the bay and in the evenings, I'm riding into a sometimes pink, sometimes reddish sunset. I'm disappointed that there's no pedestrian or bicycle lane on the bridge because there are some great photo ops from up there! One of the most beautiful scenes is looking down from the bridge at the moored sailboats below. All along the shore are dinghies used to transport the captains to their boats. The haphazard arrangement of the tiny boats reminded me somewhat of Cinque Terre on the north-western coast of Italy, only not as colorful! Some guy jogging by insisted that I needed my picture taken with San Diego over my shoulder, so here I am in front of the dinghies with the San Diego skyline behind me.

I pressed my luck and continued riding all the way around the island. Sure enough, it started to drizzle and had just turned into a full-fledged rain shower by the time I pulled up to my apt. I basked in the fact that I got to play outside for a while while I lazed around my apartment for the remainder of the day.

I'm on the road a good bit over the next week. I'll be driving north to work with teams the rest of this week, then fly out to Aiken, SC on Sunday. My excitement of seeing a new state is tempered a bit by the fact that I'm going to the east coast in winter! Stay tuned to see what the next couple of weeks have in store!