Discovering that San Diego is small but world class

by Lucy Komisar

FDR stayed there in 1935 when he was in San Diego for the California Pacific International Exposition. He flew the presidential flag, which made the hotel the official White House. Billy Wilder's 1958 comic farce "Some Like it Hot," with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon was shot there. So was Steve Martin's "My Blue Heaven." Author L. Frank Baum wrote the follow-ups to his "Wonderful Wizard of Oz" there.

It's the Hotel del Coronado, "the Del" as everyone calls it, which sits on 28 beachfront acres on Glorieta Bay and the Pacific Ocean on the Coronado Peninsula –minutes across the Bay Bridge to downtown. An appropriately fanciful site, its iconic red shingled domes and turrets reminded me of a Victorian castle or a stage set or maybe the topper on a wedding cake. And since it opened in 1888, the largest resort hotel in the world, it has been the place to stay or visit when you come to San Diego, a world class city of just 1.2 million people.

The Del is not just a place to stay, it's a destination, a designated National Historic Landmark. There was no structural steel when the Del was built, and it is one of the few "stick" buildings standing in the country and one of the rare wooden Victorian beach resorts in existence.

It's got a lot of history. It was a grand place for people with grand incomes. It started as a fishing and hunting resort but also offered refined entertainments such as music. The hotel had a rail spur for the private cars of the wealthy who came from the East. In the "Roaring 20s," it was a party hotel for movie people like Charlie Chaplin. It also attracted the Price of Wales and Charles Lindbergh. During World War II, since Coronado was the headquarters for the Pacific fleet, part of the hotel was used for Naval housing. Every U.S. president since Lyndon Johnson (and a few before) has stayed there.

The Queen Anne sprawling revival four-story white clapboard structure is surrounded by verandas and intimate terraces set off by palm trees. Indoors, the main lobby walls are of dark wood, with a huge crystal chandelier and maroon patterned carpet. Wandering downstairs from the lobby, I heard good jazz playing in the corridor and window-shopped the fancy glasses, furs, and swimwear. Upstairs, the bedroom was coolly elegant. Those gauzy drapes hide a balcony.

Exploring the grounds, we went outside for a drink on the terrace. In the March evening chill, I was glad of the heat lamps. Other people hung out at the inviting pine paneled bar. But by morning, the sun was warm and shining again. We had a sumptuous breakfast buffet outside under an awning. There's no à la carte breakfast, though we could have gotten croissants at the bakery and taken them to have with coffee or tea at the bar a few steps away.

Then, it was just a 15-minute drive to the renowned San Diego Zoo. It's a huge complex and rightly draws people from all over the world. The best way to see the zoo from the ground is with a 35-minute guided double-decker bus tour that covers 70 percent of the park.

The zoo is divided into sectors that feature the local plants and animals: Asian Passage, Africa Rocks, Urban Jungle Lost Forest, Polar Rim and my favorites Panda Canyon and Elephant Odyssey.  Our guide explained, "We put species together so they can interact and get "social enrichment"! These sectors are not just jumbles of cages and fenced off pens but real imitations of the original habitats with forests, thick foliage and piles of boulders and rocks, like this home of the peccary.

In "Africa" we saw the river hippos. The guide kept up a running commentary. She said, "They stay in the water because their sensitive skin gets sunburned if they stay out too long!" We gazed at the curious okapis with striped haunches that look like a cross between a horse and a zebra and were discovered only in the 1900s. About the meercats from Africa, she explained, "Everyone in the group gets a job, looking for predators, food, even babysitters."

The Elephant Odyssey, she said, is a living museum, what southern California may have looked like 12,000 years ago. You can tell African from Asian elephants, because the Africans' ears are larger.

In the Polar Rim were Polar bears, which our guide said were the largest land predators in the world. And zebras' stripes, we learned, were a kind of camouflage. Also, if you're a lion, the bigger and fluffier your mane is, the handsomer you are! It was an excellent tour, which made us want to go back to visit favorite spots.

Like the pandas. They were happily chomping on bamboo and peering at visitors who pointed their digital cameras in a fury of photo taking. Then we walked through an aviary modeled after a rainforest. To get our own quick "bird's eye" view, we took a "skyfari"—the aerial tramway that moves slowly high over the park.

The Zoo is in the very large Balboa Park which has numerous other attractions. We stopped at the San Diego Museum to look at the good modern exhibits before driving back to the Del.

In late afternoon, looking at the beach and sea from our balcony was delightful, even if a curious seagull who had been flirting from the balustrade suddenly swooped over to steal a piece of cheese. After a few hours relaxation, we set out for a tour of San Diego. We'd seen where the animals lived. Now we'd take a look at the natural habitat of the San Diegans!

A night tour – actually 6 to 7 pm – is run by Vizit Tours, departing from Seaport Village on the Bay. There was a bit of a sunset before we headed out, sitting on the top of a double-decker. The guide was a transplanted Bostonian who transmitted his love of San Diego with gusto. "Every neighborhood in San Diego, a city of 1.4 million, has a sign, "entering the neighborhood." He pointed to the Australian Jacaranda trees as we glided through little Italy and he pointed out his favorite restaurants. "It blooms purple and looks like giant lilacs. There are blossoms from spring into December."

It's a place with visible history. He told us, "Wyatt Earp came here after the shootout at the OK Corral around 1886." He pointed to the circa 1888 Lewis Bank building where Earp had a famous downstairs gambling salon. Earp left in '96 for Alaska when gold was discovered in the Klondike.

He probably went by steamer. San Diego is a place defined by the sea. Our guide explained, "It didn't have a railroad till the 1890s," so everything came by water. Cruise lines stop here. Sport fishing is big. We passed a deep sea fishing boat that takes member of the public. You can deep sea fish off the wall, no license needed.

We passed the Maritime Museum. And he pointed out the famous ships: The Star of India, the longest continually sailed iron hulled ship in the world. And The Midway, commissioned by the Navy in 1945 and kept at sea till 1992. Now it's a museum. He said, "It's 1001 feet long. On end, it's taller than the Empire State Building. Some of the docents on board served on it at sea." You can climb into the aircraft and helicopters on the flight deck.

We drove through the Gaslamp Quarter, an entertainment district which is especially jammed Friday and Saturday nights. It boasts the largest Mardi Gras west of the Mississippi.

For another mode of transit, take the red trolley, a light rail system, which circles and crosses the city. Last advice: Our guide said, "It goes down to Tijuana, but don’t go across the border, it isn't safe."

If you go:

San Diego has an international airport; you can take a train from Los Angeles or drive in 2 ½ hours.

Hotel del Coronado
1500 Orange Avenue
Coronado, CA 92118
800 Hotel Del; 619-522-8100
www.hoteldel.com
679 rooms plus 78 cottages and villas at Beach Village.
Spa, Kidtopia for children, Vibz Teen Lounge.

San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau
2215 India Street
San Diego, CA 92101
619-232-3101
sdinfo@sandiego.org
www.sandiego.org

Photos by Lucy Komisar