Coronado

We always enjoy this campground.   Its practically in the middle of the city, close to everything that San Diego and its surroundings have to offer yet we can enjoy the serenity of Mission Bay when we're "home".    We're able to take Lewis on long walks along the Bay right from our site, and we always loved seeing the little mobile homes lining the walkways.   For the most part they were well kept, some even beautifully landscaped.   We could see why their owners loved living here.   This year, however, the city has closed the mobile home park down and is dismantling it piece by piece.   We understand it will be turned back into park land.    We can't enter it anymore, but we do walk past the decaying buildings and starving landscaping on our Bay walks, its very sad.

However, Dave is doing his part to appreciate the previous owner's landscaping artistry.   The Rose Robber, the Posy Picker, the Bud Bandit is finding much to do here.

Oh Dave.....

He brings me a tiny surviving flower almost every day.   Sometimes it's a rose bud, sometimes a hibiscus.   He's so happy to see a little life on an almost dead plant and we both enjoy giving them purpose again!  He says they grow stronger when he "prunes" them......

I have my own little Rose Parade!
It smells divine...

Here comes the Hijacker of Huge Hibiscuses and his associate......

Today we took fellow blogger/rv friend Lisa's advice  (metamorphosisroad.blogspot.com) and had lunch at the lovely Il Fornaio on Coronado Island.   It was a beautiful and sunny day so the drive was pleasant and the restaurant made us feel like we were in New York City again.   Years ago we used to go into the "city" during the holidays for a show, a few good dinners and a bit of window shopping.  Il Fornaio had the feel of one of our favorites along Central Park.     The big difference here is that the view from the tall windows was San Diego Bay and the city's beautiful skyline shining in the sun.

 See the incoming Southwest airliner below the building tops?
It's always exciting to fly into San Diego!

The restaurant was sophisticated, white table cloths, sparkling wine glasses and  pots of poinsettias.   The menu was Italian as was the professional wait staff.

The most important part, however was the food.   It was excellent, as was the wine.    We left Il Fornaio full and very happy.    We walked along the waterfront afterward, enjoying the views and the boats and ships moving through the port.

We saw a group of black shirted men and women doing odd things, like scrambling over the rocks into the wet, mucky sand to bring handfuls up to the sidewalk.   They were inserting feathers, rocks etc. into the plops of sand and then photographing it.....trying to mold a sea creature we assumed.     As we walked by we noticed the name on their shirts.

They were from the maker's of the dog food we feed Lewis.   It is a high quality, grain free, single protein kibble that Lewis is quite excited about.      They overheard our comment about Lewis and they were all over us.   Evidently they were in San Diego for a convention and were on a scavenger hunt (thus the "sea creature" made of mud).     Caught up in the excitement of their competition they became our new best friends.

We did a quick video with them, extolling the virtues of Canidae dog food and left with promises of coupons to come!    What a hoot they were!

On our way home we stopped at Cesar Chavez Park at the foot of the Coronado Bridge.    Dave is always driving and desperately wants to get a better look at some of the huge Navy Ships everywhere in San Diego.    We hoped that this little park would give us a better view.   The park itself was a little creepy, all by itself in the midst of commercial wharf's and dry docks, but we walked to the end of its pier for a look.

Coronado Bridge

USS San Diego almost blends into the San Diego skyline 

we weren't quite alone on the pier....

are you tired of fantastic sunsets yet?