Silver Strand Beach State Park-Sunny Coronado California

Hello Happy Campers-we've arrived in San Diego-land of sunshine and crazy drivers –sorry to my California friends. We are on our way to Silver Strand State Beach on Coronado Island, just south of the infamous Coronado Hotel.  I’m having those lovely visions of beach camping, a glowing campfire at night, playing with Hailey at on the beach-you get the picture.  

Well unfortunately most of this is not going to happen.  Too many rules for us.  If you check in before 2pm you have to pay the day use fee along with the campground fee ($65 per day unless you have a discount pass).  Once you check in you have to be back to the campground before 7pm or you are locked out (that changes with the time of year but there is always a curfew).  No dogs on the beach-none, nada, not even on a leash-they are only allowed in the asphalt parking lot. No fires on the beach-only in your own fire rings-which you have brought with you in your class A big rig-because those are about the only folks who camp here.

Unlocking the gate so we can escape !

And you must be self-contained.  There are showers here and a sani dump.  The campground hosts are very nice.  But if you try to leave before 8am you will sit in a line until they unlock the gates to release you-seriously I’m not kidding. We used our prison-oops-campground as a base to explore San Diego and spent very little time at the campground.

We ventured out to Old Town.  Jim has never been to San Diego and I've promised to bring him back to explore even more of this beautiful city.  We had lunch at the Café Coyote-can you say stuffed to the gills and operating under the influence of their famous margaritas?

We met the best shopkeeper ever-Susan at the Mermaid Cove-I wanted to buy everything I saw in her shop-very reasonable and such beautiful gifts. My friend Linda would go crazy in this shop devoted to mermaids!  Jim my bookkeeper, kept me under control!   I did buy a “few” gifts for the condo !  I’m sure my brother in law Jorge is wondering where I’m putting everything in Ruby- we are just about filled to capacity.   For the rest of our visit we wandered through Old Town just enjoying the day and people watching.

Wild man before the haircut !

We discovered there is one place where dogs can be dogs and run like crazy on the beach.  It’s a beach just behind the Coronado Hotel all the way north along Dana Harbor Dr until you come to the Naval base entrance.  Hailey loved it-she ran and swam until she was ready to drop and then we headed back to the prison-er campground.

Doggie Beach 

Beautiful Coronado Hotel

Silver Strand State Beach is a great location if you want to sight see around Coronado or San Diego.  There is a little underground tunnel that takes you to the other side of the highway and you can catch a bus to take you into the city of San Diego or up to Coronado with all its cool little shops and restaurants. One of those little shops held me hostage for about an hour-LOL.  Called “Charisma”, it was a sweet little gift shop carrying all sorts of things that were just begging to be taken back to the condo.  Of course I couldn't disappoint-but I watched my pocketbook-I’m almost at the limit for the “condo gift budget”, and we still have all those cute little coastal shops to hit once we get to Alabama and Florida.  Guess I’ll have to get a job !

Well we are off to the desert -saying good bye to the beautiful Pacific Ocean-but only for now-we will return again.  Heading off to Palm Springs -need a house to have my new phone delivered to and my friends David & Sal were kind enough to welcome us to use their place.

Happy Trails, I wish sunshine and blue skies for all of you.