Tag Archives: del Coronado Hotel

Posted in travel

The ‘Why?’ Cruise, continued

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by Bob Sparrow

Alcatraz
Kezar Stadium today

Well, no jumping overboard for me – Alcatraz is too close! Fortunately, there was no need to jump as the trip was ready to get more interesting. Wednesday morning, we woke up in San Francisco Bay, opened the curtains in our cabin and looked out on the best view I’d had all week: the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower and Alcatraz. It was overcast, but what did we expect in San Francisco? However, temperatures were in the 70s, which for this time of year in ‘The City’ is ‘HOT’! We walked over to Pier 39 and Ghirardelli Square then decided to take the hop-on-hop-off bus around the city. It was awesome! We never hopped off but just enjoyed the views from the open upper deck of the bus, of places like North Beach, the Golden Gate Bridge, Union Square, Haight-Ashbury, the Financial District (Where Suzanne used to work) and Golden Gate Park, where we drove past old Kezar Stadium, where at somewhere around 8 years old, I watched my first 49er game. It was also the place where I played my last game of college football. The whole tour was very enjoyable and very nostalgic. We got off the bus at Fisherman’s Wharf and had an awesome dinner at Fog Harbor Fish House – clam chowder, Linda had lobster, and I had crab and just to stay with the theme of the cruise we both had some California wine. I have to say ‘The City’ looked awesome, and Newsom didn’t even know I was going to be there!

Kezar Stadium in the 60s
Teammate and roommate Ken Poulsen and me at our last game in Kezar Stadium

The ship’s entertainment was generally pretty good; the program I enjoyed the most was an interview with Taj Jackson. No, I didn’t know who he was either, until I did a little research before going to his on-stage interview. He is the first of three sons of Tito Jackson, member of the Jackson 5 and brother of Michael and Janet. Taj and his two brothers formed a group years ago called 3T, (All their first names start with ‘T’ – Taj, Taryll and Tito Jr.). They were mentored by Uncle Michael. Taj says that the group is more popular in Europe than here, but they are still touring and selling lots of music here. We had a chance to personally meet Taj after the show, and he is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. He took time with everyone to answer questions (mostly about Michael) and was just a super person. I’m not familiar with their music, but I’m definitely going to give them a listen.

With Taj Jackson

Meanwhile, it’s another day at sea as we head down to San Diego. We did get to watch the 49er-Ram Thursday night game on TV – Yay 49ers!!! We had such a good experience in San Francisco with the hop-on-hop-off bus that we decided to try it in San Diego. But don’t call it a hop-on-hop-off bus, it’s a ‘trolly’! While the venues weren’t as memorable or nostalgic for me as San Francisco, we did hit the high spots of San Diego, which were interesting – Gaslamp Quarter, Coronado Island and the Del Coronado Hotel, Balboa Park, Little Italy and Old Town, where we got off to have a delightful Mexican lunch . . . complete with margarita! We decided that since we live so close, we need to get to San Diego more often and spend some time at some of these fun and interesting places!

Back on the boat for our final night and the short cruise up to L.A. (that took all night). So, our plan of flying to Vancouver and taking a boat ride home turned out to be surprisingly good, once we got to San Francisco.

Posted in Holiday observations • travel

Catalina: Hamilton Cove, Glenmore Plaza Hotel and the ‘Other Side’

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by Bob Sparrow

photo (89)Twenty-thirteen portends to be an unusual year for me, perhaps even paranormal, what with all the ‘other side’ things that helped usher in a year with a 13 in it.  No, I’m not superstitious, but like Michael Scott, I am a little ‘stitious’.  While most New Year’s days I’ve watched the sun set into the Pacific Ocean somewhere along the ‘left coast’, this year I welcomed in the new year on the ‘other side’ watching the sun coming up over the Pacific from Hamilton Cove on Catalina Island – truly a unique experience.  OK, truth is there haven’t been too many years when I’ve even seen the sun on New Year’s Day, but that’s another story.

If you’ve never been there, Hamilton Cove looks like it belongs on the ‘other side’ of the Atlantic, perhaps on a Greek island coastline or hanging somewhere off the Amalfi Coast in Italy.  I suppose if you have been there, it still looks that way, but as if getting away from it all in Catalina wasn’t enough, several of us wanted to get away from the people who wanted to get away from it all – to the ‘other side’ of Catalina.  I discovered that Catalina is a little like the moon, in that most people only see one side, although I can tell you now from experience, that the ‘other side’ of Catalina is not dark . . . photo (95)unless you go at night, then it’s really dark.  Like the moon, it’s not easy to get to the ‘other side’ of Catalina, you have to have a pass that gets you through the gate on the road to the ‘other side’ that goes through the infamous ‘Airport in the Sky’, Catalina’s private airport where planes don’t really take off from the runway, the runway simply drops out from under them after several thousand feet and, presto, they’re airborne.

glenmore plaza hotelWe were fortunate to be in the company of one Michael Amoroso, whose family has lived on the island for over twenty years and owns and operate the Glenmore Plaza Hotel, ‘the second oldest continuously operating hotel in California’, so says Michael’s brother, Jimmy, who manages the hotel.  I thought it odd that a hotel in this relatively remote location would have such a distinction so I asked Jimmy Jr., Jimmy’s son who works at the hotel, “Whose #1?”  He replied like someone who’d studied hotel history his entire life, “The Hotel del Coronado.”  I decided to see what Google had to say on the matter:

  • ‘Oldest hotel in California’ – the Benicia in northern California – est. 1852
  • ‘One of the oldest hotels in California’ – Murphy’s in the gold country – est. 1856
  • ‘One of the oldest continuously operating hotels in Calif’ – National Hotel (also in the gold country) – est. 1859
  • ‘Largest resort hotel in the world’ – Hotel del Coronado – est. 1888
  • ‘Second oldest hotel in California’ – so stated on Google about the Glenmore Plaza Hotel, but it doesn’t say who’s first or when the Glenmore was established.  Wikipedia probably got their information from Jimmy Jr. too.

I also found on Google a picture with a caption that said, ‘Second oldest hotel in California’ – it was not a picture of the Glenmore.

Meanwhile, back on the road to ‘the other side’, just before reaching the airport we see a buffalo standing alongside the road.  I’ll tell you the photo (92)history of how buffalo got on the island . . . another time.  After a brief stop at the airport, we start down on the western slope of the island; the paved road turns to dirt.  We drive past El Rancho Escondido, a ranch, Michael tells us, started by the Wrigley family back in the ‘30s for breeding Arabian horses – another story too long to tell here.  We also pass a vineyard – yes, another story.  The road leads us to a west coast inlet called ‘Little Harbor’, where there is no man-made harbor, but a small campgrounds and no campers, no nothing except a beautiful uncluttered coastline, which is pretty much what all of the ‘other side’ of Catalina is.  We walked along the beach on this beautiful January day and enjoyed the fresh air, sunshine and solitude.

little harborOur return to civilization is uneventful except for the stories Michael tells us of the ghosts that   inhabit the island.  Back in Avalon we thank Michael for exposing us to the many stories and sides of Catalina, particularly ‘the other side’.

 

 

 

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