Coronado

On our next day in San Diego, we went to visit Coronado Island.  You can reach the island by bridge or by ferry.  Although a ferry ride would have been lots of fun for Eliel, we didn't want to be stuck on the island longer than we wanted to so we opted to use the bridge and drive.  Auntie Cat had the weekend off so she drove down from LA to hang out with us.

It was a little warmer this day, but not by much.  The sun finally came out later in the day which made it quite lovely on the beach.  We went to the boardwalk and beach behind the historic hotel 'Hotel del Cornonado'.  It was a very cute hotel that reminded me of the Don Cesar in St. Pete, Florida for those who have been there.  I was not able to get a good picture of it from the beach so if you want to see what it looks like, head to the website referenced above.

At the beach, we found all kinds of fun sea items that had washed upon the shore.  I found a huge orange sand dollar and proceeded to show Eliel.  I then handed it to him so he could touch it and he decided that the best place for the sand dollar would be in the sand.  He dropped it and the lovely sand dollar was then in about a hundred pieces.  I was pretty disappointed but couldn't help laughing at my mistake! I was able to find another sand dollar to take home but it wasn't nearly as big or as unique looking.

Since it was a little warmer than the previous day, and we were on a beach instead of rocks, we took Eliel's shoes off and let him walk around in the ocean.  The water temperature was about the same as the outdoor temperature (60) so it wasn't too cold. 

Eliel loved running around on the sand but the waves made him a little nervous.  Probably because they were so unpredictable.  There weren't too many other people out on the beach which made for some great pictures.  Plus, since Auntie Cat was there, Mommy got to get in on some of the shots too!

As you'll notice in a lot of the pictures, Eliel LOVES wearing his sunglasses!  Although his eyes are dark like Daddy's he has trouble seeing in the sunshine like Mommy and will  shut his eyes in frustration until we place his sunglasses on.  Luckily, I remembered to bring them on our trip, otherwise we would have been looking for toddler sunglasses to buy!  He looks so cute in them!

Even though we couldn't go in the water, Eliel enjoyed looking around some rock piles at all of the hermit crabs that has collected in the tide pools during low tide.  He was too nervous to pick one up himself but he squealed with delight when they moved.  We ended the morning with some (surprisingly!) delicious pizza and went back to let Eliel have a long nap.  The ocean air tired him out and he slept for over three hours that afternoon!  Whew!