hotel del, tent city

had some fantastic weather here for christmas, but i was stuck inside most of the day opening presents and getting smashed. so it was off to coronado island the next day for lunch and some beach time. had lunch at tent city, my seared ahi salad was tasty and i enjoyed the patio seating of course. there's a museum inside which probably explains the whole tent city theme - the hotel del coronado nearby literally hosted a tent city back in the day. but i was content to hang in the sun and linger over my salad, watching the tourists stroll by on orange avenue.

from there we walked over to the del, where we checked out the obscenely large christmas tree inside. the ornaments were the size of my head (which is also obscenely large). out back the ice skating rink was in full swing, kind of fun to watch people wipe out. some kid had full hockey pads on, which was sort of creepy. i'm not too impressed by the timeshare buildings they're putting up on the southwest end of the property, but what can you do. i couldn't get too worked up when it's 70 degrees on december 26th, big waves are crashing, and everybody's smiling.