We began our 2026 adventures with a stop in Chula Vista to see Isaac and Mona. This was an important stop since it will be about 7 1/2 months before we see them again. We were able to park for the two nights in the driveway.
Since Sunday was Mother’s Day, I helped the kids make breakfast for Erika. Mona supervised me making the turkey bacon and I simply supervised her as she completely made the scrambled eggs. She did great! I already had strawberries and mango cut up, so we added some blueberries and made sourdough toast.
Isaac and Mona had multiple cards for their mom and were anxiously awaiting for her to come downstairs.
After breakfast, I introduced Mona to plotting ordered pairs on a coordinate grid using quadrant I only (all positive numbers). I brought my PlottingCoordinates.com design for Mother’s Day. Mona did a truly AMAZING job plotting all the points to create the special picture. I was glad she really enjoyed doing it. Isaac wasn’t interested…too much like work – schoolwork. LOL.
Later we joined Erika’s family for a nice gathering at Murrietta’s Mexican Restaurant in Bonita.
Little Miss Minnie! Mona made her hair like a big bow after her shower. 🙂
Monday morning we walked the kids to school before we got ready to head over to Silver Strand State Beach for the next 4 nights.
Silver Strand State Beach, Coronado, California
Site 429 was finally available when Barry made our reservations several months ago! This is a back row site that has no one on our patio side, and there is extra pavement even though it technically isn’t for any parking, you can still “use” it. But being as small as we are with Sadie it was just extra visual air space. We even had the site on the other side of us empty!
There seemed to be a lot more Class B’s and B+’s here this time.
Sunset #1
We’ve been relaxing and I got back to work on my blog posts to finish up our travels of 2025. I’ve been majorly distracted from it for the last 2+ months. (More on that in a later blog!. 🙂 Nice trying out our new shade for our Kilos Gear chairs! Allows me to work more outside. 🙂 Barry has relaxing down (even when it was chilly)!
On one of our beach walks I noticed all these sailboats out towards Coronado. A regatta of some sort?
Sunset #2
Thursday was a beautiful, sunny day and with little wind! We made the most of it with our usual bike ride into Coronado.
Hotel Del was preparing for a “corporate event” of some kind that night! Quite the set up with walkways being put in, propane fire pits carried out onto the beach, and several aerials performance areas. We had the opportunity to watch a few practicing.
Short clip with aerial somersaults:
I was looking forward to seeing the current sand sculpture. Will there be any in addition to the typical one of The Hotel Del? Nope…in fact, OMG….there was NO sand sculpture period! I couldn’t believe it. This is the first time we’ve been here that there hasn’t been a sculpture!
At least there was some kite flying happening.
This multi-colored one was really cool to watch as the owner had it swoop so close to the sand and soar up fast, do a loop or two, etc.
We noticed a couple new restaurants along Orange Ave. This one had been under construction the last time we were here. It looks pretty cool and was certainly busy.
I think Stake Chophouse & Grill on the upper level may have been here for years, but boy the menu posted street level sure caught my eye today! I must be hungry. LOL You can take the stairs or the elevator. 🙂
We had a late lunch/early dinner at our favorite place- The Brig (Brigantine). We hit a great Happy Hour with a huge fish taco ($5), a blonde ale ($5) and a bowl of clam chowder ($8). Boy, were we full! The fish taco was really good!
Ride back to Sadie
A bird that caught my eye on the way into Coronado, but I didn’t stop to get a picture, was back!! I took a picture- the fence shows up really well! LOL Unfortunately, as I tried to slowly and quietly get closer to the fence to focus through a space of the chainlink fencing, he flew off! I did get one of him in flight. Not sure what kind of a bird he was.
We went a little further to a view area to see if he’d come back. Abby called so I spent a few minutes watching for my bird buddy while talking with her. He didn’t come back.
We made the most of our stop.
We are really enjoying our little SoloStove for evening campfires! The wood pellets together with the clean pre-cut oak blocks (1″ x ~ 4 or 5″) that we brought with us worked great. What a different mindset now that we travel in a 24 ft Grech (Class B) Sprinter Van Motorhome. We shop for the smallest, portable everything for Sadie…and even then it must pass the …”Where will it go?” test.
I count Silver Strand as our ease into living 24-7 in Sadie. Now we are ready to get moving into our adventures with our next stop – the Rincon Parkway Campground. We will be camping parallel right next to the Pacific Ocean for two nights!
Enjoy your blogs-enjoy your travels