First Day of Autumn And a Harvest Moon

I spent the last day of summer in airports and on planes.  Everybody hates the airlines now, of course.  It was a terrible day.  In my hurry for the airport, I forgot to grab reading material.  For seven hours I sat and looked about and dozed.  When I got to San Diego, I felt discombobulated and in need of decompression.  Checked in to the famous Hotel del Coronado and road up the brass elevator that employs an operator.  He is a small, aging man with a quick, nervous voice wearing a uniform out of a Bogart movie.  I will try to get a photo of him before I leave.  The hotel is what you might think.  I walked on the beach and put my feet into the chilly water.

A glass of wine in the late afternoon watching the tourists on the vast decks that front the beach, then off to find dinner in the small village just beyond the hotel grounds.  I settled on a small house just off the main stretch that had a Prix Fixe dinner that I had just missed, so I sat at the bar and drank a McCallum 18 year old scotch and ordered a Caesar Salad and Beef Bourguignon.  Olives and bread and an olive oil/tomato dip, and, of course, another scotch.  The barman was affable and gave me good advice for touring today.  I will go back for dinner when my colleagues get here.

Here are a few photos from the beach village here in Coronado.  It is southern California.  Palm trees, wood and stucco.  And that is how I spent the last day of summer, 2010.

Now. . . it is autumn.  Let me see the California full moon.