Visiting the venues, Part II

The steady sea breeze was as brisk as I thought it would be. The scents of the blooming trees and flowers were just as enticing. And though Coronado, California, has changed a lot in the past several decades -- like Boulder, Colorado, which I visited earlier in May -- it is still very much the spirited Navy town I described in Caitlin's Song.

I had a chance to visit the city this week, along with several other venues in the greater San Diego area, and enjoyed every minute. When you see places in person that previously existed only in movies, literature, and your mind, you develop a special appreciation for them. Such was the case with San Diego County, a major setting in not only Caitlin's Song but also The Memory Tree.



I found Coronado particularly inviting. Situated at the north end of Coronado Island on the west side of San Diego Bay, it is a trendy city with a small-town feel -- one where Craftsman houses with porches and white picket fences outnumber coffee shops and souvenir stores. Only the cultivated rose gardens, fence-climbing honeysuckle, and jacaranda trees, with their rough trunks and indigo flowers, could compete.



Nothing in Coronado, of course, commands attention like the opulent Hotel del Coronado, a Victorian fusion of turrets, balconies, and courtyards that has greeted visitors since 1887 and was the inspiration for a hotel featured in both novels. Located between the bay and the ocean, it is as impressive today as it was a century ago.

I did not see as much of San Diego, the more prominent city with the famous zoo and aquatic park, but I did see enough to appreciate its charm. The Gaslamp Quarter, a sixteen-block nod to the late 1800s, is alone worth a trip to California's second-largest city, as are its storied waterfront and countless museums.

I don't know if I'll set another book in this appealing corner of the United States, but I do know I'll be back. Coronado and San Diego, like many of the settings in my novels, are worth a second look.

(Photos from top: Jacaranda tree in bloom, Hotel del Coronado, Navy ship off Coronado beach, entrance to the Gaslamp Quarter.)