Coronado Island for the rest of us: How to bask in seaside wealth at the Hotel Del without busting your bank account

By Amy Wolf, Sunset travel editor

I had the great good fortune this past weekend to stay at the Hotel del Coronado, which, if you’re in the club as I am now, you refer to simply as “the Del.” If you don’t know about the Del already, you should. Let me tell you why.

Reason #1: The beach. The Del is the only beachfront hotel on Coronado Island, sprawling right down right to the beach. And what a beach it is. It’s crescent shaped, with white sand that sparkles silver-gold in the sun. It has views of Point Loma and the Coronado Islands.

Here's what you can see on the beach:

Good-looking, super-fit Navy Seals, who often do their morning runs and swims out here at 7 a.m. (I saw them, and felt a surge of patriotism.)

Dolphins, who frolic offshore from time to time (saw them too).

Panoramic sunsets what seems like every night.

Reason #2: Nostalgia. Built in 1888 (just 10 years before Sunset Magazine was founded!), the Del is a remnant of an era when seriously wealthy Victorian trust fund types—the kind who never had to work, not even the dads—used to travel out West by train to amuse themselves by the beach for months at a time. (Can you imagine wearing these get-ups to the beach?)

But why should you care about that? Here's why: Because you can still experience a lot of that grandeur, like the original cage elevator hand-operated by a uniformed attendant. (“Ever get your fingers caught in that cage?” my husband asked him on our ride up to our room. His response: “I try not to do that anymore.”)

Or like the incredibly lavish Sunday brunch (think free-flowing champagne, bloody Marys, a full-on chocolate bar... the works) in the Del’s Crown Room, the hotel’s original enormous, grand dining room.

Reasons #3 and 4. Family and fitness. Kids love the Del because it’s on the beach and because everyone’s nice to kids here. Even the yoga instructor was unruffled by my two-year-old’s antics. I was impressed by all of the Del’s fitness classes, from yoga on the beach (there are few things that feel as good as child’s pose on a sheet in the sand) to boot camp on the beach (only for the hard core).

Here’s the only hitch: the hotel is a little pricey. Non-view rooms start at $295; oceanfront rooms start at (yes, start at) $750. Which is really the norm for nice hotels these days, but still. Who has that kind of money? (And what am I doing wrong?)

But here’s the good news: if you’re willing to bypass the thrill of staying in a room with a view of the beach, and being lulled to sleep at night by the sound of the waves, and riding up and down all day in an antique elevator operated by an attendant who will answer your inane questions, you can sleep somewhere else on the island and still experience the best of what the Del has to offer. Here’s what non-guests can enjoy:

The beach. (But you’ll have to do your morning stretches on your own; yoga and other fitness classes on the beach are for Del guests only.)

The restaurants. 1500 Ocean has incredible food and service if you’re up for a splurge—think of all the money you might be saving on lodging!

The new Eno Wine Room, where you can order wine flights to pair with cheeses or chocolates. I tried a flight of Spanish whites, including a Rosado Rioja (that's a rosé), a crisp Albarino, and a flowery Verdejo. The space was sophisticated, the service  attentive, and I learned something new about Spanish wine.

The new Spa at the Del. (If you’re into deep-tissue massage ask for Brennan, a former football player with seriously powerful hands.)

The bike tours. You can go for a two-hour, 6-mile guided bike tour ($30) around the island. Rent a surrey like we did, and bring the whole damn-family! Our little guy snoozed between us while our 3-year-old sat in the front basket, directing operations as we cruised around Coronado, scoping out homes for sale and stopping midway for lunch.

So the point is, whether or not you sleep at the Del, you should definitely go play and eat and drink there. And sleep there if you can swing it—it's worth the splurge.

Tune in next week for other lodging options around Coronado.

The most kid-friendly meal on the coast: an airport diner near Half Moon Bay

By Amy Wolf, Sunset travel editor

Parents, listen up. There are kid-friendly restaurants, and then there are really kid-friendly restaurants. If you, like me, have one, or in my case, two, very young and very restless children—or even more than that, heaven help you—you know that eating out with the little darlings is a huge pain in the behind roughly 95% of the time, moderately tolerable 3% of the time. That leaves a 2% margin of error for fun.

At the 3 Zero Cafe, the other day, I think I used up my 2% quota. (It was Mother’s Day, so I deserved it.) Having decided to take an impromptu road trip along Highway 1 with the main destination being an elaborate playground called Moss Beach Park (because I’m that kind of mom), we piled into the car and cruised north from Half Moon Bay to Moss Beach.

We were tempted to stop at any number of pony ride concessions, nurseries, and farm stands (note: the strawberries are spectacular right now). Instead we forged on, eager to reach the long-awaited slides and the monkey bars. But when we came upon the diminutive little Half Moon Bay Airport, where cute little planes were lined up to take off, we had to stop. Which is how we noticed the 3 Zero Cafe.

Minutes later I was sipping a mimosa made with fresh-squeezed orange juice, my husband was nursing good coffee, Lilli was standing on her chair trying to reach the miniature airplanes that hung from the ceiling, and Toby was bashing a toy airplane on the table. Which the waitress said was just fine. This is my idea of a good time out.

And our lunch was amazing! Hot grilled salmon for my husband, an artichoke heart and zucchini fritatta for me, a waffle (with whipped cream!) for Lilli, and some cute little corn dogs for Toby. All for a total of 40 bucks. This is no surprise, considering that 3 Zero is the sister restaurant of the Flying Fish Grill in Half Moon Bay, which Sunset nominated last November as one of the best 15 restaurants along our North Coast seafood tour.

En route home we stopped at Sam’s Chowder House, which you can read about in the upcoming July issue of Sunset, to pick up a couple of tuna steaks for dinner in the shop next door. The restaurant looked so tempting, with tables looking smack out on the water, and fresh-looking food, that my daughter announced that we should go out to dinner here, right now. In fact, we do want to go back to Sam's for dinner next time. But we’ll leave the kids at home.

Kids at art: San Diego's New Children's Museum

By Matthew Jaffe, Sunset  senior writer

It was always one of the sweetest moments of the year: I can still remember the instant on the first day of school when I broke the seal and opened a new 64-count box of Crayola crayons. There was that unmistakable waxy aroma and a blast of colors. From burnt sienna to periwinkle, the crayons stood at attention, immaculate and pointy with possibilities.

I had a similar sensation walking into The New Children’s Museum in San Diego, a 50,000-square-foot facility devoted to visual arts that opened this past weekend.

Talk about possibilities. At time when schools have cut back on arts education, the museum puts the visual arts front and center in a dramatic building designed by San Diego architect Rob Wellington Quigley. 

This is no cutesy little playhouse but a soaring, light-filled space that also happens to be one of the greenest museums in the state: it incorporates recycled materials, uses a passive air handling system, and its elevator shaft doubles as a cooling tower.

On one gallery wall, there’s a quote from Andy Warhol, who declares, “Art is what you can get away with.” And at this museum, compared to the more staid destinations of my own field trips past, kids are going to get away with murder—and maybe create a lot of art in the process. Out front they can paint an old Volkswagen bug. Inside they can climb on a mural, get hands on (a nice word for messy), and ride around on Legways, scooter-like vehicles designed by artist Roman de Salvo. This is a museum to engage bodies as well as imaginations.

While most of the galleries and installations were designed for the museum, other pieces are works of art that were not specifically designed with kids in mind. That’s in keeping with the museum’s mission to bring sophisticated contemporary art to families without making false distinctions between what's for children and what's for their parents.

Here’s a museum that knows fun can be good for you, and what’s good for you can be fun. No matter how old you are.

The best things to do in Paia, Maui's coolest little town

By Amy Wolf, Sunset travel editor

Here’s a dirty little confession: Until recently, I was anti-Maui. I’d never been there but I didn’t really want to. The place gets so much love and so much press that it sapped my curiosity.

But Paia, the little plantation town en route to Hana, made me change my mind. Paia is heaven on earth. It’s small, quirky, and bohemian. I’d move there in a heartbeat if anyone would give me a job there. (Anyone?)

So, now that vacation season is upon us, I suggest you go to Paia. Once there, here are the cool things to do:

1. Watch windsurfers strut their stuff—or to strut your own, at Ho’okipa Beach. This is what people come here for.

2. Swim at Baby Beach, which is technically called Paia Bay, in the neighboring town of Spreckelsville. (You can easily walk here from Paia, even barefoot in the sand if you wish.)

A reef close to shore creates a calm, sandy-bottomed pool that’s great for baby and you.

3. Eat breakfast at Cafe des Amis, a warm, artsy little place with a chalkboard menu of Mediterranean and Indian crepes and wraps,  both sweet and savory. My spinach and feta wrap was delish. So was my baby’s chocolate banana crepe (which I ate most of). My baby drank all of my mango smoothie. I didn’t share my latte, because it was to good.

4. Get groceries at Mana Foods. This place had me in a frenzy. I wanted to move to Paia just to shop here. The produce was so prime it was like art. The prepared food was so wholesome and fresh that I bought several pounds of it. And the wall of gourmet chocolate bars—well, you can imagine. Any store with a wall of chocolate deserves a visit.

5. Meet and eat at Flatbread Pizza Company. This is where Paia’s nightlife happens (it’s one of the few places to stay open late), and it also happens to have the best pizza on the island: wood-fired, with all organic ingredients like homemade maple-fennel sausage and organic produce.

Tomorrow: Come back for the one thing you should NOT do in Paia.

What to do this weekend

By Peter Fish, Sunset editor-at-large

We've talked about it before on this blog. But as a three-time hunt veteran, I'm going to say that Jayson Wechter's Chinese New Year's Treasure Hunt — which happens this coming Saturday — is one of the best things you can do in San Francisco, or anywhere. Where else can you indulge your inner Sam Spade (or Scooby-Doo) and hot-foot it through Chinatown, North Beach, and the San Francisco waterfront in search of clues?

Has our team (a motley assortment of adults and kids) ever won, even in our supposedly easy beginner division? Well, no. But we don't care. The hunt is its own reward.

When: February 23, 4:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Where: Justin Herman Plaza, 1 Market Street (at Market and the Embarcadero)
Cost: $30 per person through January 31; $35 per person from February 1 to 21; $40 at the door

Baby Loves Disco

By Samantha Schoech, Sunset senior editor

I’d never been to Ruby Skye, a dance club in San Francisco’s theater district.  Deep into my thirties and with small children in tow, most of my dancing is now done at weddings, before 10 PM.  Sometimes my family and I rock out in the living room to “The Wheels on the Bus” or early Stevie Wonder, but we are often in our PJs and hemmed in by the furniture and the kids’ 6:30 bedtime.

Which is why I was so excited about Baby Loves Disco this past weekend.  Baby Loves Disco (BLD from now on) is the brainchild of professional dancer and mom, Heather Murphy, who wanted to create a kid-friendly event that adults would actually enjoy.  BLD dance parties are held monthly at nightclubs in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles (as well as in the east coast).  And they put library lapsits to shame!

We arrived with our 18-month-old twins, Maggie and Oliver, sometime after naptime. All the signifiers of a dance club were in place: Disco ball; bar; thumping music; a mass of twirling, gyrating bodies; and yet, something was different.  On the bar next to the beer taps and signs advertising “Mommy Juice” (Sofia sparkling wine in a can) for $5, were juice boxes.  The lights were low but still bright enough to see by.  The bodies in motion were mostly under four feet tall.

Unfortunately for me, my kids seemed more interested in the bubble machine and the snack table than the dance floor.  As much as I tried to convey to them the importance of Prince and early Michael Jackson with my enthusiastic boogying, they could not be deterred from the bowls of goldfish and apple slices. 

But we slowly developed a routine.  I would stuff a few pretzels in my pocket, enough, say, to get though “I Will Survive”. I would grab a toddler and bounce happily up and down, plying them with fresh pretzels as needed until they got bored and decided to explore. I would then spend the next three songs chasing them through the club, following them up and down the stairs, and trying to keep them from eating corn chips off the carpet.

I envied the families with older children.  Everywhere I looked, four and five-year-olds were getting into the disco spirit, dancing happily with their nerdy parents.

After a while my daughter found a toy vacuum and created her very own dance move, a little something we called “the cleaner.”  While she kept the parquet tidy, my husband managed to get Oliver bobbing to “Come on Eileen” and for a moment it was everything I hoped for: all four of us happily shaking our thangs as bubbles floated down around us and the mirrored ball twirled, sending dollops of light around the room.

Then, before we knew it, it was time to go home.  We grabbed our gift bag and a few apples for the road, and stumbled, tired but buoyant, out into the still-bright day.