In the last part of June, my folks came to visit. They stayed at the Hotel del Coronado, which is gorgeous, and I got to hang out there a little bit. It’s very FANCY.

The Del opened in 1888 and has hosted almost all of the US Presidents since then. It’s got a room with chandeliers designed by L. Frank Baum (that look like crowns!), and he wrote some of his Oz books while staying there. As you can tell from the entryway (above), everything about this place is FANCY. I have lots of photos of FANCY LIGHTS and FANCY FURNITURE and FANCY VIEWS. And the food was really, really good.

We had dinner behind the hotel, on a lawn beside the beach. It was so pretty as the sun set and reflected over the wet sand. The food was good, too, and we had live music, and then a Marilyn Monroe impersonator walked by looking like a red disco ball, she was so glittery. Inside everything was carved dark wood, and it had an old elevator with a hand-operated door and an elevator operator. See? FANCY.

The hotel glows with the sun setting behind it, and the stained glass lit from inside. It was really a gorgeous place to visit, and I’d love to go back there and get some more FANCY photos.