This is not Coronado Beach, on Coronado Island, off of San Diego, California, but this structure is similar to the cabinette my husband and I rented there. I could not write a series about this 120-year-old resort without telling you how wonderful it is in the present.
At the Del, a cabinette is two wooden lounge chairs joined together with a canopy that you pull up if you want shade. The young people lucky enough to get summer jobs at this wide, wonderful beach brought bottles of water to our cabinette, as well as a bowl of fruit. All included in the price.
Read a good book, doze, read, swim.
I don’t know how it can be legal, but just across the path, at the edge of the hotel, there is a walk-up bar where you can get wine, beer, or cocktails to go and bring them to your beach chair or cabinette. Some people had cardboard boxes that held four cocktails per box.
Read, sip, doze.
The Del is presently the largest wooden structure in the United States. Although it was built in 1888, it was powered by electricity from the beginning. Other Victorian hotels were lit by gaslight, and the open flames caused fires and destruction.
Although a few days at this beach resort is wonderful, some guests in the early twentieth century stayed for such long periods — they received a substantial discount off the nightly and weekly rates — that the Del opened a school for the children.
With the next post, I will begin the astonishing events of the past and present.
