Visiting Coronado

From the beginning, going to the beach at Coronado was something that May and Ray looked forward to. They settled in Otay in 1889, shortly after the Famous Del Coronado Hotel was built. Their diary speaks of visiting there and the Coronado strand was a favorite haunt. Later on, Coronado developed a "tent city", a huge collection of platform tents where folks who couldn't afford to stay at the hotel itself would come and spend a few days at the beach. The Trussells stayed at "tent city" several times over the years. In the above photo, taken around 1910, Mary Trussell, on the left, poses with her cousins Clarence and Violet Jones as they are dressed up for a visit to the Hotel proper.       Around 1905, Ray went to the Paradise Valley Hospital for an operation. While recuperating he had his photo taken ... at least it makes it look like he was at the beach (below).