Yes… I know… that isn’t a picture of a fancy hotel…

But I took these right out in front of the hotel. The hotel hires this nice lady… a licensed hawk trainer… to hang around the hotel with her Harris hawk… to keep the seagulls from grabbing food right off the plates of the people eating outside.

She actually lets the hawk fly around. Sometimes it lands on the railings of the balconies of the hotel, and if you aren’t expecting it… and really, why would you be… it can be a little startling.

Anyway, I do love me some birds of prey, so I ran down and talked to the lady and got some pictures to share with you.

I also met this adorable little guy… while I was out wandering around waiting for my wife to get ready for… that thing… that I’m going to tell you about soon…

His name is Watson.

He is awfully cute.

The hotel also had a life-sized calf outside the ice cream parlor. I want one of those. I don’t know what I would do with it, but I bet me and the crack squirrels living in my head could come up with a few ideas.

Oh, look… there is one of the seagulls that snuck back in when the hawk lady left. California gulls are crazy. They will swoop down and grab food right out of your hand. If you come to California, you should bring a hawk. You should also tell me, so I can meet you someplace.

Some guy built this really cool sandcastle. It was as tall as I am, and I am pretty tall.

Seriously, if you ever come to San Diego, let me know. We can meet at the Hotel Del Coronado for lunch.

Well… uh… that was just sitting in the hotel hallway near our room… so I took a picture of it.

I can’t remember if I posted any photos of the central courtyard of the hotel or not…

Either way, no sense letting these go to waste, right?

I took that picture while my wife and I were waiting for a cab… to go to that thing… which I will tell you about in the very next post… you know… unless the crack squirrels come up with some crazy idea to mess with Donald Trump of whatever…