Coronado Beach, San Diego

After a stuffed weekend of wedding fun, the family headed to the beach for some relaxation and some sun.

Since the wedding was held near downtown San Diego and we were all still in the area, we decided to drive up and over the very tall and rather scary-looking bridge to Coronado Island and set ourselves down there in the sand.

We tried to park in the lot outside the famous Hotel Del Coronado, which has been the setting for several movies, including Marilyn Monroe's Some Like it Hot. However, every other tourist in Southern California had the exact same idea.

The car I was riding in got lucky with a nearby spot on the street; the other cars had to drive around a bit more. But everyone got a parking place and everyone reconvened inside the hotel's lobby, which was wide open to visitors.

We toured the gift shops, which were stuffed with trinkets of every kind boasting the iconic Marilyn Monroe, and the lobby itself, which was decked out in darkly stained and richly carved wood.

We also ducked into the bathrooms, which tons of other tourists also seemed to be doing. We appreciated the fact that hotel staff wasn't manned inside kicking out all non-paying visitors.

Once we hit the beach, we were also to able to rent sun umbrellas and towels from a hotel staffer.

And then we passed a good chunk of the day chillin' in the sun and surf.