The drive from Seal Beach to San Diego was only an hour and a half, but because our check-in wasn’t until 2 pm, we lunched at Nectarine Grove Cafe & Bakehouse in Encinitas just to kill time. They served only “fresh and organic, 100% gluten-free, local, and sustainable meals.” Ohh-kay, we must be in California. We ate their Turkey and Avocado Sandwich, drank water, and left feeling healthy. Healthy right up until we finished setting up our campsite and enjoyed several glasses of Molly Dooker’s Two Left Feet (Shiraz-Cabernet-Merlot blend), while lounging in our IKEA Puang Chairs on the eastern shore of Coronado Island in San Diego Bay. Geez, life was good!
We were in Site #42 at Fiddler’s Cove Marina and RV Park; a Morale, Welfare, and Recreation facility attached to the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, CA (population 23,731). We learned Coronado was a “tied island.” Not knowing what that meant, we looked it up. Wikipedia defined it as, “Landforms consisting of an island that is connected to the mainland…only by a tombolo.” Great, so what’s a tombolo? Back to Wikipedia for more insight. “A tombolo is a sandy…isthmus. It is a deposition landform by which an island becomes attached to the mainland by a narrow piece of land such as a spit or bar.” The tombolo for Coronado was called Silver Strand near the southern end of San Diego Bay. The screen shot below helps illustrate this.
The reason for our west coast trek was to attend the wedding of Max Wittmack and Natalie Saddic. Max is our nephew, the oldest of Jim Wittmack’s two children; and Natalie is the oldest daughter of George Saddic, whom we met for the first time at the wedding. Max and Nat have been together for over a decade, and chose to get married after both graduated from San Diego State University, and saw their respective careers stabilize. Max is a firefighter and EMT with the Chula Vista Fire Department, and Natalie is an ER physician and Naval officer, who’s initial assignment will be at Naval Hospital Balboa, Naval Medical Center San Diego.
Max and Nat reserved the beautiful Villa del Paraiso in Playas de Rosarito, Baja, California as their wedding venue. They kindly invited us to the reheasrsal dinner on property. Our site at Fiddler’s Cove had us ideally positioned to drive down on Friday for the rehearsal dinner, return to the campground afterwards, and drive down Saturday for the wedding and again drive back to the campground. This arrangement would then allowed us to spend a calm Sunday packing up for an early Monday morning departure.
Before crossing the border, we learned there was new paperwork required by Mexico. In addition to showing ones passport at the border, each traveler needed to show proof of car insurance, as well as, a new entrance-exit form . Fortunately, we completed and registered the form online, and carried signed hard-copies should we need them. We also emptied the truck of all the gear we carry just in case we got inspected. We figured the fewer questions our gear would have raised, the better. Everything inside Sid went under Arthur, and then we deployed the Airskirts to hide our gear from possible thieves. Usually, we weren’t this paranoid; however, the campground staff cautioned us at check-in about possible theft.
We left at noon Friday to give ourselves plenty of time to cross the border and find the venue. Crossing into Mexico at El Chaparral, Tijuana was easy. We were asked to open the trunk for inspection, so having emptied it immediately paid off (fist pump). But finding the venue turned into a frustrating shouting match. Both of our phones stopped working. When we typed the address into the truck GPS, it had us going to Mexicali 200 miles east. The map provided on the wedding site showed us needing to go south of Rosarito along the beach. After wander-driving around Rosarito, we stopped at the local COMEX paint store, gratefully used their bathroom, and got the store clerks to help determine where we needed to be. For reasons unknown, they typed the address into MFI’s phone (now working), and the venue popped up. We were only 5 km away. Our frustration melted away once we saw the absolutely gorgeous ocean-front property with beautiful beach scenery.
An American construction contractor from Las Vegas, NV built the villa with the intent of living there. However, when his plans changed, he added a two-story building with eight rooms so the property could be rented for multiple uses. He had made a good decision, as we learned the villa was fully booked every weekend for the next two years. For wedding events, the hospitality contractor erected on the lawn a clear vinyl tent easily capable of accommodating 100 guests including dance floor and DJ stage.
The bedrooms in both buildings were large with a king-sized bed, bath, and sitting area; all decorated with Mexican color-flair. The first floor of the villa was equally decorated and fully furnished. It and the deck surrounding the infinity pool played host to the buffet rehearsal dinner.
Of course, the beach was the main scenic attraction, and we descended for a walk and some picture taking.
Max and his sister Hanna (yes, our niece who joined us in Alaska last summer) grew up on the beaches of southern California and were accomplished surfers, as were several of Max’s friends from work. The surfers donned wet suits (because the Pacific Ocean off North America’s west coast is COLD) and took advantage of their location. I took advantage of their skills and captured the fun with pictures and videos.
After all the frustration we experienced finding the venue, MFI announced we weren’t driving back to Coronado only to return for the wedding the next day. With the help of guests we knew, she contacted the nearby hotel where other attendees were booked and was lucky enough to get the last available room. When we checked in, they apologized for it being only a small ground-floor studio located adjacent to the check-in office. Here’s what we were forced to tolerate.
Next morning, after a delicious breakfast and dos excellent cafés, I strolled the hotel grounds for pictures. We got a laugh from a sign which read, “No beach access, but enjoy the beautiful views,” as if the two were in any way comparable.
The wedding ceremony and dinner were well-planned and beautiful. I took 70 pictures and culled them for the blog. Max and Natalie asked everyone to download their pictures to a provided website, so they could subsequently enjoy the wedding from their guests’ perspectives. That could be as many as 7,000 pictures if the other guests went as shutter crazy as me. It’s worth mentioning that an unforecasted storm brought rain hours before the ceremony, yet the sky cleared and wind stopped just in time.
After the ceremony, everyone enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres on the villa property until the dinner began at 6 pm.
About a week before the wedding, we were copied on a text from Hanna with a picture of the inside of a kiln, where she was firing handmade shot glasses for every wedding guest. This, while at the same time working on her thesis for graduation from UCLA in June, as well as, several jobs. The shot glasses, each filled with Tequila, were part of the dinner set up.
The dinner seating and meal were accompanied by a DJ playing music from today’s generation. I’m not saying it was bad, just that the artists were completely unfamiliar to us. We sat at a table dedcated to the extended Wittmack family. The outstanding event contractor ensured our meals were served quickly and hot. The newlyweds responded appropriately whenever guests pinged incessantly on their glasses, and they exuded a delightful happiness across the evening. Even the sunset cooperated.
I did a lousy job of photographing the extended Wittmack family and was left to cobble together this odd collection instead. I could have taken a group photo of our dinner table, but we were all so caught up in the celebration it slipped my mind. Apologies specifically to MFI’s brothers, Steve and Jim, for not getting any decent shots of them.
We stayed long enough to hear Natalie’s father and Jim make their respective toasts to the newlyweds; unfortunately, we departed early, since we had a day of packing for our Monday morning departure. MFI drove back to Tijuana and the border with confidence, and all went well until we found ourselves heading back out of Tijuana on the same road on which we’d entered. Grrrrr! We quickly blamed the inadequate signage, darkness, and crappy roads. What added to our frustration was the fact that as we snaked around the roads near the border, we could see the long lines of cars waiting to cross. MFI made a U-turn and pulled over, so we could make a plan. Sid’s GPS was working, so we plugged in the border crossing and started off. Our anxiety began to elevate again as GPS had us following the exact route along which we had failed the first time. Suddenly, as we were about to give up hope again, our GPS announced “Take a slight left,” followed shortly thereafter by “Take a slight left.” Believe me, neither of these maneuvers were marked nor even looked like roadways. Just as suddenly, we were in an empty lane separated from but paralleling those long lines mentioned earlier. A police car was parked across the lane far ahead of us, and we were convinced they’d turn us around once we reached them. Instead, they backed out of our way and exposed our last slight left turn where we cut to the front of the line for the ICE booth (not without hearing aggravated honking behind us). Fifteen minutes before, MFI lamented we probably weren’t going to make it back to Coronado Island until after midnight. The agent reviewed our passports, scanned our Global Entry cards, and in 30 seconds we were headed to the on-ramp of I-5 north. Quite the incredible weekend before leaving San Diego.
