Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/61

 HOTELS RESTAURANTS CUISINE 41 to-day than when a distinguished writer found its atmosphere more gratifying than he could de- scribe does the hotel at Coronado Beach retain its name for beauty and repose. Its indefinite architecture spells roomy charm. Irrelevant bal- conies, turrets, windows, pavilions survey pleasant scenes a tropic park, a court of palms, the green of a sportsmen's field, the curl of an inviting surf, the wash of breakers through whose spray long vistas show of reaching headlands. In all the State just one pleasure-hotel equals the Coronado's renown. That one, also, lies close to the sea, bedded in verdure, drawn aloof from the dust and sloth of placid Monterey. English visitors compare the gardening at Del Monte to that of their feudal parks, and the welcome of the hotel itself to the greeting of a princely host. Even the fly-by-night tourist who flits from Los Angeles to San Francisco and out of the State does not pass by Del Monte. Across the bay on Santa Cruz beach stands the Casa del Rey, a modern interpretation of the ideals of California's first builders. The enclosed bridge which joins the hotel to the casino might span the white-walled chasm of a Spanish street; the windows of the court are placed in the irregular Spanish fashion. The House of the King is one of a long procession of hotels from Bartlett Springs to the " House on the Hill " at Redlands