Imperial Beach

On Tuesday, we drove south to Imperial Beach, the southernmost community on the West Coast. I was behind the wheel, so I asked my boss to take some photos as we drove across the Coronado Bridge.

Here’s the view looking northwest along San Diego Bay.

Looking north toward downtown San Diego.

As we drove south along the coast, there was a rainbow out over the Pacific.

Our main destination was The Wave Cafe, a tiny diner in downtown Imperial Beach.

As we were sitting down, I happened to refer to two of my coworkers by name. When the server came to our table, she called them by name. I thought this was pretty impressive, so to put it to the test, I started calling another coworker by the name Gertrude, but either the server didn’t hear me or she was on to me.

I bought a basic breakfast — two eggs over easy, with hash browns and bacon with blueberry pancakes on the side. Everything was very good. The place was tiny, but popular, particularly with servicemen from the nearby navy base.

When we’d finished eating, we walked down a few blocks to the Imperial Beach Pier. (Fun Fact to Know and Tell — The pier opened to the public on November 23, 1963, the day after JFK was assassinated.) The pier extends 1,491 feet out from the shore, and at the far end, the water is 20 feet deep.

A Rock Dove looks north toward San Diego. The dark line cutting the city skyline in half is the Coronado Bridge.

A Western Gull.

Several people were fishing from the pier, catching small silver fish they said were perch.

Off to the southwest, we could see a couple of the Coronado Islands. These four uninhabited islands are in Mexico. They’re a wildlife refuge and, according to Wikipedia: “Visitors may anchor, watch a donkey-show, scuba and snorkel, but trips ashore are not allowed.” I’ve never seen an off-shore donkey-show, but I’d like to sometime.

Looking south toward Mexico (the higher area in the background of the photo). Imperial Beach is popular with surfers, but there were none there on this 45-degree morning.