Courtyard by Marriott Solana Beach

More than anything else, the reason I was at Marriott's Courtyard hotel in Solana Beach was that for once, I wanted to forego the clubs and restaurants and shopping malls and just spend a couple of days lazing on the beach. Plans, as per my luck, often go haywire, and this one did too - Cause the beaches are locked down after a shark attacked and killed someone. So what do I have left to do?

Poke around the hotel, taking note of the business center, the outdoor pool and whirlpool, the two spa tubs and the excellent fitness center with its treadmills and the bicycle and the weights, all of which were of absolutely no use to me. Drive up and down Highway 101, but it was Solana Beach I wanted to be in, not the hundreds of miles of beautiful sandy beaches up and down the coast (well, if you can't have it, then that's all you want, or something like that...), so in short order I was back at the Pavilion - the coffee shop in the Courtyard - mulling my options.

I give up, and go back up to my room, which thankfully has everything you might need to help you forget a disaster of a weekend vacation. Complimentary high speed internet, cable TV with pay per view movies, refrigirator, microwave, coffee and tea maker, hair dryer, iron/ironing board, bottled water, ergonomic chair and workdesk. Having taken two baths in a couple of hours, coming and going, in the admittedly magnificient granite bath with spray jet bathtub and jacuzzi, I spent some time gazing out the patio, fiddled with the climate control settings, had a couple of beers, watched some CNN, got bored with a mind-numbing discussion about superdelegates and switched to ESPN, then fell asleep on the sofa bed.

When I get up, its already late in the evening, and time to take the half hour drive to San Diego and the Gaslamp Quarter, and party away the sad memories of a day spent in absolute luxury at the Courtyard by Marriott Solana Beach doing absolutely nothing, with a closed beach in plain sight.... For which I had to pay $179 plus taxes. At least the parking was free. Solana Beach hotels - Great. Solana Beach sharks - Very bad. Can I file suit against the shark for spoiling my vacation?