Best of 2000: Best Football Beach

Coronado Municipal Beach
Along Ocean Boulevard

About a century ago, Mssrs. Kettner, Spreckels, and company were hard at it, trying to carve a proper city out of the canyon-riddled southwest corner of the country. Part of that attempt involved a plan to turn our tidewater harbor into a commercial port. Dredging was undertaken, and when it came time to figure out a place to dump all that lovely bottom-of-the-harbor sand, the southern shore of Coronado was selected. As it turned out, L.A. got the railhead and the commercial port, and we got the Navy. We also got a wide, level, and breathtakingly pristine beach on Coronado, perfect for rousing Kennedy-esque games of touch football. All those stately homes across the street lend the requisite aristocratic feel.