Coronado Cays, Coronado, CA

Coronado Cays sits at the south end of the city of Coronado, out on the Silver Strand, where canals cut into the bay side and boats tie up behind the houses. It feels a long way from the Victorian streets and hotel crowds of the village to the north, and plenty of drivers heading down Silver Strand Boulevard toward Imperial Beach never turn in. Building started here in the 1960s, and the community grew into ten separate villages, among them Montego, Kingston, Green Turtle Cay and Blue Anchor Cay. Homes run from townhomes and condos with shared pools to large single-family houses with bay views and private docks. Gatehouses mark the entrances, and streets carry island names such as Port of Spain and Antigua Court. Water shapes the day in Coronado Cays. Many owners keep a boat in a slip steps from the kitchen. Coronado Cays Park and Grand Caribe Shoreline Park give the neighborhood lawns and bay views, and a dog park sits on the Grand Caribe Causeway. Silver Strand State Beach falls inside the neighborhood line too, with open ocean on one side of the highway and Crown Cove on the bay. The Bayshore Bikeway passes the entrance, roughly ten flat miles of path running up to the island and down to Imperial Beach. Calypso Cafe, on the Grand Caribe Causeway, is the neighborhood's own place. What started as a coffee cart is now a café with a deli case and a few aisles of market goods, and its shaded back deck looks out over the marina. Regulars order the lamb shanks. Loews Coronado Bay Resort, also inside the Cays, adds Crown Landing for casual waterfront meals and the Cays Lounge, where the view runs across the bay to the downtown skyline. Calypso's shelves will cover milk and a bottle of wine, but a full grocery run means driving north to Orange Avenue or south into Imperial Beach. Everything comes by way of Highway 75, the single road along the Strand, so errands get bundled, and the bridge into San Diego adds more time for anyone working downtown. What residents get in return is a sea breeze that keeps summer cooler than most of the county, and for many of them a back door that opens onto a dock.