* In the 1800s, Coronado Island was one of the world's great tourism hubs, thanks to the Hotel del Coronado, a Victorian confection of spires and gables that's best-known for providing the beach scenes in Some Like It Hot. * If you can't face the crowds at either San Diego's Sea World or its exemplary zoo (set in the sprawling Balboa Park), nature lovers can take a whale watching tour during migration season (Dec-April) . The dawn patrol by Don Winslow, June 17, 2008, Knopf edition, Hardcover in English. It was a cheap and cheerful dinner, so I hope Winslow would have approved. Boone Daniels is the ultimate California surfer stereotype: lean and athletic, laid back, unflappable, and not ready to let trivial 'civilian' interests like job, family, or. An hour later, with arms like spaghetti, I headed back to dry land for beer and burgers. Break out your Surfbonics-to-English Dictionary and chill with Don Winslow in 'Dawn Patrol', a slick novel of SoCals surf culture cleverly wrapped in an engaging mystery. He has sleuthing skills to burn but is rarely out of his boardshorts, and with a huge Pacific.

A lifeguard strolled past, like Dave the Love God, The Dawn Patrol's resident lifesaver. Boone Daniels is a laid-back kind of private investigator. Fishermen tossed lines off Crystal Pier, reminding me of Frank the Bait Guy, the protagonist in Winslow's The Winter of Frankie Machine. Every morning Boone Daniels catches waves with the other members of The Dawn Patrol: four men and one woman as single-minded about surfing as he is. Splendidly, the part of the Library dedicated to Watergate, the scandal for which Nixon is notorious, is confined to a tiny corridor, near the exit.īack at Pacific Beach, I returned to the water for a final evening surf session. As cool as its California surfer heroes, Don Winslow delivers a high velocity, darkly comic, and totally righteous crime novel. The former President's home, Casa Pacifica, is about an hour's north of San Diego, and crops up in Winslow's The Power of the Dog. Further north, in the foothills of Orange County, is the Richard Nixon Library.

The dawn patrol by don winslow