Balboa Park

After our stop at UCSD, we headed down to Balboa Park, which we agreed is the best that San Diego has to offer.  There are many museums and cultural centers there, as well as beautiful buildings and grounds.

After parking, we made our way across park lawns, a ravine, and towards the buildings built in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The beautiful pool in front of the arboretum.  The pool had to be totally refurbished after an unauthorized midnight water gun fight last July.  The vegetation in and around the pool, the koi fish, and the pools plumbing were decimated. 

This is a beautiful place to relax and walk around.  We chose to go to the Mingei International Museum where there was a special exhibit on musical instruments.

 

This is a Regina music box similar to the one my parents had and that I am current guardian of.

 



Below is an instrument, built by a San Diego man, called the Kithara I. 

 

 

The above instrument is a pyrex glass xylophone.

 

 



The Theremin is an electronic instrument that is played without touch.  Instead, you move your hands around the two antennae.

The Theremin produced eerie sounds for movies, and later in some rock band music.

Back outside, we marveled at the California Tower, built in 1915.

The buttress roots of this giant fig tree are much larger than this photo would lead you to believe.

Looking like a giant asparagus, this century plant is sending up it's stalk before dying.

We enjoyed walking around some of the old, out of the way gardens.

Gail enjoys waving at passengers on planes and trains - she even has me doing it!  The air approach to the airport in San Diego is right  over downtown.  The planes seem to brush the building tops before landing!

A brilliant flower that the bees were wallowing in.

We aren't kidding about the planes!

We ended our venture by going to the Russian Georgian Restaurant Pomegranate where we had Russian beer, vareniki, and a special lamb dumpling dish.  This is becoming one of our favorite San Diego restaurants!

Then for desert it was Toad Sweat Ice Cream, described as, "Not for the faint of heart."  This is because it was drizzled in a very spicy hot chocolate sauce - a sort of yin-yang desert.

And so ended a splendid day, sort of a mini-vacation.  Coming next is a little insight into our volunteer gig at the library - exciting stuff that you won't want to miss!