Balboa Park- Walking Tour

Today we ended up walking all around Balboa Park- something that we really haven’t ever taken the time to do. We have visited the San Diego Zoo,  the Air and Space Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Old Globe Theater for a play, and the Ruben H Fleet Science Center, all great venues! But today we took the time to really walk most of the park.

We saw wedding parties posing for photos, wandered through the 35 International Cottages, saw artists working on their creations in the Spanish Village, viewed the improvements being made to the Japanese Friendship Garden (deciding that we need to eat at the Tea Pavillon!), and watched enormous koi swimming in the lily ponds in front of the Botanical Building. I snapped a few photos about upcoming events that we saw on kiosks so save for future reference, too… What a great day! I don’t recommend trying to walk the park and taking in more than one museum on the same day, at least not with smaller children. Definitely a two day visit, at least.

San Diego Youth Symphony  has free weekend rehearsal performances!
San Diego Youth Symphony has free weekend rehearsal performances!
Tea Pavilion hours and offerings...
Tea Pavilion hours and offerings…

Tourist Time

In January last year we went whale watching. A more perfect day could not have been designed- the water was like glass, the temperatures were San Diego’s finest, and just enough high clouds made for great photography. Whales even made a few appearances, but it didn’t matter because the whole morning excursion was worth the effort and price- both of which were minimal, actually.

Whale Watching January 2014
Whale Watching January 2014

The family all agreed that we would get out and do the tourist thing once a month so that we could really get to know this area better. Aaaaannd we promptly forgot, getting caught up in the happy business of life.

My mom is funny...
My mom is funny…

I swear, I am holding us to that goal. We WILL get out there monthly to see the sights that So Cal has to offer.

This month is a little boogered up as one kid’s fencing tournament has had last minute scheduling changes, but that isn’t stopping us… we have places to see today.