Balboa Park and Beaches: San Diego Day 3

Another photo-dump blog post, YAY! But at least they are a lot of pretty photos, right?

After a long day of theme-park goodness at Legoland, we decided to do something slightly different the following day...something a little more "diversified." We ended up spending the morning wandering around Balboa Park, and the afternoon and evening walking along the beach and riding carnival rides.

When Nathan and I visited San Diego for the first time, we visited Sea World and the San Diego Zoo...both very fun, of course. But we also unexpectedly fell in love with Balboa Park, after visiting it on a whim. I have been surprised by the number of people I've talked to that have never heard of Balboa Park before. Strange, considering the world-famous San Diego Zoo is literally next door to the park. In fact, it's officially considered a part of Balboa Park! For such a large and prominent park, it seems to fly under the radar of some tourists. Well, allow me to educate you!

Although it's called "Balboa Park," it's much more than simply a "community park," although it does have several gardens and a few playgrounds. But nor is it an "amusement park," despite its several museums, theaters, and other attractions. Balboa Park is best described as a huge "cultural center," with a little something for everyone. Maybe the easiest way to describe it is as a sort of west-coast Smithsonian Institution, except with lots more outdoorsy stuff, because you know, southern California! We especially loved Balboa Park because it was the perfect "cool-down" visit after an intense day (or two!) visiting major tourist attractions. Although there is certainly a lot to do at the park, it's very easy to come and go, picking and choosing which things you're in the mood to see.

We started out our morning with a stroll through the Desert Garden, a mile-plus loop with a lot of plants we see in our own Sonoran Desert back home. Last time Nathan and I visited Balboa Park, we had yet to move to Arizona, and the Desert Garden was exotic and strange. Now, almost ten years later, it all looks pretty commonplace! However, the desert plants all look very "well-fed" to me; most of the cactuses and the ocotillo plant below looked engorged with water, very unlike their counterparts back home in the real desert:

There were still several other oddities to look at, like this freakishly bulbous tree that has room inside for all three of my kids. It looks like it could be a home for magical creatures!

 

After a gentle walk through the garden, we headed for the first of the two large museums that would make up the majority of our visit here:

The San Diego Natural History Museum. It has the usual assortment of dinosaurs...

 ...geodes...

...and big, scary animal mock-ups.

Just look at that shark! There was also a small exhibit on various animal skulls that the children enjoyed.

I LOVE the goofy-looking little "skull" Lorelai drew on this chalkboard!

There was also a dinosaur-themed play area on the bottom floor which helped the girls get their wiggles out.

 

My favorite part of the museum was their temporary exhibit on the history of chocolate, from its use among the Mayas to its near-universal global love today.

The exhibit was interesting by itself, but the museum was piping the actual smell of chocolate throughout the entire exhibit using cleverly placed fans.

It made us all really hungry. And of course, the exhibit loop ended in...a chocolate store. Of course. We managed to resist buying any, though.

After a short break playing by one of the park's fountains...

...our family headed across the plaza into the other large, kid-friendly museum in Balboa Park...the Ruben H. Fleet Science Center. Think of it as two full floors of nothing but all-ages, hands-on science experiments. It was noisy, crowded, and very exciting.

One of the girls' favorite activities was this little trip inside a hurricane simulator:

They also enjoyed this build-your-own cantileverd arch. We built it on the wood panel, then raised the panel up to make the arch stand up!

Then, to prove the importance of the keystone brick, Lorelai removed it...

 

...crash!

The kids probably could have played here all day if we'd let them.

...but after a while Nathan got overwhelmed (big noisy crowds aren't his thing), and everyone got hungry. So we left the park for a little while and got some pizza.

Mmmm...Nathan and I split this pizza. Half of it is barbecued chicken, the other half is Thai chicken (I was in California, and I wanted to try something weird!). The girls were very happy with their huge slices of cheese pizza!

 

After filling our bellies, we drove back into the park (but we had to park in a different place; I guess some parking lots are more popular than others!). At this point, we mostly strolled around and looked at the beautiful sights:

 

 

 

Sorry I'm not identifying all the buildings by name; there are so many buildings in the area that I lost track of what was what. We only went into one other museum (partly because it was free!)--the Timken Museum of Art.

 

It was a very small museum (only about two galleries!), but it made up for its size with its substance. Several works by Great Masters were contained inside (including a Rembrandt!), and they had one whole gallery filled with Russian icons and other church artwork. I had seen much art of this type on my mission in Moscow; however, most Russian icons are protected jealously in their own country, and not many of them make it out of Russia. To see so many (in such good condition) in one place was very impressive. Earlier that day, Lorelai had insisted on visiting an art museum, so this was the perfect place to start her out on a lifelong appreciation of art!

After all this, the girls were getting a little burned out, so we got back into the car and drove to Coronado. It is an absolutely gorgeous town, but I shudder to think about the cost of living (we drove by a gas station or two, and just looking at the prices was enough to raise the ol' blood pressure!). Anyway, we pulled over at Silver Strand State Beach, hoping for some peaceful seashell-hunting time:

Poor Aurora does not like beaches anymore...

Nobody got wet this time! This beach was much quieter, cleaner, and more peaceful than Mission Beach, our first stop. Everyone (except Aurora, of course) enjoyed the visit. And we got a lot of seashells collected, too!

This is maybe the cutest picture ever of Celeste...and that is saying something.

 After crashing for dinner at the hotel for a little while, we decided to give the kids a few more "thrills" to take home with them. So back to Mission Beach we went! Specifically, we visited Belmont Park, a small "carnival-style" amusement center. There, the kids had their turns on the merry-go-round...

...and for Lorelai, who is our adrenaline junkie, a turn on this "spinning you in a circle while flinging you in the air" ride...

As you can imagine, everyone was pretty tired out after this day, too! Just one more morning in Old Town San Diego, and then we'd be on the road home...