Balboa Park - San Diego, CA

We arrived in San Diego on a Monday afternoon, found our hotel, enjoyed a great lunch at the Corvette Cafe and started our big tour of San Diego! Our first stop, which became a frequent stop, was Balboa Park located in downtown San Diego. After looking around a bit, we settled in for a performance at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion which houses the Spreckels Organ. Every week there are free, open air concerts for the public. On this night, we enjoyed a concert by Hector Olivera of Argentina. If you enlarge the picture, you can see him on stage playing the organ. http://www.balboapark.org/in-the-park/detail.php?OrgID=75



Elise at the pavilion



The architecture through out Balboa Park is stunning! Lots of weddings are held here.



Beautiful Landscaping Everywhere!



Steve and Greg taking a break by the Lily Pond - Wait until you see this!!



The Lily Pond!






Then there was the Japanese Garden.



Complete with Bonsai!


As you walk through the park visiting the various museums - 13 in all - you are constantly surrounded by a beautiful landscape.

Cabrillo National Monument

This monument is located at Point Loma which has some great views of the bay, the Naval Air Station on Coronado and downtown San Diego. Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo is credited as being the first European to view and land on the west coast of the future United States on September 28, 1542 (Frommer's).



This is the Old Point Loma Lighthouse (1855 - 1891). Beyond the lighthouse is a U.S. Coast Guard Station. We got to see a few surfers around this area.



Taking in the View from Above!

Coronado

One evening after dinner we took off for Coronado which can be accessed by ferry across the bay or by the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge. We chose the bridge which is very long and high. This picture really does not capture the immensity of the bridge, but hopefully you can get an idea of the fun in driving across the bay.



Coronado has many beautiful beach and residental areas. Additionally, Coronado is home to a U.S. Naval Air Station. This picture shows one of the small public beach areas crowded with people awaiting a fireworks show!



Standing on that same beach, you can look across the bay for a great view of the San Diego skyline.



We finished our tour of Coronado with an ice cream treat and guess who we met at the ice cream shop?!



ELVIS!!

Extreme California Thursday

On Thursday morning we set out for an ambitious day of touring. We started out from Point Loma with a cool mid 60's temperature and travelled inland. Our first stop was a quick cruise through Temecula. This area boasts some great vineyards, but with limited time we settled for a ride through the Old Town area which had a real cowboy feel and the temperature was rising!



Pretty soon we found ourselves in the desert where the landscape changes dramatically. Green vegetation is only visible where there has been a great effort in cultivation! Green really stands out in the desert!



Our ultimate desert destination is the famous, sunny and warm Palm Springs! In particular, the Palm Springs Tramway which was built in 1963.



We started out an an elevation of 2,643 feet. As we ascended up to Mount San Jacinto State Park, the temperature descended.



Going Up! When we reached the Mountain Station, we were at an elevation of 8,516 feet and the temperature was a pleasant 67 degrees. The ride took about 10 minutes - straight up!

The Valley Below - straight down!



Once we were on the mountain top, there was a bit of hiking to do. The trees were huge! This is me, walking below one of the trees.





Along the trail, there was some rock climbing to do!



I prefer to look up at the rocks from the ground!



Yep, that's Boy Wonder!



Elise is on top of the world!



Once we got back down to the toasty desert, we quickly headed back to the coast, popping in at Laguna Beach for a stroll and dinner on the shore.



We ended the day with our return to Point Loma for a well deserved snooze at Homewood Suites.

A Day in La Jolla

After Extreme Thursday, we were ready for some sightseeing closer to our Point Loma Hotel (Homewood Suites). So, off we went to explore La Jolla. According to our guide book - Frommer's,La Jolla is best described as the Riviera of Southern California. I guess we will need a trip to the French Riviera to verify this!?! Wouldn't that be fun! In the meantime, La Jolla really is a beautiful place. Our first stop here was to the shore to visit the harbor seals at the "Children's Pool."






This little excursion left us ready for a mid-morning treat so we hit Main Street and found a great place called The Living Room which offered up some great pastries and smoothies! Elise and Steve look very refreshed, don't you think?



La Jolla has some great looking shops and art galleries. Elise and I attemped a bit of shopping while Steve and Greg . . . . . anyway, no pics from the shopping experience. Our shopping did yield a great recommendation for lunch which pleased everyone! We had a great lunch at Trattoria Acqua which was right on the water!



Steve was very happy after that great lunch and we were ready to move on to our next stop - Torrey Pines.



Torrey Pines is, as all things in San Diego, beautiful! We did a driving tour here and caught a glimpse of the University of CA-San Diego as well as the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Our one stop in this area gave us an upclose look at hang gliding on the Torrey Pines coast.

"Saturday in the park, I think it was the fourth of July"

The last day of our San Diego trip was indeed the 4th of July! Our first sight of the day took place in Balboa Park where we saw a dog parade. All of the little pups were decked out in their patriotic attire.



The next stop of the day was at the Mercato in the Little Italy community of San Diego. We enjoyed lunch here as well as the open air market where beautiful flowers and vegetable were sold straight from the fields!







After a great Italian lunch in Little Italy, we made our way to the Embarcadero. This is somewhat of a bayside park that includes the Maritime Museum as well as the Midway which is part of an area designated as The Greatest Generation Walkway. Once you begin walking alongside the Midway, the first thing you see is this great statue of a sailor's return home from WWII.



Keep walking, and you come upon a memorial to Bob Hope. Here we found him entertaining the troops! Notice the Midway in the background.





While touring the Maritime Museum along the Embarcadaro, we got some up close looks at the Star of India, a merchant ship built in 1863 as well as ...



The H.M.S. Surprise, which was used in the Russell Crowe movie titled "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World."


As you can see, Greg really enjoyed touring the ships as well as two submarines!



Through out the day, the bay was filled with boats and the shoreline was packed with people waiting for the evening's fireworks show.



One of the day's highlights was riding across the bay aboard the Pilot which was the pilot boat for the San Diego Bay for 82 years and looking back at the city! (Frommer's)



"A Real Celebration"
We watched the fireworks from the deck of the Star of India!







Here we are at the end of our great week in San Diego. For our last night there, we enjoyed dinner on the bay as we awaited the fireworks!



*"Saturday in the Park" by Chicago, 1975