Balboa Park and La Jolla

 What a beautiful day!  We went to Balboa park in San Diego.  This is a fantastic park!  There is so much to see and do, I can't get it all in this blog.  This was the site of the 1915 California-Panama Exposition to celebrate that San Diego was the first U.S. port of call for ships traveling north after passing west through the Panama Canal.  That's when they built a lot of the buildings here, and the architecture is amazing.  There are several museums, theaters, restaurants, and shops here, and it's also home to the San Diego Zoo.  The museums are not free, and we didn't want to spend the money, but they would have been fantastic to see.  Maybe another time.

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There was one free exhibit that got our attention.  This 1990 Beetle was decorated with 2,277,000 beads, completed in 2010, and is beginning an international tour, so watch for it.  

Incredible

Museum of Art

There are several walking paths thru various gardens.  We spent some time walking around the cactus garden as well as a rose garden and a palm tree garden.  There was a Japanese Friendship Garden, but they wanted $4 to walk it, so we passed.

Cactus Garden

Balboa Park

We spent some time inside the Botanical Building too.

Lilly Pond and Botanical Building

Every Sunday 2:00 there is a free Organ Concert.  Hmm, we may miss it.  I believe they said it was the largest outdoor organ in the world.

Outdoor Organ Pavilion

After the park we went for a drive up the coast to see what we could see.  Beautiful!  Oh, I wish I lived here.  San Diego is beautiful, but I think La Jolla (La HOYa) has a more fantastic shoreline.

West Coast View

There are at least 10 people sitting out in the water here
on their surf boards waiting for the perfect wave.

I may have to get a better camera.

There are a lot of birds on the larger rocks, and on the smaller rocks, closer up, are about 20 sea lions.  They were barking like dogs and making quite a ruckus.  And on another spot not far from there was a flock of giant gray pelicans.