Today was supposed to be a sleep late and hang around the hotel to relax type of day. Well, we got the sleep late part correct as we didn't get up until 9:30. But by the time we had breakfast, we were so well rested, that it seemed only fitting that we head out to explore. We already knew we were going to the San Diego Zoo tomorrow, but the San Diego Zoo is really just one of the attractions of Balboa Park. So we decided to check out the remaining attractions that Balboa Park had to offer.
     First of all, it's a wonderfully done park, fun just to walk around as there are street vendors with artwork, street performers, and just some nice gardens and paths to follow . In addition, there just happen to be 17 Museums on the property also. I had looked last night on the internet for ticket packages, as each of the museums will charge an individual entry fee. We found an Explorer Pass that gave you access to all 17 museums and entrance into the San Diego Zoo for $92, and you had 7 days to do all this.
     The museums were not huge, and there are certainly better examples of some of them that we had seen on this trip, but they are all in one location, and it is great fun to walk from Museum to Museum all afternoon. We naturally started with the Air & Space Museum. As expected, it had a bunch of Air exhibits and a bunch of Space exhibits as well. It had a couple of spacecraft on loan from the Smithsonian. And there was a long hallway with pictures of some of the various men and women who were pioneers in the air & space industries. They even had pictures of the famous Loughead brothers who later changed the name of their company to Lockheed because it sounded better .
     Next it was the Automotive Museum, Not being one to miss out on a car museum, this was one of the strangest ones I had ever been in. The cars were nice, some were restored, some were hot-rodded. They even had a "barn find" Studebaker in the back to show you what an unrestored car usually looked like before restoration. But there were a lot of cars you don't usually see in museums, like a 1957 Chevy 4-door Bel-Air, a 1958 Chevy DelRay Station Wagon, a 1960 Chevy 4-door Impala, But it was a nice collection, if unusual. They did have the famous Louie Mattar 1947 Cadillac with all the various household gadgets built into the car, and the platform that let you change a flat tire without stopping the car.
     Next was the Japanese Friendship Garden, and it was a very well done example of a Japanese garden. There was an upper and lower garden, with water running through it and a Koi Pond. There were also many beautiful examples of Bonsai trees. There was even a very pretty Hispanic girl walking through the garden with an entourage of photographers following her to take pictures whenever she stopped .
     We then headed over to the Mingei International Museum. This was supposed to be international folk art, but most of the first floor was dedicated to the art of the walking stick. I had never seen so many walking sticks in one place, but they sure were beautifully done. Some were very old, some were modern, some were very ornate, and some were simple. But they were very interesting to look at. There were also a few pieces of Chihuly glass, and a couple of Nakashima redwood tables, but the rest of the upstairs was folk art. There was a particularly creep exhibit of folk art dolls by Alice Hudson from 1981 that would have caught Jimmy's attention.
     Next was the San Diego Art Institute, This was a small gallery of mostly local artists, but most of the artwork was highly symbolic, had a political message, or was just angry. Not much to take pictures of in this gallery. Next was the Museum of Man. Now this was also a very eclectic museum. It went from an exhibit on monsters across cultures, geared mostly to allay childhood fears to a display on Mayan Hieroglyphs, then on to a display about the importance of beer in almost every culture . There were displays on the beers of the Amazon rain forest, the beers of ancient China, along with more traditional beer history. They also had a large display of beer containers throughout history across the world. But the best part of the Museum of Man was the special exhibit on the Instruments of Torture. Some were actual instruments, some were reproductions, but each display explained how the device worked, how it was used, and in most cases had some sort of illustration of the device in use. Unfortunately, there was no photography allowed in that particular exhibit so we have no pictures.
     Next was the San Diego Museum of Art, This was a typical big city art gallery, and it ahd a good smattering of art from the various masters. More of the older, realistic, and religious type paintings than we generally like, but there was one great section devoted to the art of Coney Island. Some were carnival posters, but others where were sculpture and other various media. Again, because this was a visiting show, photography was not allowed . There was also a collection of Lalla Essaydi photographs of Muslim women with calligraphy all over their bodies that we had seen before on TV.
     As we were running out of time, and we had seen 7 museums and would probably only have time for one more before most of the museums closed at 5:00, I, of course picked the Model Railroad Museum as our final choice. It turned out to be awesome, and the best all the museums we saw today. They had huge layouts of "O" Gauge, "HO" Gauge, and "N" Gauge trains setup throughout the building. They had huge mountains with tunnels and trestles and trains running everywhere. There was even a separate section for what were called Toy "O" Gauge trains where the trains were the kind that I played with when I was a child. Bright colors, and lots of interesting cars. The Model Club for these cars call themselves the San Diego 3-Railers O-Gauge. They have a website www.sd3r.org where they stream real-time video of the trains in action when the museum is open. I checked and it looks cool!
    After we left Balboa Park, we headed over to Old Town San Diego for dinner . The plan was to do a little shopping at the stores in Fiesta Del Reyes, and have dinner at Casa De Reyes. Since it was after 5:00, parking was beginning to open up, but as we were wandering around the parking lot and back into the street looking for a place to park, I didn't notice that the road construction right outside the parking lot had 2 different levels on the roadway. As I made the turn into the parking lot, the bike noticed the change in levels, and went over. Luckily we were only just barely moving, and both of us escaped with only bruised egos. As the bike went over, a crowd of guys came over and lifted the whole thing back on it's wheels and we were able to park safely. No damage at all to the bike.
     Dinner was excellent at Casa de Reyes. I had eaten here several times when we came to San Diego on business when I worked ffor Lockheed. The food is always good, and the atmosphere is even better. They were using a new system for notifying you when your table is ready. It's called NoWait and they text you when your table is ready. Saves them all the hassle of the pager, and just moves us one step closer to a world that if you don't have a cell phone, you won't even be able to eat.
     Tomorrow is the San Diego Zoo. It's open from 9:00 to 9:00 so there should be plenty of time to see everything.

12.3 miles today
12,972.7 miles total

0.0 gallons today
313.769 gallons total