Walking Tour – Balboa Park

We haven’t been out of Santee Lakes since Friday so we were ready to go this morning; we drove to Balboa Park to walk the grounds and develop a plan of what we want to visit this week. We tried to walk through the gardens today and save the museums for tomorrow and if necessary Friday; Thursday sounds like a wash out as there is a storm moving in. For those living in Wisconsin who have been jealous of the weather we have been enjoying since January we want to note that the temperature forecast for Wisconsin on Thursday is at least ten degrees warmer than predicted for San Diego.

At Balboa we got on one of the free trolleys for a brief tour of  the park, this gave us an idea of where the buildings are that we want to visit. We learned that most of the arts buildings located along the El Prado walkway were built for the Panama-California Exposition held in 1915-16; in 1935-36 the buildings located around the main plaza were built for the California Pacific International Exposition. After the trolley tour we stopped at the Visitor Center to pickup a map and see what tours were offered, we chose to walk the grounds using only our map.

 

The Plaza de Panama.

 

 

El Prado walkway.

 

The first walking tour stop we made was the Botanical Building where they had Orchids on display.

 

 

 

 

There were other flowers to look at.

 

 

 

And a nesting Humming Bird.

 

We then walked to the Moreton Bay Fig Tree. It is estimated to be   90 years old, 80 feet high, the trunk’s girth is 42 feet and the canopy spans 145  feet in width.

 

Although we have spent quite a bit of time in the desert lately we enjoyed our walk through the Desert Garden.

 

Does this man need a haircut?

 

 

 

Then it was on to the Rose Garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zoro Garden.

 

 

 

Alcazar Garden.

 

 

 

Bird of Paradise.

 

Palm Canyon.

 

 

There were other out of the way spots that made our long walk worth the effort.

 

 

This was listed as Casa del Rey Moro Garden but qualified as an out of the way spot.

 

Tomorrow we will return to Balboa to visit the Museum of Man. The San Diego Zoo is also located within Balboa Park but we will probably see that next week, that is a destination in itself.