San Diego Part 2

Here is a view from our hotel, the photo doesn't do it justice, we had a beautiful bay view of the city.


Embassy Suites includes a buffet breakfast in their package. Anna chose some bread, bacon, a donut, fruit, and hot cocoa.


After we checked out of the hotel we drove to Balboa Park, this huge tree greeted us on our arrival.


Balboa Park is the nation's largest urban cultural park. It has tons of museums and beautiful gardens. Everywhere you look there is something lovely to see, I could easily spend a lot of time here.


Here's a nice view of the Botanical Building, "it was built for the 1915-1916 Exposition, and it is one of the largest lath structures in the world". You can check it out for free.


For a nominal fee you can enter the Japanese Friendship Garden. We enjoyed looking at these temari thread balls in their museum, no flash photo of course!


We took a nice stroll around the garden.


I accosted a nice man who took our only group picture, when I saw his photo didn't appear on the camera, I asked him again (nicely) to take another one.


There was this fascinating display depicting the birth of Jesus Christ which I can only describe as life-size dioramas, it was fun seeing Anna describe each scene.


Here is a more complete view of these dioramas.


We had a great meal at The Prado, a lovely restaurant located in the Park. We (I) chose outdoor seating due to the perfect weather and perfect views.


Mama and I ordered the seafood paella, Yumi had the confetti pasta with braised beef short rib. Both of these dishes were excellent, I'm getting hungry just writing about it. Anna devoured the buttered noodles and garlic bread.


After lunch we checked out the Botanical Building, what a colorful display of poinsettias.



On our way out of the park, Yumi took a longer stroll across this water display (can you see her?), perhaps a little hesitant to leave so soon.

San Diego is a great place to visit, next time I'd love to see more of the bay, and check out more of the musuems in Balboa Park. Also, I'd love to have a close-up of the Gaslamp District.