Balboa Park, San Diego

TRAVEL ~ Day 15

The next evening I went to Balboa Park with Betty, my former Girl Scout Co-Leader and Nancy, a PTA friend and Betty's older daughter's Girl Scout Leader.

The low light and a bit of shaking on my part makes this a less than perfect photo (one of these days I'm actually going to have to read the manual and shoot away from the "easy mode"), but that trumpet flower tree was so wonderful.  Maybe you can imagine it clearer.  There were also pink ones, but the pink ladies truly resisted having their pictures taken!

 The Arboretum
At first, none of us could remember what this building is called.

Of course, once we had, it seemed that Arboretum was in every sentence and became a word of plain silliness by the end of our wanderings!

Balboa Park was the site of the Panama California Exposition in 1915, and the California Pacific International Exposition in 1935.  Click here for lots more info.

My husband played with bands here . . .

. . . our kids love the Railroad Museum.

Plus the zoo is here, the organ pavilion, it is a very fun place.

Interesting architecture.

After walking around the grounds, my friends and I had food on the patio of The Prado restaurant and then were treated to tickets to see Jane Austen's EMMA  A Musical Romantic Comedy.  Nancy's daughter works at the Old Globe and was able to get us comps.  What a wonderful musical.  As Jane Austen is my favorite author, I might be a bit prejudiced.  Then again, perhaps I would have noticed if it did not live up to the book.  It was a lovely production -- set, costumes, actors & singing voices all delightful.