Not sure how do I start this post and what kind of words should I use to introduce Balboa park on this blog. Grand, Heritage, Green, Culture, People, Celebrations, Art, Museums, Architecture - add some interesting adjectives to these words and create a definition for Balboa Park of San Diego. If you are in San Diego and missed taking evening stroll around Balboa park, you should plan another visit to this city to experience it in better way. Like Sea World, San Diego Zoo, Old Town, USS Widway Museum, Gaslamp Quarters, Unconditional Surrender Statue and beautiful beaches of San Diego, Balboa park is also one of the must visit places in this beautiful city of California.
Balboa Park is close to the famous San Diego Zoo, so most of the times folks spend whole day inside the Zoo and then walk around Balboa Park for tasting some interesting food. Lot of folks come to Balboa Park during the evening and can be seen enjoying the beauty of Balboa Park. I was there in the month of February and the park was looking more beautiful with these flowers all around. Lot of couples were enjoying this romantic setup of Balboa.
During the weekends, Balboa park is full of photographers for pre-wedding, maternity & kids shoots. Balboa park offers brilliant setup for these kinds of shoots. Photographer don't need to spend lot of energies on setting up things and rather focus more on better compositions.
Balboa park has various museums, theaters, green belts, walking paths, restaurants and entertainment places. I am sure I am missing various other things in this list like beautiful water bodies, fountains and colorful trees/plants.
There are various historic buildings in Balboa park and many of these are being used as museums. Most of these buildings have walking paths, although most of the folks like to walk on the main road as vehicles are not allowed on these roads.
Above photograph shows one of the beautiful water bodies inside Balboa Park. You can see various birds around this water body and there are lush green lawns on the back side of these beautiful buildings and water bodies. Lot of folks bring their stuff and plan picnics around this place. You can also see some artists performing around these lawns and heritage buildings.
Above photograph shows one of the San Diego artists who was singing live and selling his recorded DVDs. I love this awesome support system for artists in US. I have seen many of these exceptional folks around the streets of popular cities in California.
Above photograph is shot inside Balboa Park. Balboa park is visited by lot of birds and they love to take a dip in these colorful water bodies. I loved these hues on water surface because of sunset time.
Museums inside Balboa park includes - Centro Cultural de la Raza, George W. Marston House, Mingei International Museum, Museum of Photographic Arts, Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, San Diego Air & Space Museum, San Diego Art Institute, San Diego Automotive Museum, San Diego Hall of Champions, San Diego History Center, San Diego Model Railroad Museum, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego Museum of Man, San Diego Natural History Museum, Timken Museum of Art, Veterans Museum and Memorial Center.
Some of the popular gardens inside Balboa park includes -
Cactus Garden
Alcazar Garden
Australian Garden
Botanical Building
California Native Plant Garden
Casa del Rey Moro Garden
Desert Garden
Florida Canyon Native Plant Preserve
Marston House Garden
George Washington Carver Children's Ethnobotany Garden
Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden
Japanese Friendship Garden
Lily Pond
Palm Canyon
Trees for Health Garden
Veterans Memorial Garden
Zoro Garden
Some of the interesting things to explore inside Balboa can be -
Balboa Park Carousel
Balboa Park Miniature Railroad (16 in (406 mm) gauge)
Balboa Stadium
Casa del Prado (home of San Diego Youth Symphony)
Electriquettes (1915 electric-powered wicker carts)
House of Pacific Relations International Cottages
Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater
Old Globe Theatre
San Diego Mineral and Gem Society
Spanish Village Art Center
Spreckels Organ Pavilion
Starlight Bowl
WorldBeat Cultural Center
There is a beautiful walk from San Diego Zoo towards Downtown through Balboa Park and as you exit main gate of Balboa park, you cross a bridge which offers above view of the highway which goes towards Los Angles.
Above photograph shows these interesting vehicles called Electriquettes, which can be rented to roam around Balboa Park in San Diego. I guess it costed $35 for 30 minutes ride around the park. It's pretty simple to drive.
Just look at above photograph and notice these vibrant colors. We sat around this place for 45 minutes at least and enjoyed beautiful weather.
Hope these photographs and the details in this post are enough to inspire you to plan a visit to Balboa :). Would love to hear your thoughts through comments below.
If you liked this post and found it helpful, I would request you to follow these things when traveling -
1. Manage your waste well and don’t litter Use dustbins.
2. Tell us if you went to a place and found it hard to locate a dustbin.
3. Avoid bottle waters in hills. Usually you get clean water in hills and water bottles create lot of mess in our ecosystem.
4. Say big no to plastic and avoid those unhealthy snacks packed in plastic bags. Rather buy fruits.
5. Don't play loud blaring music in forests of jungle camps. You are a guest in that ecosystem and disturbing the locals (humans and animals) is not polite
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