Today we went back to Balboa Park to see some of the other attractions there. Aside from the zoo, the park has gardens and plazas, as well as a whole bunch of museums and galleries. San Diego was settled in 1769 by as a Spanish Mission and much of the architecture in the park reflects this.

Looking toward the Botanical Building

We first visited the Botanical Building. This is a huge wooden structure containing hundreds of different plant species from around the world. In particular the orchards and palms were great. There were a bunch of ferns that looked almost exactly like Ponga from New Zealand but they were all unlabelled so I wasn't able to tell. Outside there was a large pool filled with fish and birds. There was even some sort of Bikini photoshoot taking place at one end.

Next up we visited the free Timkin Museum of Art. This was short and sweet and only took about 10 minutes to see. It was refreshing after seeing so many huge museums recently.

Portrait of a Gentleman - My favourite piece from the Timkin

We also saw the San Diego Natural History Museum. Like many museums here they have a huge cinema which shows various documentary films during the day. These were included in the admission so we watched two while we were there. The first was a movie about the animals that live around Baja California which is very close to the south, while the second was a 3D BBC documentary about small mammals. It was good to be able to sit down for a bit after so much walking. The rest of the museum was interesting exhibits about the natural history and environments of the region.

Balboa Park

We decided to head downtown to have a look at the waterfront (called the Embarcadero, just like San Francisco). On the way we stopped in for some awesome Mexican food. There is a lot of it available here as San Diego has a very large Mexican population being so close to the border. Everything was big and fairly cheap and it tasted great.

The waterfront has been recently developed and is great to walk or cycle along. There are a number of museum ships that can be visited, the most famous and impressive of which is the the USS Midway. The Midway is a decommissioned aircraft carrier that was launched right at the end of World War II. You can go up on the flight deck and down into the lower levels but we got there much to late in the day to do so.

Unconditional Surrender - Based on a famous photograph taken during the celebrations in New York City at the end of World War II

San Diego is home to the largest naval fleet in the world and everywhere you look there are warships. The most impressive would have to be the two Nimitz class nuclear powered aircraft carriers that were docked at Coronado, named the Carl Vinson, and the Ronald Reagan. These are the largest warships in history and are capable of sailing for 20 years without having to refuel. Each costs over $4.5 billion dollars not including aircraft.

Aircraft carriers in the distance

San Diego skyline from Coronado

Tomorrow I'll be heading out into the Sonora Desert so I might be off the grid for a while. I'll keep writing posts and will just have to upload them as soon as I can.