San Diego Day 2 Report – Cruising through another day

Not to be one to relax on vacation, I woke up bright and early to enjoy the cool morning weather on the bike.  It wasn’t the most constant effort since I was trying to keep from getting lost, but I was able to check out a few new areas and find a bike path that would lead me to the beach.  I’ll probably try and do more exploring tomorrow morning, especially since it’s so easy to get around with dedicated bike lanes on many of the roads.  After the ride, I got Susan up and we headed off to the coffee shop for breakfast and internet before embarking on more sight-seeing.

The morning began with a trip to Balboa park to check out what it had to offer (other than the zoo).  Besides being a beautiful urban park, there are also a variety of museums (some of them free) along with historical buildings to take in.  The architecture and landscape alone was worth going to see, so the combination of the museums and scenery pretty much make it a can’t miss attraction.  Be warned, though that traffic in the parking lots gets pretty busy by the middle of the day.  Anyways, here is a quick picture recap of our morning in the park…

Lilly pads on the courtyard reflecting pool.  

The main exhibition at the MOPA (Museum of Photographic Arts) was a tribute to rock n roll photography.  Some very cool (and some very strange) photos were there. 

From MOPA, we walked the grounds and saw the pavilion above, which was an ornate amphitheatre with a built in pipe organ.  Someone was rehearsing for a performance scheduled for that evening.

Susan tamed the mosaic crocodile who clearly wasn’t happy with the situation.  Hundreds of lives were likely saved by her heroics.

I tried to make sense of the abstract art in the sculpture garden, but the symbolism was lost on me.  

Although we did not enter the museum of man, we did get some nice shots of the mosaic domed roof and bell tower. 

Then we made our way to the botanical gardens where Susan was able to go wild with her camera for a while.

We finished our Balboa park trip with a walk through the shops and workshops of local artists at the Spanish Village Art Center.  We found a photographer’s studio that we really enjoyed and bought a couple post-card prints of his work since we couldn’t afford the full size ones.  He was running the shop, so was able to give Susan some pointers on developing photography skills.

After Balboa park it was back to the hotel to grab a quick lunch and get down to business getting Susan ready for her poster presentation at the APA convention.  Everything went smoothly and before we knew it, it was time to pack up the poster and get back to vacation.

Susan’s a pro at the poster presentation business.

Once we cleaned up, we headed back to the car to drop off the APA materials and then headed over to the harbor, though we weren’t sure what there was to do there in the evening.  We walked passed the USS Midway (the aircraft carrier) which was already closed for the day and decided to head over to check out what may be available on the harbor cruises.  Before we got too far, a guy who we almost dismissed as a solicitor offered us free tickets to the sunset harbor cruise that was already in the process of boarding.  As we had no plans for the evening, we took him up on the offer and jumped on board!  The cruise offered a 2-hour trip of the north and south harbor with complimentary hors d’ouvres.

We passed under the Coronado bridge as the sun dipped behind the fog.

  

Another view looking at the skyline off the front of the ship, below the bridge.

 

This boat was capturing dolphins for training exercises.  The dolphin was in the boat when we first saw them, then they released it, I guess to go do the mission it was trained for.  Interesting.

 

The outside deck got cold, with the wind, but we braved the cold for the sake of the scenery.

The front of the USS Midway bearing down on us.  It is imposing, to say the least.

Once our free ride was over, we made our way up to old town to grab some dinner.

After trying a busier Mexican restaurant with an hour and a half wait, we went next door to a smaller place where we got a table on the patio right away.  Instead of the traditional chips and salsa, this place served a “crispy quesadilla” with their salsa (which was hot!).  It was delicious!  We were happy to have the authentic Mexican food we’ve been looking for.

By this point we were thoroughly full and exhausted from the day’s exploits so we wet back to the hotel before 10 to call it another early night.  Tomorrow looks to be another big day!