The Rest of the Story--San Diego and Mage

I had visited San Diego a few times over the decades of my illustrious life. Each time the place was a little like an oasis town in the desert.  Once it was cold enough that I woke to ice on the windshield of my rental car...with no ice scraper.  Another time is was hot and dry.  Both times the surrounding hillsides were brown with brown scrub, clearly representing the drought of California in all its caution. 

This time it was very different. The mornings were pleasantly chill (60's F) and the day was in the low 70's F. The hillsides were full of small sunflowers, tiny hummingbirds and other unusual plants that had captured the morning dew.

Taken from the car window.

We stayed at a hotel in the business area of town, rather than the tourist area.  Mage and George generously drove over to pick us up.  This was going out of their way because they were loading a truck with materials for a conference and had to set up the booth that very afternoon!  

They took us up to Balboa Park, a place rich with museums, gardens and statues.  We had just a short time for our visit and for the time in Balboa Park which is certainly a place on my list for a return and a loooong weekend exploring it all.  

They selected The Prado for lunch and it was a perfect place. The House of Hospitality Courtyard has a statue of the Woman of Tehuantepec who eternally pours life-giving water from her jug. She represents the Native Americans and was sculpted in 1935 by Donal Hord who used Indiana limestone.

The restaurant was busy, but not so busy that we could not get a table outside under the umbrellas and beside the shady bottle-brush trees enjoying a lovely Southern California spring day.  We even got to hear the huge organ play a small bit.  The sound carries sweetly across the park.  The food was what I would call "California Pub Cuisine" which means "tastes good without all that extra fat".  We I talked so much that I forgot to just sit and look around.  Mage and George and hubby and I had met up in D.C. a few years ago and seemed to slip in that old comfortable shoe mode right away.

After lunch we got a personalized tour of the Automotive Museum in Balboa Park.  George volunteers there and knew everything about the exhibits, which means we got all the good stuff.  I am not an automobile person by nature, but the history on these various vehicles was fascinating, including a car that had a washing machine, grill, toilet installed and the ability to change a tire while on the road!  

One of the few original Harley Davidson's in existence.

I learned from George that "the Fonz" never learned how to drive his famous motorcycle and was on it only long enough to look like he could.

Soon we had to say goodbye to Mage and George and they gave us tickets to the Maritime Museum and dropped us off at the exact spot.  Jim liked the Star of India as he is a big Master and Commander fan.  While the movie did not do justice to the books, it was interesting to walk around the ship where it was filmed. We also toured several other historic ships and a submarine.

We were in San Diego only overnight, but managed to see a bunch of stuff.  The kids headed off to Coronado Island and shopped while we did our thing.  We let them sleep in the next day while we waited in line to pick up "the best dough-nuts" in the world (?) for breakfast at the San Diego doughnut bar.

While these round pastries were fresh and had excellent dough, they were a little over the top in frosting in some areas!