San Diego California September 2009 - 112 photos - 1335 views

San Diego is a city of different flavors and topography. First, I went to the World Famous San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park which is one of the largest and most progressive zoos in the world with over 4,000 animals of more than 800 species. The zoo offers a guided tour bus that traverses 75% of the park. There is an overhead gondola lift called the Skyfari, providing an aerial view of the zoo. There is a Sea Lion Show spotlights the California sea lions. There is also the An Avian Adventure show at Hunte Amphitheater. This amazing new free-flight bird show, by trainer and producer extraordinaire Steve Martin, showcases the airborne comedic talents of winged wonders including ravens, eagles, storks, macaws, and many more during daytime presentations.  
 
Visited the Old Town for sightseeing, the first Europea settlement i what is now California. Some of the shops there carry very nice handicrafts with emphasis on Mexican-style pottery as well as all the historic buildings including five built of adobe (mud) bricks, California's first schoolhouse, a blacksmith shop, the state's first newspaper office and a stable. These preserved buildings, each a small museum in itself, give a glimpse of life here from 1821 to 1872.  
 
Next, I drove down south to the the San Diego Maritime Museum which is home to the sailing ships, steam yachts and schooners of yesteryear. It houses historic ships, models, artifacts and exhibits about the history of the sea and the fishing and commercial ships of San Diego. Another Embarcadero’s star attraction is the USS Midway, a decommissioned aircraft carrier that opened at Navy Pier as a museum in 2004. The carrier’s 47-year odyssey, stretching from 1945 through the liberation of Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm. It is the nation’s most visited naval ship museum. Next to the naval ship is the 25-foot, 6,000-pound sculpture of a sailor kissing a nurse on V-J Day in Times Square on August 14, 1945. The sculpture is created by J. Seward Johnson and called Unconditional Surrender in the G Street Mole Park downtown.  
 
Finally, I stopped by the Balboa Park as my last stop before leaving San Diego. The park is a 1,200 acre cultural park in San Diego, placed in reserve in 1835. It is one of the oldest sites in the United States dedicated to public recreational usage. Besides open areas and natural vegetation, it contains a variety of cultural attractions along El Prado including museums, theaters, gardens, shops and restaurants. Most of the buildings lining this street are in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, a richly ornamented eclectic mixture of Spanish and Latin American architecture. Other features along El Prado include the Reflection Pond, the latticed Botanical Building, and the Bea Evenson Fountain.