Named for a Spanish saint, San Diego is the birth place of modern state of California on the western coast of the United States. This spring break we took the highway (I-5) paralleling the old King's Highway or El Camino Real to visit this wonderful piece of real estate along the Pacific. Back in the late 1700's it was considered New Spain.
Those Europeans knew how to spend their time during the 1500 - 1800s setting out on long voyages to "discover new worlds". Now we go to the moon or something boring.
On one such discovery voyage a Portuguese called Juan Cabrillo took off from the Mexican west coast and sailed up to discover new lands and ports. He found San Diego and continued up to discover Monterey and then Point Reyes north of the Golden Gate. They missed finding San Francisco in their travels.
After a few centuries another Spaniard called Gaspar Portola took a bunch of soldiers and set out from the south west coast of Mexico to subsequently also hit on San Diego and establish a fort there.
This visit we skipped the usual hot spots like the San Diego zoo but instead spent some time in the area surrounding it that contains the zoo as one of the attractions. This 1,200 acre park is called Balboa Park. Located in the heart of the city it encompasses a number of museums, an open air organ (this term has always fascinated me - I thought of it as someone's lung or pancreas on display) which is a wind instrument made of pipes and keys to push air through them.
We took in vast botanical gardens and enjoyed the sounds of this so called Organ, which happens to be second largest in the world (for the number of pipes). The largest rightfully sits in Vienna someplace.
Other attractions were beach bound - this one of a regular seal with an albino version chilling out...
Bottom pic is Hermosa Beach closer to LA.
New foods were discovered as part of this adventure from more fusion Japanese to fresh Mexican with a twist - a good twist - the cactus and fish tacos we had were delish.
Also found a Cuban bakery on the drive back, closer to L.A and feasted on variety of baked treats that lasted us the remainder of the week.
Those Europeans knew how to spend their time during the 1500 - 1800s setting out on long voyages to "discover new worlds". Now we go to the moon or something boring.
On one such discovery voyage a Portuguese called Juan Cabrillo took off from the Mexican west coast and sailed up to discover new lands and ports. He found San Diego and continued up to discover Monterey and then Point Reyes north of the Golden Gate. They missed finding San Francisco in their travels.
After a few centuries another Spaniard called Gaspar Portola took a bunch of soldiers and set out from the south west coast of Mexico to subsequently also hit on San Diego and establish a fort there.
This visit we skipped the usual hot spots like the San Diego zoo but instead spent some time in the area surrounding it that contains the zoo as one of the attractions. This 1,200 acre park is called Balboa Park. Located in the heart of the city it encompasses a number of museums, an open air organ (this term has always fascinated me - I thought of it as someone's lung or pancreas on display) which is a wind instrument made of pipes and keys to push air through them.
We took in vast botanical gardens and enjoyed the sounds of this so called Organ, which happens to be second largest in the world (for the number of pipes). The largest rightfully sits in Vienna someplace.
Other attractions were beach bound - this one of a regular seal with an albino version chilling out...
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| Notice the bum on the bottom right - also immitating the seals in the earlier pic..some life! |
Bottom pic is Hermosa Beach closer to LA.
New foods were discovered as part of this adventure from more fusion Japanese to fresh Mexican with a twist - a good twist - the cactus and fish tacos we had were delish.
Also found a Cuban bakery on the drive back, closer to L.A and feasted on variety of baked treats that lasted us the remainder of the week.
Non el commento ...were there really so many saints to name these places after?
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