Moreton Bay Fig Tree + scenes from Balboa Park

Another beautiful sunny day in San Diego...

(heading east on the 163 approaching the Cabrillo Bridge that links Uptown to Balboa Park)

Hey look, the building where I was born eons ago...

(The old Balboa Naval Hospital)

We were on our way to Balboa Park for a photography meetup that TC wanted to attend...

Highlights from the Balboa Park Centennial 2015 Philippine American Celebration Part 1 - The Performances

This post is a couple of weeks late but it's been a busy summer so far. Earlier this month, the Filipino commmunity in San Diego put on a three day event showcasing the best of local and statewide talent through dance, song, comedy, and orchestral music...

Set in beautiful Balboa Park, the Philippine American Celebration was the first (and only) major event for the Balboa Park Centennial...and it was totally FREE!

Cafe Mingei

Bert and I were at Balboa Park this weekend for the Balboa Park Centennial 2015 Philippine American Celebration (BPC2015PAC). TC was with the troup getting ready for their performance.

We didn't have our morning coffee yet and I'd been meaning to try Cafe Mingei, new coffee place next to late artist Nikki de Saint Phalle's whimsical sculpture, Nikkigator...

Balboa Park on my birthday

Bert and I spent some time at Balboa Park before heading up to my birthday lunch destination.

The Instruments of Torture exhibit is located across from the Museum of Man. We saw this exhibit the summer I was pregnant (2000) and found it to be a bit gruesome but fascinating. We saw it once but wouldn't really care to see it again...

Instead, we wandered the park to enjoy the beautiful buildings of what is known as the Smithsonian of the West...

Return to Panama 66

Today was such a grey day. It was cloudy and gloomy all morning, then it warmed up a tiny bit, then got cold again.

This was San Diego's infamous June gloom...

Birthday Highlights 2015

What a groovy year this was...

But the best day in April was LUCKY 13!

because it marks, as The Fonz once said in the special sign language episode of "Happy Days", my BORN DAY, haha...

Balboa Park - The Botanical Garden and Palm Canyon

After our quick coffee break at Industrial Grind, we headed over to Balboa Park to enjoy the morning...

where it was still nice and early and we scored a great spot behind the beautiful Spreckles Organ Pavilion...

Panama 66 & the SDMA Sculpture Garden

It was so nice being in Balboa Park once again. We used to love going here  back in college and would often take TC here when she was but a wee toddler...

We wanted to check out the new beer-centric eatery that took over the old Sculpture Garden Cafe ext to the SD Museum of Art...

Centro Cultural de la Raza

A few weekends ago, Bert and I attended the FilGrad event at a building I'd always wondered about...

Several of my friends' kids were graduating high school and we wanted to show our support...

Return to the Botanical Garden

See the year on the architectural detail?

The year 1915 will mark the centennial of the Pan Am exposition, which celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal. San Diego was the host city for the Panama-California Exposition, which was the impetus for Balboa Park's famous, Spanish colonial revival influenced buildings such as the California Tower (as seen in the opening credits of "Citizen Kane" as Xanadu), the Museum of Art, the Museum of Man, and various other buildings near main walkways...

The new canyon expansion at the Japanese Friendship Garden, + return to the Tea Garden Pavilian

A couple of weekends ago we made a trip out to one of our favorite places, Balboa Park...

specifically to see the new developments at the Japanese Friendship Garden...

Plus, I had that coupon burning a hole in my wallet, so it was finally put to use!

We hadn't been here in about five or so years and even then, I didn't blog that visit...

A compendium of random photos...

I've got quite a few photos lurking in my files that are pretty random and don't really warrant a full post.

Retro Bubble Up that Bert was compelled to get at Marukai Living, of all places...

These were in the "Hawaiian" section

Reuben H. Fleet Science Center

There was a bit of a SNAFU with using the coupon. The chick at the counter said the "free" admission would be the child's admission and that we'd have to pay an additional adult. That was fkg bullshit. IN the past, Bert and I used the 2 for 1 for us, the Adults (because it saves more money), then paid the full child's price. After politely pointing out to her the coupon's "Buy One Admission and Get One Admission of Equal or Lesser Value FREE", she still refused to budge and said if we included the child's price in the same transaction, she had to make the child's price the free one. So Bert said, "Okay, we will use the coupon to buy OUR tickets, the adult tickets. On a separate transaction, we will pay for our child's ticket." She was very reluctant but knew that it was following the coupon's rules, so she rang us up separately. She was a fkg snatch and totally rude, not even polite to us. We were very polite but firm with her. We've never had problems before using these and were surprised to find such adamant opposition. Fk!

Anyhow, looks like the Science Center updated some of their exhibits. This place was stuck in the damn 70's and was in need of a do-over. Last time we went was in 2004 or 2005. This was the smoke tornado although you can't see it here just yet.

An overview of the kinda revamped Science Center. There's a bigger and better one up in LA next to Exposition Park and it's free too. Kicks ass on this one. Same with the one in San Francisco (except that one's not free).

There's Bert and TC still trying to conjure up a tornado.

Water tornado exhibit:

An optical illusion where you try to touch this spring but your hand passes through it because it's an upside down reflection. But when you take a photo, it looks like your hand is in FRONT of it. That's my hand there.

Bert and TC acting goofy with the "Anti Gravity Mirror":

There was a huge room where you could play with these mini flat building planks. This was the same room where they once housed the "Grossology" and "Animal Grossology" exhibits.

Bert did the shorter structure while TC's towered above his.

Within five minutes of us leaving the room, I predicted that someone would knock them down. When I peeked again, I was right! TC's tower was just begging to be knocked down. It was pretty fun building those. There were some pretty elaborate structures that were roped off too. Should have snapped a few shots of those. Whoever made them were budding architects!

You know what it's time for?

The return of the SF posts! Day 3! Heading your way soon!

Balboa Park

(continuation of last weekend's events)

After having had crepes at Fabrison's and checking out Little Italy, we took the scenic route to one of San Diego's gems, the Smithsonian of the West, Balboa Park. Traversing from Little Italy and somehow getting onto Laurel Street on the Prado, which is actually called the Cabrillo Bridge, built in 1914 (like most of the buildings in Balboa Park) for the Panama-California Exposotion in 1915.

Museum of Man and California Tower looming ahead. The bridge connects you to another wing of the museum.

Free organ concert at the Spreckals Organ Pavilion (named after a sugar tycoon), the largest outdoor organ pavilion.

To your left, the Mingei Museum of International Folk Arts and "El Cid" sculpture (horse statue).

"Woman of Tehuantepec" sculpture by Donal Hord (1935)at the House of Hospitality's courtyard fountain. He is the same sculptor who did Monty Montezuma at SDSU. There was a Filipino wedding reception going on at the courtyard that day. I gather they were Filipino judging from the last names on the sign. Their reception area (not shown here) was super nice and we could hear the dj playing some good music too! Old school! Oh yeah!

The Botanical Building, built in 1915, is the largest wooden lathe structure in the world. It was also featured in a brief scene in "Traffic" starring Catherine Zeta-Jones.

The building facing the Casa de Balboa. Look at the fancy ornamentation on the facade.

The building that houses the Museum of Photographic Arts and the Railroad Museum, the Casa de Balboa.

Heading southward, we saw this cool sign/advert for the San Diego History Museum.

On our way to Reuben H. Fleet Science Center!

Ethnic Food Fair, Balboa Park - Part 2: The Food!

Okay...here it is, what you've been dreaming about and salivating over...the FOOD!!!

This is the Sausage sandwich from Hungary ($5) for Bert. That was a LOT of sauerkraut there. We liked this but I liked the Argentinian one better (coming up).

I got the dolmas ($2) from House of Turkey and right next door, I got the spinach and feta cheese burek and rolled pistachio baklava from Baklava King ($2 & $1 respectively). The burek was great, especially the flaky crust but I could have definitely eaten a much bigger piece. The rice stuffed dolmas were for TC, which she enjoyed but I didn't really. I'm not a fan of the taste of grape leaves. But still, I was happy that she wanted to try it.

Bert went on a run for food as well. This was a strawberry crepe from the House of Finland ($2)...Delicious. TC pretty much had this to herself. I was saving my appetite...

On his foray into the madness known as the Ethnic Food Fair, Bert followed the aromatic smoke of the sizzling choripan from House of Argentina. This was the Choripan ($5 - chorizo in 'pan', or bread), while smallish, had a great kick to it, thanks to the flavorful chimichurri on top of it. The bread roll was nice and crusty but not cut the roof of your mouth til it bleeds like a MOFO crusty.

Ah yes, spicy goodness...

These are a first for us, the Zalabia ($2) from Palestine. These were basically fried pieces of light dough with a orange blossom and honey syrup. Very different and very tasty.There were five pieces but I ate one before I took the photo.

Also from House of Palestine, was this triangular pistachio baklava absolutely drenched with honey and topped with crushed pistachios. I loved the flaky and buttery layers. I'd eat the whole pan if I could.

During my 2nd or 3rd food run, I went to our favorite booth of all, House of Puerto Rico. I got the Arroz con Habichuelas ($3 - rice and beans) for TC and two Pastelillos ($3) for us three to share. The pastelillos (empanadas) has been our favorite item for many years now. I need to learn how to make this PRONTO. These were fried to perfection, filled with lightly spiced meat, peas and potatoes, biting into the heavenly crust was like experiencing a total mouthgasm. Yes, it's that good. I will make it a point to learn how to make this (seems easy enough) Puerto Rican food gem this summer. Even though I hate deep frying things, I will deep fry THIS!

Just look at that crust! Caress it! Fondle it! Bite it and ravish it!

These are tostones ($2) from House of Columbia. Bert chose these. These don't taste the same as the Cuban version. These are smashed and deep fried plantains which they sprinkled with salt. It was kind of too thick and hard in some parts. It could have used some garlic sauce.

Now this item here, the Empanada from the House of Columbia was a total fkg RIP OFF. Now we know the higher prices are due to the event being a fundraiser for the International Cottages, but come on, look how small that is! It's only two or three bites worth of food. The dough was corn (masa) folded and wrapped around a spicy meat filling. Kind of reminds me of Guamanian style empanadas. I personally don't like corn dough so this was not a fave of mine. Damn, where was that bigass fried bread thing from last year???

Bert was disappointed in this...

Later that morning, I wandered around some more. I picked up a Mango Lassi ($2) from House of India for TC. I don't like lassis because I don't like how yogurt tastes. The thought of drinking yogurt makes me want to throw up in my mouth. Also, out of sheer curiosity, I bought the 2nd RIP OFF of the day, the  Blueberry Soup from Finland ($3!). Bloody hell, it was $3 for a small cup of glorified blueberry juice thickened with potato starch. Fruit soups are common in the Scandinavian countries. It was actually quite good but I was expecting more than a small cupful.

There were many booths selling pastry samplers for either $2.50 ot $3.00 a plate. This was $2.50 and came from the Czech and Slovak Republic (take that House of Hungary with your $3 plates!). There is a poppyseed striped pastry, then a walnut crescent, following by a (too doughy) apricot thing, and lastly an apple pastry. I remember one year I got one of these plates and there was prunes in one of them. Made me regular.

Bert got TC a Churro ($1) from the lonely House of Mexico. I kind of felt bad because no one was in their lines. The booths flanking Mexico had really long lines. I guess people didn't want to fork over $$$ for food they can get anywhere? That's why I skipped Philippines, China and the U.S. (hot dogs and apple pie, seriously). Bag is by Tokidoki; print is Concerto Punk (Winter 2008) and style is Graziosa, a mini messenger bag. This print is one of my faves.

This was also a new fave of ours...When looking around earlier, we saw that House of Peru had an item called Picarones - the guy at the booth told me it was deep fried yams in spiced syrup. This is a popular snack in Peru.  I was thinking it would be more like yam chunks, but this was dough infused with yams, then deep fried. These were like biting into airy pillows. Very delicious. The syrup also had an interesting flavor to it. I want to say maybe there was caraway seed or anise in it. [update - I just reread my 2009 post on this event and apparently, we ate these! Bert bought them but didn't know the name but just told me it was a Peruvian donut! So this was our SECOND time eating this I guess!]

Cross section...

And there you have it, our gastronomic adventure from the 2010 Ethnic Food Fair. We spent about a good 3 hours there laying back on the grass and taking turns looking around, getting food, and watching the entertainment. On our way out, we passed by the House of Hospitality which used to house the Cafe del Rey Moro, now known as the Prado Restaurant.

As we rounded the traffic circle, we passed by the San Diego Museum of Art and headed back over the Prado Bridge to get back to the freeway...

I love this time of year when the lilac blossoms of the jacaranda trees are in full bloom. Very beautiful. This is near the corner of the Prado and 6th on the outer edge of Balboa Park...

Until next year! And I will try those LANGOS from Hungary!
Check out previous posts from the past 4 years here (the only one missing was 2008 but we didn't go because I was sick that year)

2009
2007
and back when I didn't put pix in my blog...
2006