DAY TWENTY

SAN DIEGO, CA

Kenny and I headed out around 11 to meet our friend from high school Clay, and his wife Renee at Balboa Park in San Diego. It took about 40 minutes to get down there, and after a confusing drive and parking situation in the park, we started walking around the park to find our meeting place. Balboa Park is pretty incredible. It holds like 20 museums and a bunch of other little subparks and attractions.

 The architecture is pretty incredible, and we figured out that a lot of the buildings were build for International Expositions that San Diego held in the early 20th century. The park also contains the zoo, which alludes to how large it is. We were kind of confused trying to find our way around, but after walking past the Organ Pavilion, Japanese Friendship Garden, and Museum of Art, we found the Botanic Garden and Lily Pond that we were meeting at. Our friends met us there, and we walked around the park a bit, got coffee, and they took us down a road that offered a really cool view of the city.

 It's great to spend time with people who live where we're visiting, because we get to experience so much that we'd never know of otherwise! We walked back and visited the San Diego Museum of Art a little museum with a pretty impressive collection. There was a special exhibit about Arnold Newman and his creative process which I couldn't get enough of. His series of photographic portraits of artists was so interesting to me, and the art history nerd in me got super excited about seeing some of my favorite and most prolific artists in their studios. After finishing the museum, we drove over to Ocean Beach, grabbed some lunch in an awesome pizza shop/microbrewery, and checked out the oh-SoCal sights. 

We stopped in a cool store, then walked down to the beach. We got to see the tide pools for the first time, which are completely filled with crabs and other marine life. This area is super rocky and the waves are big, and it was a lot of fun walking around.

 San Diego has really proven itself to be a beautiful place with a vibe you have to love. It just wish it wasn't so far from home. After saying goodbye to our friends, we started driving back to Oceanside, hit traffic (of course) and stopped by the grocery store to pick up some dinner. Kenny cooked for everyone tonight, and we had a lot of fun hanging out before we go our separate way tomorrow!

 Lily's family has been so good to us this week, and we've had a really amazing time in San Diego. But, it is that time when the road calls back out to us. We're starting the next leg of our trip now, the part that eventually returns us to Philadelphia. This week has passed super quickly, and honestly I can't believe how far into this road trip we are already. It was sad to say goodbye to family, but I am excited to explore what the northern part of the country has to offer us! We're headed to LA in the morning, and Yosemite National Park from there. Thanks for coming along!