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San Diego, California: Balboa Park
On Monday, September 14 the Ruby Princess docked in San Diego. Can you guess where we went?
If you've been there, you're sure to recognize San Diego's beautiful Balboa Park!
Balboa Park is, to put it simply, unparalleled. Larger than NYC's Central Park or SF's Golden Gate Park, San Diego's Balboa Park is home to 18 world-class museums located amongst 1200 acres of nature. The world-famous San Diego Zoo is located in Balboa Park, attracting over 4 million guests a year.
We started with the Balboa Park Urban Adventure Quest. This was the 31st Quest we've completed and one of our favorites. The places it took us were really interesting, the information we learned was fascinating, and the puzzles were just the right difficulty level. It was the perfect introduction to Balboa Park beyond the Zoo.
We took advantage of the Quest's pause feature to visit two museums between questions. This is the Botanical Building.
Built for the 1915-1916 Panama California Exposition, it houses more than 2100 plants.
The lily pond and lagoon in front of the building are beautiful.
This the Museum of Us. This museum of anthropology tells diverse stories, with the mission to inspire human connections by exploring the human experience. I loved it.
Hostile Terrain 94 is a powerful and important exhibit about the "Prevention Through Deterrence" policy adopted by US Border Patrol in 1994.
The exhibit includes toe tags for each of the known people who have died trying to cross the border into the US. There are more than 3200. Each tag is positioned where the body was found. Most refugees died of exposure or dehydration. Some died just yards across the border. It's devastating.
Artifacts and stories make the exhibit even more powerful.
After that exhibit, we welcomed the much lighter exhibit called BEERology, about the cultural importance of beer throughout history.
... the construction of race...
... the Hapa Project...
... and the visual storytelling project of the Kumeyaay.
I enjoyed the whole museum, but my favorite exhibit was Post Secret.
We spent the most time here, reading through the thousands of anonymous secrets.
There's actually one more exhibit at the Museum of Us, housed in a separate space across the street.
It's about cannibalism.
It was fascinating, to say the least. The exhibit challenges visitors' ideas of who cannibals are, examining the cultures and circumstances that lead to cannibalism. It also questions what counts as cannibalism.
We learned about cannibalism throughout history, including traditional remedies made from human body parts. Then we took a quiz about how we were feeling that day. We each got a diagnosis, then opened the drawers to get our prescriptions.
Steve is to take mummy dust orally to reduce bruising and improve overall health. I should rub sore muscles with human fat to reduce aches and pains.
We learned about a shipwreck where crew members picked straws to decide who would be killed and eaten in order for the rest to survive. Then it was our turn to pick straws. (I did not pick the short straw, so I lived. As a cannibal.)
This was an Oregon Trail-style Donner Party game. (I lived. As a cannibal.)
Each body part in this Operation game is labeled with the number of calories it would provide. (I lived. As a cannibal.)
Parts of the exhibit are more reverent than these games. There's a candlelit space in tribute to the Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes in 1972.
The exhibit ends by asking what counts as cannibalism. Breast milk? Placenta pills? Where do we draw the line?
The whole exhibit is thought-provoking and well-worth seeing. Go visit the Museum of Us!
You really can't go wrong anywhere in Balboa Park. As if 18 museums weren't enough, there are tons of recreational opportunities. This is an archery range. But it's not the type I've experienced at Scout camps, with all the targets lined up in a row. It's like a golf course, where you move from hole to hole except here you move from target to target. So cool! It's neat that you're able to watch this portion from above.
I was disappointed that the House of Pacific Relations International Cottages weren't open. The next time we go to Balboa Park, I want to visit on a weekend specifically to be able to see these.
We had a fantastic time at Balboa Park. We packed in as much as we could before it was time for us to head to our next destination. Yep - we had a lot more to see in San Diego! I'll tell you about it tomorrow.
