It’s another beautiful morning as we dock in San Diego harbor. We aren’t in any rush as we have our breakfast and organize ourselves to disembark today. We’re staying in town overnight so we don’t have to worry about rushing for an 11am flight. Once we are ready, we get off fairly easily, then grab a cab over to the Horton Grand Hotel, right in the middle of the Gaslamp District. We are too early to check in, so we dump our luggage and grab an Uber up to Balboa park where we intend to spend most of the day.
We start off at the Museum of Man, which is a relatively small museum, but packed with interesting exhibits. The museum building itself is ornate with incredible statues and carvings on the front, a huge Moroccan type dome in the back and an auspicious bell tower.
Inside, on the first floor is dominated by the Mayan exhibit which has huge casts of original stelae found in Guatemala. They were created in 1915, have been on display ever since, and are used for study since the original monuments have decayed with age and atmospheric conditions. Dispersed around the stelae are displays of different Mayan artifacts and great explanations of Mayan architecture.
There is also a great “Beerology” exhibit which gives a great history of beer culture and all the different ancient craft brewing stories. Obviously right up our alley!
There were tons more exhibits, Monsters, how to live with Animals, and then this awesome “PostSecret” exhibit that displayed thousands of postcards collected by Frank Warren, who started what he calls a community art project. People were asked to write out a secret on a postcard – didn’t matter what it was, it just had to be true, and mail it back to him. Over 10 years, millions of people have done just that and the postcards are displayed here. You could spend an eternity reading them all – some are funny, some are poignant, some are down right sad – but all release their secrets into the world – and hopefully it helps them. It was really a very powerful display. And of course after that – what did we do? Go across the street to the secondary building where we spent time in the Cannibal exhibit learning about myths and reality and how cannibals aren’t necessarily who or what you think they are! All in all it was an excellent way to spend our morning in San Diego.
Next up – lunch! There are a few little cafes around, but we end up choosing the Prado at Balboa Park where we decide to sit outside on the lovely patio and choose from the Lounge menu which is much more up our alley than the restaurant menu. It’s a beautiful day – of course – the weather outside is delightful as we share a small plate of Spicy Calamari and Mahi Mahi Tacos.
Next it is onto the San Diego Museum of Art to spend an hour or so browsing through their extensive collection of art from everywhere around the globe. Then it is time to head back to the hotel, which we decide to do on foot. Why not? It’s gorgeous, it’s only a little over 2 miles – and it’s all down hill. We’re game! We head out through the park, passing the Visitor’s Center and the Japanese Garden….
…past the air and space museum and down into the city proper. After about a half an hour of walking, we stumble upon this great brewery, Little Miss Brewing (LMB), where everything has something bomb related. The logo is a bomb, the taps are all little missiles, and the beer is seriously great. So good in fact, we buy a little ball jar pint to take back with us to the room!
What a great day! Back at the hotel, we get checked in, go upstairs in this awesome elevator with windows that look out onto the central patio, but also these great themed rooms that show how the hotel used to operate in the old days…
…then onto through the hallways to this huge lounge area at the top of the stairs (that lead down to the restaurant/bar) right outside our room with overstuffed sofas, and then finally into the room, which is really cool – updated (of course) but still with period furniture and an incredible balcony where we can sit out and enjoy the skyline. Nice!
After we settle in and get our bags set for traveling tomorrow, we decide to just go downstairs for dinner. We’ve seen a bunch of restaurants on our walk back here, but don’t really feel like going anywhere or messing with crowds, etc., so we settle in downstairs at Salt & Whiskey. It has a great atmosphere, a lovely bar, excellent bartender and we are in time for happy hour at the bar which gets us discounted food. It’s a win-win! We have a couple of drinks, dig into excellent crispy, fried brussel sprouts and Prime Rib Sliders – and are done for the day!
Back upstairs, we have our night cap on the balcony, watching the sunset….
….then sack out in the very comfy bed, ready to make our way home in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment