Balboa Park

San Diego is home to America’s largest urban cultural park. It’s called Balboa Park and it lies within an hour’s drive of Fallbrook. This incredible park reminds me of Retiro Park in Madrid with its intricate Spanish-style buildings and monumental fountains.

With 18 museums you could visit one a month and it would take you a year and a half to see them all. There are 13 cafés and restaurants so you don’t need to leave once your car is parked. The Tea Pavilion at the Japanese Friendship Garden serves traditional Japanese teas, sushi and other foods. The view is great and this stop is well worth it.

As a public service the park offers something called “Free Tuesday,” which is a schedule of free admission to various museums on a rotating basis. (The Dead Sea Scrolls at the Natural History Museum is not included in this special.)

The land for the park, set aside in 1868, was first called “City Park.” It was undeveloped until the first museum – the San Diego Natural History Museum, which was founded in 1874. In 1892, a nursery owner, Kate Sessions, planted 100 trees and continued for years to plant exotic trees and plants, including the bird of paradise, queen palm and poinsettia. The park’s name was changed in 1910 to “Balboa Park,” due to a naming contest won by Mrs. Harriet Phillips. The name she chose paid homage to explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa.

Outside the Natural History Museum one cannot help but notice the large exotic-looking Banyan tree with an amazing root system. It is more than 60 feet tall with a spread of 120 feet and is said to have been planted before 1915. The beautiful botanical building, which houses an amazing display of poinsettias at Christmas, was built around 1915.

The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Natural History Museum is touted as the “largest, most comprehensive exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls ever assembled.” The exhibit not only contains Biblical documents such as scrolls containing inscribings of Isaiah, Psalms and Deuteronomy, but non-Biblical documents including a 2,000-year-old copper scroll. Ten of the scrolls are on exhibit for the first time. The scrolls date from 250 BCE to 68 CE. Since the scrolls are delicate, some of them will only be on exhibit for three months and then more will be shipped from Israel. The exhibit opened June 29 and will run through December 31.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to encounter some of the world’s most significant documents and artifacts all in the same space,” said Dr. Risa Levitt Kohn, curator of the exhibition and director of San Diego State’s Judaic Studies Program. “The scrolls are the oldest discovered copies of the books of the Hebrew Bible…”

During the summer the Balboa Park parking lots fill up fast, so the earlier you arrive, the better. (Most museums open at 10 a.m .; the park itself opens at 9:30 a.m.)

Balboa Park

1549 El Prado

San Diego

http://www.balboapark.org

(619) 239-0512

Balboa Park Museums

Centro Cultural de la Raza

Displays of Mexican, Indigenous, Chicano and Latino art and cultural events. Also offers cultural workshops.

Japanese Friendship Garden

Built in 1915, the garden has two acres of koi ponds, Bonsai, a ceremonial gate and a “Fujidana” (wisteria arbor). Cultural classes are offered.

Marston House

Built in 1905, the house is on five acres of landscaped English and California influenced gardens. Inside are displays of decorative arts from the American Arts and Crafts period as well as Native American basket and pottery collections.

Mingei International Museum

Mingei International Museum offers exhibitions of traditional and contemporary folk art, craft and design.

Museum of Photographic Arts

Houses 4,000 works, representing the entire history of photography, as well as a state-of-the-art movie theater.

Museum of San Diego History

Showcases the region’s unique, colorful and diverse history exhibiting artifacts, costumes, textiles, art and photographs. It contains one of the largest historical photograph collections in the western US with more than 2.5 million pieces.

Reuben H. Fleet Science Center

The museum offers Southern California’s only IMAX® Dome Theater and more than 100 hands-on science exhibits for all ages. A 23-passenger motion simulator ride thrills visitors with journeys into exciting realms.

San Diego Air & Space Museum

Displays cover five centuries of aviation history with more than 60 aircraft and space vehicles on display. The exclusive exhibit, “Apollo 9 Has Landed,” features the only Apollo Command Module flown in space west of the Rockies.

San Diego Art Institute (SDAI): Museum of the Living Artist

A new exhibition of works by San Diego artists opens every four to six weeks in this 10,000-square-foot gallery. The David Fleet Young Artists Gallery showcases youth art from San Diego schools.

San Diego Automotive Museum

The permanent collection contains more than 80 historic autos and motorcycles, including a Louie Mattar’s car, a vehicle equipped for non-stop distance driving which includes a shower. Special exhibitions are rotated every two or three months. A research library is also available.

San Diego Hall of Champions Sports Museum

The nation’s largest multi-sport museum (70,000 square feet) boasts memorabilia reflecting San Diego’s sporting legacy. This facility encourages visitors to be participants as well as observers.

San Diego Model Railroad Museum

At 28,000 square feet, the museum is the world’s largest operating model railroad museum. It contains four enormous scale and model layouts, built by separate clubs, which depict railroads of the Southwest in O, HO and N scales.

San Diego Museum of Art

The San Diego Museum of Art includes European old masters, 19th and 20th century American art, an encyclopedic Asian collection and growing collections of contemporary and Latin American art.

San Diego Museum of Man

This is the region’s only museum devoted to anthropology as well as arts, culture and scientific achievements. On display are permanent collections of Maya monuments, rare Egyptian tomb artifacts and Peruvian mummies. A Children’s Discovery Center is also featured.

San Diego Natural History Museum

The museum is dedicated to interpreting the natural world through research and education, offering local and international exhibitions and promoting understanding of the evolution and diversity of the Southern California-Baja California region. The museum now features the Dead Sea Scrolls and Fossil Mysteries highlighting finds of prehistoric creatures that roamed our area.

Timken Museum of Art

This museum houses the Putnam Foundation Collection of European old master paintings, American paintings and Russian icons. Artists represented include Rembrandt and Rubens, among others. Admission is always free.

Veterans Museum & Memorial Center

Located in the historic Old Navy Chapel, the museum preserves and honors the memory of men and women of the Armed Forces, Coast Guard and Wartime Merchant Marine. The collection contains artifacts, documents, photographs and memorabilia from the Civil War to the present.

WorldBeat Center

Housed in a colorfully painted former water tower, WorldBeat Center opened in 1996. African, African-American and other indigenous cultures of the world are represented through art, music, dance, education and technology. Classes and concerts are offered year-round.

San Diego Zoo

Home to more than 4,000 rare and endangered animals representing more than 800 species and subspecies.