Life in Two Harbors: Vacation 2009

Balboa Park

Today was a bit of a choice day. Balboa Park has many other things to do than the Zoo, and we had to choose what we wanted to see. Not getting a particularly early start, we drove over to the park, while looking at our choices. One thing that caught Sweetie's eye was the Museum of Man, an anthropology museum, which had an exhibit of Mayan culture. They had reproductions of several stelae, with descriptions of the king depicted and translations of the text, all of which was both mystifying and interesting. The Mayans were very into calendars and time since they believed that time was on a cycle and the world was regularly re-created. We learned about the Bird god and the World Tree which figured prominently in this king's depictions.

We moved upstairs to an excellent exhibit on the evolution of Homo sapiens. Thing 1 had been asking how people were made, and this exhibit may have been a little over his head, but I think he learned something about how humans evolved. Thing 2 was mostly bored. We went to a further room that had exhibits on both brains and human reproduction (believe it or not). I was sort of hoping Thing 1 would go through the reproduction displays, but they were very scientific (starting with meiosis and karyotyping), so he got bored and quit before stuff got interesting.

We then looked at some more exhibits on primate evolution, and saw a model of a giant extinct primate (Gigantopithecus blacki) that looked to me like the Big Foot from Harry and the Hendersons. We also saw the stuffed remains of Mbongo, a gorilla that lived at the SD Zoo in the early part of the century. His brain was also on display in the brain display in the other room. The Museum of Man also has a few mummies, one Egyptian and one Peruvian, and a number of Egyptian coffins and other artifacts. Thing 2 really liked building a pyramid out of wooden blocks with Sweetie.

We had another picnic lunch and then visited the Japanese Friendship Garden. San Diego's Japanese sister city is Yokohama, and the good people of Yokohama started a Japanese garden in Balboa Park as a symbol of (duh) friendship. The Things were very funny in the garden. We talked with them about how the concept of a Japanese garden was a restful, peaceful place. So they adopted a solemn aspect and meditated anytime we stopped moving forwards. We looked at 'restful rocks' and pointed out how they and the mini trees were supposed to mimic mountain scenery. There was a great Koi pond there with an island in the shape of an island, representing good wishes for longevity. It was a very nice place.

Continuing a theme of Places the Things Won't Necessarily Like to Go, we next visited the Timkin Museum, an art Museum that has a nice collection. It's free, and limited in size, which makes it a good place to introduce art to Things. I had an extensive conversation with Thing 1 about how much of art has a religious subject matter. He is now well versed in "Madonna and Child" and icons of Saints. Both Things commented on the statue of Mercury - both wondering why his willy wasn't covered. Sweetie was showing Thing 2 around. They talked about how old the pictures were and what you could learn about the people in the pictures by what they were wearing. This was a greater success than I thought it would be.

We wandered past a very nice lily pond (that even had some blooming lotus in it) on our way to the model railroad. This was a miniature diesel train you could ride on. The engineer was quite enthusiastic about his job, which made the ride fun. They also had After that we took a ride on the carousel. Sweetie tried for the brass ring, but the guy in front of her got it. Ah well, it was time to go anyway. We returned in time for a swim in the pool, which is always a treat, and retired more tired than we thought we'd be.