Spring Break Day 3: Balboa Park

Today was all about Balboa Park.  Sure, it's "just" a park, but it's huge and had so many things we wanted to see.  First, we got brunch at James Coffee Co. and started to see why everyone likes San Diego so much.  It's got this constant cool breeze and bits of whispy fog, but the sun is always shining.

We ended up parking in the southwest corner of Balboa Park and walked north to the Trees for Health Garden featuring trees, bushes, and other plants from around the world that all had medicinal qualities.  From there, we wandered through the palms on our way to the center of the park and the California Tower.

To be honest, we ended up walking by a lot of what looked like really neat places, but we were on the way to the Botanical Building, Spanish Art Center, and the Japanese Friendship Garden.  The Botanical Building and grounds were just beautiful.  The Art Center was more fun for the girls and me and Zephyr just kinda hung out and relaxed.  We walked to the Japanese Garden and kinda walked around the edge of it and looked in, but couldn't find an entrance.  Plus, we had walked about five miles at that point and everyone was tired, so we just started walking back to the car.

For dinner, we ended up downtown at Little Italy, trying to find a place that Zephyr had picked out.  We found it, but ended up walking in the door of an Italian restaurant immediately next door.  Whatever, it was still good.  Drove back to Santee and picked up Mary's Donuts which made for a fantastic dessert and way to close out the day.