San Diego May 12 - 16, 2000 [San Diego Gallery] [Back to Photo Page]

We haven't had a long trip for almost a year and it was the first time that Iris will not sleep at home, so it was very challenge for us. We chose San Diego because there are many attractions which are more suitable for kids, and close to civilization (instead of a remote place in a national park) is also more convenient for little children. We have to change our travel style this time.

Getting there ...

We had an early morning flight from San Francisco to San Diego. Although there was some flight delayed due to the pilot strike, our flight was still on time. Linus was hungry at the airport, and had a big breakfast on the airplane. But it turned out it's really a bad thing: Linus was air-sick and threw up everything he ate when we prepared to land. It was quite a mess. We had to clean him up on the plane. Linus even didn't have his pants on when we got off the airport. Fortunately, we were able to check in our hotel earlier, and had a nice break and shower for all of us.

The First Day ...

• Aerospace Museum, Balboa Park
  

  This is my second time to visit this Aerospace Musuem. Although it cannot be compared with the Smithsonian in Washington DC, it has a wide range of collections (both orignial and replica) from the early days to space fight. The A-12 (precursor to SR-71) has become a landmark for the museum.

• El Prado, Balboa Park
  

  Balboa Park, a contemporary of New York's Central Park (1857) and San Francisco's Golden Gate Park (1870), was established in 1868. Now encompassing about 1200 acres, Balboa Park contains more museums, theaters, animals, architectures, and so on, than any other city park in the world. It was the site of two international expositions (1915 and 1935).

• Coronado
  We had dinner at The Ferry Landing Marketplace in Coronado. It has some of the best views of the San Diego skyline (including the night view on the top).

The Second Day ...

• Balboa Park
  The hotel we stayed was in the downtown San Diego, and it's only about 5 minutes driving to the Balboa Park. I got up early today (Saturday), and decided to drive to the Park to take photograph. When I was ready to leave the park, a marathon race in the park had already began. Some major intersections were closed to traffic, and I was trapped in the parking lot. Someone was kind enough to point me a shortcut to let me get out the park.

• Wild Animal Park, Escondido
  The Wild Animal Park provides over 2200 acres for animals to live in their habitat without fence. There are over 3200 rare and endangered animals representing 121 species of mammals and 285 species of birds. The Wgasa Bush Line Railway (5-mile, 55-minute) will take visitors through Africa and Asia to see animals in herds. But remember to take a seat on the right hand side of the train!
  

  It was much hotter than we expected in San Diego. There were also many animal shows in the park, including Bird show, Elephant show, and Rare and Wild America show. We all enjoyed the bird show very much although Iris was sleeping most of the time. When we went to the Rare and Wild America Show, both Linus and Iris fell asleep already.

• Point Loma
  

  Point Loma provides a classical view of San Diego skyline, harbor, and mountain. Although I would like to stay a little longer for better late afternoon light, we have to head back to the hotel for dinner :-(

The Third Day ...

• San Diego Zoo, Balboa Park
  The world-famous San Diego Zoo is one of the largest and most famous zoos in the world. Over 4000 animals of 800 species are exhibited, including a pair of pandas loaned by China. We were lucky that the pandas were open to public today although it was hiding behind trees all the time. We took the guided bus tour, and we had the first row seat on the upper deck which had the best view. I decided to put away my camera most of time today to relax more.

• Balboa Park
  

  There is a free organ concert every Sunday 2pm to 3pm at the Organ Pavilion.The Spreckels Organ is the largest outdoor musical instrument in the world. This unique symphonic organ contains 73 ranks of 4445 pipes, from 1-1/2 inches to 32-feet long. Both Linus and Iris were sleeping in the car, so only I went to concert for the last 15 minutes. After Linus woke up, we walked to the Model Railroad Museum. I highly recommend this museum to anyone who likes models and trains. Linus thought it was the best place in San Diego!

• Seaport Village
  It was Mother's day. We had a good Chinese cuisine dinner at the Horton Plaza which is a very nice shopping center. We walked to the Seaport Village after dinner, but it was already too late for sunset. It was a nice walk anyway.

The Fourth Day ...

• Sea World
  

• Harbor Island

Going Home ...

We had an early flight again. This time we didn't give Linus anything for breakfast excpet a little apple juice and Cherrios. But Linus threw up everything again after we landed in San Francisco. Fortunately, we were well prepared this time and caught everything he threw up. A good lesson learned: always have a plastic bag ready.

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