I left for my annual snowbird adventure one day before the temperatures plummeted into the negative range. What timing! And if that wasn't lucky enough, it was 68° in San Diego when my plane landed.
Flying is always a challenge these days. You never know what you're going to run into in the terminal or on the airplane. People taking their dogs with them is becoming more and more common. I think there are more "pet relief stations" in Lambert Airport than there are women's restrooms. Go figure.
My condo is in a very nice part of San Diego called "Little Italy," within walking distance or a quick trolley ride to all the big-name attractions.
The first day, I took a walk over to Balboa Park - home of the San Diego Zoo and other museums. I haven't been to Balboa Park since I was 13 years old on a visit to my grandmother's, so I can't say if it's changed. Mostly I was having a great time walking outdoors wearing a t-shirt and capris in January.
There were tons of people outdoors walking dogs, riding scooters, and just catching some sun. I passed a group of people who were playing some kind of rolling ball game. I'm guessing this is the bocci ball game that Tarek is always talking about on HGTV's
Flip or Flop.
I stopped at the
Plaza de Panama in the middle of the park to sketch the
House of Charm. It's an historic museum building built for the 1915 California Expo. Now it's home to the Art Institute.
Truthfully, I picked it for my first drawing, because it was one of the simplest architectural styles in the park. Most of the buildings are much, much more ornate in the Spanish Colonial Revival style.
After my first sketch, I wandered around the park up to the Spanish Village Art Center. This is a unique area where many artists have their studios. You can watch them work or buy some of their artwork. It's a lot more colorful than the rest of the park. Even the paving stones were painted primary colors.
After a long day, I headed back home only to find the fire department putting out a fire across the street. Given all the forest fires that have plagued California the past months, that was a little scary. I think this was a simple brush fire (probably a tossed cigarette), but isn't that probably how the others started?
Luckily on Day 2 it started raining, so I just rode the trolley around checking out future sites to see. I'm not used to running around so much in a single day.
