Aviva and I decided to drive to San Diego on July 24 and spend three nights there. It was Aviva’s first time in San Diego.
We stayed at the Best Western Plus Bayside Inn. After checking in, we walked to Little Italy and had a good dinner at Buon Appetito. The meal was really good. We walked around Little Italy and found a cool gallery for the artist Mee Shim – we loved a lot of the work and purchased a circular print on steel.
A rest stop on the way in
Veal and cheese tortelini – it was fabulous!
Yea, do that
A cool gate in Little Italy
The sign for – heck, you can read it
Two chairs branded
Detail from Mee Shim’s “Primavera”
One of her images
And another of her faces
The circular steel piece we purchased – it’s over our laptop by the kitchen
The next morning, Aviva woke up very stiff – the beds were too soft. So we decided we’d change hotels the last night. We got cleaned up, ate some breakfast, and checked out a few hotels. We decided we’d move to the Marriott Gaslamp on Friday. Then we drove across the long bridge to Coronado. We shopped a bit around town and then visited the famous hotel – the largest and I think the oldest all-wood hotel in the US. We went back to the Gaslamp district for dinner.
A cool bank entrance
A panorama of San Diego from Coronado
A view of some naval ships in dock at Coronado
The hotel main sign
An elevator
A cool dragon lamp
A very neat tower at the hotel
One of the large chandeliers
The sign for the Gaslamp District
On our last day we relocated our stuff to the Marriott Gaslamp. After that we drove out to Balboa Park – if you visit San Diego you must go here. Some of the buildings go back to just after the turn of the last century, built for an exposition. The collection of art at the Timkin is small but nice, and I bought a catalog of the San Diego Museum of Art because I liked their small collection quite a bit; they have a painting of the Lamb of God that makes Aviva emotional. At one of the cafes on the grounds, the bartender talked about the Italian coffee they serve – Aviva had a cup. It turns out they get their coffee from a local cafe near the Best Western hotel where we were staying, so we hustled over to Cafe 1870 (or Cafe Barbera) and bought some for ourselves (you can purchase it online). We then went to Hillcrest and shopped and had dinner at a Thai place.
Panorama of a courtyard in Balboa Park
The botanical garden at Balboa Park
Cool spiral leaf plant
Pitcher plants – I’d never seen these before
Some pretty orchids – they had a lot of orchids
Interesting natural tree ‘sculpture’
The San Diego Museum of Art building
Detail of the main facade
A detail of the lower left side of the entryway
“Agnus Dei,” c. 1636 – 1640
Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, “Temptation of Saint Anthony,” 1515-20 (?)
A detail of hell from the “Temptation” – reminds me of Hieronomous Bosch
Cosme Tura, “Saint George,” 1470s
Juan Sanchez Cotan, “Quince, Cabbage, Mellon and Cucumber,” 1603
The sticker to indicate you’ve bought a ticket
A memorial outside at Balboa Park
A view of the organ recital pavilion
A view of the Musuem of Man
The main entrance to the Museum of Man
A mural inside a building at Balboa Park
A detail from the mural
A cool sidewalk painting in Hillcrest
A funny named store in Hillcrest
The do-not-disturb door marker from the Marriott
We got up and drove out of San Diego and stopped at Mission San Juan Capistrano; it’s a pretty large mission that was damaged quite a bit by earthquakes. There was a wedding going on in the new basilica next to the mission.
A panorama of the mission remains
Some of the ruins of the mission
Detail of the old mission
A detail of the ruins
Church bells from the original mission
Two more church bells
The poor box at the mission
A view of one of the long outside walkways
A cool tile image in one of the mission walkways
A postcard shot inside the mission
Another view of the old church altar
A window from the old church
A lily in the pool
Another lily
Ticket for entry to the Mission
The new basilica next to the mission
A detail from the interior of the new basilica
A view of the altar of the new basilica
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August 9th, 2013 by alephnaught