Balboa Park

Niki de Saint Phalle Sculpture at the Mingei International Museum

Luna singing along to the music

The Lath House

Balboa Park, originally called City Park, is the nation's largest urban park. In 1835 city leaders placed land in reserve as a common area, making this one of the oldest parks in the US. Renamed Balboa Park in honor of the Spanish explorer Balboa for the Panama-Californian Exposition in 1915, 500,000 people come here every year to enjoy the world class San Diego Zoo, museums, extensive grounds, fine dining and many free activities that it offers. The area also offers horticulturists a wide diversity of plants from a rose garden featuring over 2,500 different roses to the exquisite Japanese Friendship Garden that was also part of the 1915 exposition. The lath house one of the most prominent features on the grounds, houses the tender perennials for gardeners to peruse was again a featured part of the exposition and inspired awe for visitors who for the first time saw banana plants and other exotics growing. Balboa Park for its cultural and historic significance was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. It is a must see for visitors to our fair city.

Olivenhain Meeting Hall

Luna and Cocoa have a guest this week and being the ideal travel hostesses have taken Aunt Karen to the Olivenhain Meeting Hall. Constructed in 1895, the hall has served the community since that time for town meetings and social events until the 1950's. The Hall sat unused until the early 1970's when a group of citizens began fundrising to restore the building. Listed on the National Register of Historic Place in 1993 the Hall is again Olivenhain's community center.